Pride is one of the deepest selves, and one of the best hidden. It is the part of you that cannot be wrong.

You can see it in an argument that has stopped being about the subject. You can see it when someone gives you advice and something in you closes before they finish the sentence. It is there when you tell a story so that you come out of it well, and when you cannot bring yourself to ask for help.

Pride has a quieter twin that is easy to miss: the hurt of not being noticed. Feeling overlooked, insulted or unappreciated is pride too, turned inward.

It disguises itself as dignity, as standards, as self-respect. The difference is simple. Dignity does not need anyone else to lose. Pride does.

Pride also has a spiritual form, and people on a path like this one are especially prone to it. It is the self that feels a little better than the people who are still asleep. Watch for it as you read this book. It may be reading along with you.

The opposite of pride is not thinking badly of yourself. That is pride standing on its head. The opposite is being simple: right when you are right, wrong when you are wrong, and making neither one into an event.