“There are people who love to worship their idols and others who prefer to worship their own reflections.”Georg Christoph Lichtenberg · Caietele de însemnări · 1799 · Caietul H, însemnarea 24
Whoever worships their own reflection sees an admirer in every mirror, never a critic.
Worship, whether before an idol or one's own reflection, means no longer seeing the real object but an idealized image. The man who adores himself turns the mirror into an altar: he can no longer receive criticism, because every reflecting surface looks like an admirer. An intellectual who reads only to confirm his own opinions is worshipping his reflection just as much as a fan idolizing a celebrity.
The next step: how to tell which camp you are in. A simple test is to notice what you look for when you read or listen. If you feel pleasure only when someone confirms what you already believed, you are worshipping the mirror. If you are drawn to voices that contradict you, you still see the real world. Think of a person who always picks the show or author that tells him he is right, and dismisses everything else as nonsense. The idol and the mirror produce the same effect: narrowing. But the mirror is harder to spot, because it looks modest and rational. And if you find yourself before the mirror, what can you actually do tomorrow?
Why it matters It helps you recognize vanity disguised as principle, in others and in yourself.