Of Pride

Spiritually speaking, pride consists in attributing to oneself what is due to God. It poisons and kills every value, for as soon as a good is claimed in its cause and in its essence by man, it is transmuted into evil: it embraces the limitations of the creature and engenders limitations in its turn; pride appropriates the divine gift and then strangles it. A good vivifies insofar as it comes from God, not insofar as it is handed on by man, nor above all insofar as it is usurped by man.

Man deems himself good even before God, who is Perfection, and when he endeavours to recognise his wretchedness, he again deems himself good on account of this effort.

... Prayer Fashions Man, Frithjoh Schuon