Sufi quotes on the nafs or false ego
Your worst enemy is hiding within yourself, and that enemy is your nafs or false ego.
Rumi
My Nafs screams out for what it desires. But my will to be free screams louder.
Yasmin Mogahed
His constant fight is with the Nafs (self-interest), the root of all disharmony and the only enemy of man. By crushing this enemy man gains mastery over himself; this wins for him mastery over the whole universe, because the wall standing between the self and the Almighty has been broken down. Gentleness, mildness, respect, humility, modesty, self-denial, conscientiousness, tolerance and forgiveness are considered by the Sufi as the attributes which produce harmony within one's own soul as well as within that of another.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Never have I dealt with anything more difficult than my own soul, which sometimes helps me and sometimes opposes me.
Al-Ghazali
Your nafs (soul/desires) is your first battlefield. If you are victorious over it, then you will find the other battlefields easier.
Hassan al-Banna
The path to the Truth is a labour of the heart, not of the head. Make your heart your primary guide! Not your mind. Meet, challenge and ultimately prevail over your nafs with your heart. Knowing your ego will lead you to the knowledge of God.
Shams Tabrizi
Fight against your ego with the four swords of training: eat little, sleep little, speak little, and be patient when people harm you... Then the ego will walk the paths of obedience, like a fleeing horseman in the field of battle.
Yahya ibn Mu'adh al-Razi
Change your 'Nafs', change the world.
Nouman Ali Khan
In Sufi terms the crushing of the ego is called Nafs Kushi. And how do we crush it? We crush it by sometimes taking ourselves to task. When the self says, 'O no, I must not be treated like this,' then we say, 'What does it matter?' When the self says, 'He ought to have done this, she ought to have said that,' we say, 'What does it matter, either this way or that way? Every person is what he is; you cannot change him, but you can change yourself.' That is the crushing. ... It is only in this way that we can crush our ego.
Hazrat Inayat Khan
Nothing kills the soul that commands to evil (Nafs al Ammarra) like seeing the beauty of the heart.
Shams Tabrizi
One of the greatest tazkiya (purification) of the nafs (self) is to part with your money and to give it to people who deserve it.
Junaid Jamshed