“If a man would pursue Philosophy, his first task is to throw away conceit. For it is impossible for a man to begin to learn what he has a conceit that he already knows.”

“It is impossible for a man to learn what he thinks he already knows.”

“Every man has a right to be conceited until he is successful.”

“To say that a man is vain means merely that he is pleased with the effect he produces on other people. A conceited man is satisfied with the effect he produces on himself.”

“For what are they all in their high conceit,
When man in the bush with God may meet?”

“Pride and conceit were the original sin of man.”

“Before our age of conceit, the whole world was alive in a way. The task of man was to challenge and master the world, to dare and to fight against its untamed fury.”

“A man writes to throw off the poison which he has accumulated because of his false way of life. He is trying to recapture his innocence, yet all he succeeds in doing is to inoculate the world with a virus of his disillusionment. No man would set a word down on paper if he had the courage to live out what he believed in….”

“The first (trapping) thing which occurs to a mystic is that he gains the power of unveiling and miracles. He becomes haughty and self conceited upon this power due to his Nafs. He gets temporary happiness but remains away from the Closeness and Union of Allah. Though it is a virtuous act according to the creature but for The Creator it is a great veil.”

“A man knows when he has found his vocation when he stops thinking about how to live and begins to live.”