don't let it go to your head

"It requires a self-esteem to receive—not self-love but just a pleasant acquaintance and liking for oneself."
                  — John Steinbeck, "About Ed Ricketts"

That sentence has been ricocheting around my brain for the past year as I've made efforts to grasp and digest it. It's one of the most profound things I've ever read.

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"Don't let it go to your head." At some point in our lives we've all been cautioned against doing that. So when someone pays you a compliment, where does it go?

Don't let it go to your head. Let it go to your heart. That's where the good things we think about ourselves and others reside.