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Self and Self-Knowledge Quotes and Quotations
 A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval.  An old man concludeth from his knowing mankind that they know him too, and that maketh him very wary. A sick man that gets talking about himself, a woman that gets talking about her baby, and an author that begins reading out of his own book, never know when to stop. Each man must look to himself to teach him the meaning of life. It is not something discovered; it is something moulded. Egotism: the art of seeing in yourself what others cannot see. Every one is bound to bear patiently the results of his own example. - Phaedrus He who is in love with himself has at least this advantage he won't encounter many rivals. If you can't bite, don't show your teeth. Know him, know me. Man who man would be, must rule the empire of himself. No man does anything from a single motive. Nobody can honestly think of himself as a strong character because, however successful he may be in overcoming them, he is necessarily aware of the doubts and temptations that accompany every important choice. We carry with us the wonders we seek without us. What the collective age wants, allows and approves, is the perpetual holiday from the self. When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a pretty small package. Who's not sat tense before his own heart's curtain? If a man really knew himself he would utterly despise the ignorant notions others might form on a subject in which he had such matchless opportunities for observation. With every physical pain, my moral fibre unravels a little. I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself. We are all serving a life sentence in the dungeon of self. One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star. We judge ourselves by our motives and others by their actions. There is nothing noble about being superior to some other man. The true nobility is in being superior to your previous self. Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings. Never to talk of oneself is a form of hypocrisy. Goethe said there would be little left of him if you were to discard what he owed to others. Be yourself. Who else is better qualified? I don't think anyone is free - one creates one's own prison. I am I plus my circumstances. I think somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision. There is nothing will kill a man so soon as having nobody to find fault with but himself. I am as bad as the worst, but, thank God, I am as good as the best. A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. He can live without hope, without friends, without books, even without music, as long as he can listen to his own thoughts. If you really do put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. If I am not for myself, who will be? The greatest success is successful self-acceptance. Compassion for myself is the most powerful healer of them all. Self-respect is the root of discipline: the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself. If you know nothing, be pleased to know nothing. I am more afraid of my own heart than of the Pope and all his cardinals. I have within me the great Pope, Self. The happy man is he who knows his limitations, yet bows to no false gods. From without, no wonderful effect is wrought within ourselves, unless some interior, responding wonder meets it. Nobody knows what's in him until he tries to pull it out. If there's nothing, or very little, the shock can kill a man. Blessed are they who heal us of self-despisings. Of all services which can be done to man, I know of none more precious. When three people call you an ass, put on a bridle. A complete life may be one ending in so full an identification with the not-self that there is no self left to die. A show of envy is an insult to oneself. Maturity consists of no longer being taken in by oneself. Our own interests are still an exquisite means for dazzling our eyes agreeably. To penetrate one's being, one must go armed to the teeth. Men at some time are masters of their fates: The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars, But in ourselves, that we are underlings. Self-reverence, self-knowledge, self-control - these three alone lead to sovereign power. There are limits to self-indulgence, none to self-restraint. Integrity simply means a willingness not to violate one's identity. The important thing is not what they think of me, it is what I think of them. I think Dostoevsky was right, that every human being must have a point at which he stands against the culture, where he says, this is me and the damned world can go to hell. O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as others see us. It wad frae money a blunder free us, And foolish notion. Self-respecting people do not care to peep at their reflections in unexpected mirrors, or to see themselves as others see them. Self-command is the main elegance. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. I am better than my reputation. Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes. Be thine own palace, or the world's thy jail. Do not make yourself so big. You are not so small. Individualism is rather like innocence; there must be something unconscious about it. I am as my Creator made me, and since He is satisfied, so am I. I live in the crowds of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself. I refuse to try to explain everything, because if you know too much about yourself, you become impotent. Better not to know what it is that makes you tick. Every man shall bear his own burden. - Bible I seem to have an awful lot of people inside me. There is no crime of which I do not deem myself capable. - Goethe I shall stay the way I am Because I do not give a damn. I have been a selfish being all my life, in practice, though not in principle. God knows, I'm no the thing I should be, Nor am I even the thing I could be. In the main it is not by introspection but by reflecting on our living in common with others that we come to know ourselves. What is revealed? It is an original creation. Freely the subject makes himself what he is, never in this life is the making finished, always it is in process, always it is a precarious achievement that can slip and fall and shatter. I'm a vague, conjunctured personality, more made up of opinions and academic prepossessions than of human traits and red corpuscles. to be nobody but yourself- in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else - means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting. Learn what you are, and be such. - Pindar My great mistake, the fault for which I can't forgive myself, is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality. A man must learn to forgive himself. I have come back again to where I belong; not an enchanted place, but the walls are strong. There's only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving and that's your own self. It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too. To know oneself, one should assert oneself. Every new adjustment is a crisis in self-esteem. There is no greater delight than to be conscious of sincerity on self-examination. - Mencius Whatever you may be sure of, be sure of this - that you are dreadfully like other people. All life is the struggle, the effort to be itself. The difficulties which I meet with in order to realize my existence are precisely what awaken and mobilize my activities, my capacities. My closest relation is myself. - Terence 
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