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Pride
Gary Inrig, "A Call to Excellence," Victor Books, Wheaton, ILL, 1985, pp. 33-45
Pride
Gary Inrig, "A Call to Excellence," Victor Books, Wheaton, ILL, 1985, pp. 33-45
As C.S. Lewis indicates: Pride is essentially competitive&md;is competitive by its very nature&md;while the other vices are competitive only, so to speak, by accident. Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man. We say that people are proud of being rich, or clever, or good-looking, but they are not. They are proud of being richer, or cleverer, or better looking than others. If everyone else became equally rich, or clever, or good looking, there would be nothing to be proud about. It is the comparison that makes you proud: the pleasure of being above the rest. Once the element of competition has gone, pride has gone.