Pride

Pride is only a veneer. A wafer-thin veneer that rests on the flimsiest of foundations.
Pride is something that one uses. Not a force or an emotion that arises spontaneously and acts autonomously, inspiring action by itself, but one that is actively, consciously conjured up, created, molded, shaped. One that is used, deliberately, to push action forward. And, by the same token, a force that can be called off as and when one wishes to.