Hess ducks from the limelight and allows other story details to come to the fore without the ego need for placing himself at the center of the story.

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Lehrer has no such ego in need of stroking.

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Mr Major, who possesses a formidable if fragile ego, sees no need to apologise.

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If you think the rest of the world is interested in hearing about your collection of Ottoman porcelain or why "The Catcher in the Rye" is the great American novel (yawn) you really do need an ego the size of a house.

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Advisors need get off the ego trip and get back to advising.

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But once he started to succeed, his ego may have blinded him to the need for a second more collaborative or consensual phase.

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You need space, he once told me, for your ego to flow.

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With the Beyeler Foundation, Mr Piano saw the need for restraint, for something in a gentler key, and deliberately avoided a self-expressive, ego-driven creation that would intrude upon the works of art.

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The Apollo program was a sort of collective ego boost for Americans, but again I would rank it as a sign of maturity that we no longer have need for hundred billion dollar self-esteem enhancements.

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