Pride requires very costly food—its keeper’s happiness.

Pride keeps itself alive by consuming the thing you were presumably after in the first place. The apology you will not make, the reconciliation you will not start, the help you will not ask for: each refusal preserves your standing and takes a bite out of your actual life. The bill is paid in contentment rather than in money, which is why it goes unnoticed for years. The account only gets read late.

Find the thing you are currently not doing because of how it would look. Work out what it costs you in ordinary daily terms, and decide whether the standing is worth that much.