When and How to Talk of One's Self

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THE person who talks unwisely about others may commit the greater sin, but the one who talks unwisely about himself makes the greater fool of himself. The gift of tongue holds no greater temptation than that of slyly glorifying one's self, and no surer way of achieving contempt. Few are able to evade this temptation altogether; for many it is the besetting fault of their talk.

The fact is, as was pointed out earlier, that people talk to give themselves satisfaction. God, however, arranged things so that they cannot give themselves this satisfaction unless in talking they seek first the pleasure of their hearers. But the natural man has the irrepressible urge in talking to gratify himself above everybody and everything else. That is why some have cynically called all conversation mankind's peacock-tail of self-glorification. Mortimer J. Adler says, "Many people think a conversation is an occasion for personal aggrandizement."