Proud people breed sad sorrows for themselves.

The line expresses a moral-psychological insight: pride is not merely a social fault but a self-defeating disposition that manufactures its own suffering. A proud person sets rigid expectations—of deference, control, or superiority—and reality inevitably fails to comply, producing resentment, isolation, and grief. The phrasing “breed” suggests an internal, ongoing process: sorrow is generated from within, not simply inflicted from outside. Read in a Brontëan key, it also implies that intense self-regard can harden into emotional tyranny, damaging relationships and leaving the proud individual trapped by their own standards. The warning is less about public humiliation than about the private consequences of inflexibility and wounded ego.