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Self quotes

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“My wealth is in my knowledge of self, love, and spirituality.” Muhammad Ali, “The Soul of a Butterfly” - 2004

“In the face of a true friend a man sees as it were a second self.” Marcus Tullius Cicero, “On Friendship” - 44 BC

“I had always been good company for myself.” Charles Bukowski, “Ham on Rye” - 1982

“The consciousness of self is the greatest hindrance to the proper execution of all physical action.” Bruce Lee, “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” - 1975

“To lose confidence in one’s body is to lose confidence in one’s self.” Simone de Beauvoir, “The Second Sex” - 1949

“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself. Nothing can bring you peace but the triumph of principles.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“Insist on yourself; never imitate.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“I have laughed, in bitterness and agony of heart, at the contrast between what I seem and what I am!” Nathaniel Hawthorne, “The Scarlet Letter” - 1850

“He's the victim of a critical age; he has ceased to believe in himself and he doesn't know what to believe in.” Henry James, “The Portrait of a Lady” - 1881

“They do not love one another because they do not love themselves.” Kurt Vonnegut, “Slaughterhouse-Five” - 1969

“I guess the only time most people think about injustice is when it happens to them.” Charles Bukowski, “Ham on Rye” - 1982

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” Lao Tzu, “Tao Te Ching” - 4th century BC

“Our hands do not tremble except for ourselves, or for those whom we love.” Marcel Proust, “Swann's Way” - 1913

“It is our choices, Harry, that show what we truly are, far more than our abilities.” J. K. Rowling, “Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets” - 1998

“Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” Oscar Wilde, “Intentions” - 1891

“if you want to keep a secret you must also hide it from yourself.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“In the meantime let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.” William Shakespeare, “Much Ado About Nothing” - 1600

“Your worst enemy . . . was your own nervous system.” George Orwell, “1984” - 1949

“Who is it that can tell me who I am?” William Shakespeare, “King Lear” - 1623

“One man's ways may be as good as another's, but we all like our own best.” Jane Austen, “Persuasion” - 1816

“The aim of life is self-development.” Oscar Wilde, “The Picture of Dorian Gray” - 1890

“The true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and the sense in which he has attained to liberation from the self.” Albert Einstein, “The world as I see it” - 1949

“What I must do is all that concerns me, not what the people think.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance” - 1841

“Self-sacrifice? But it is precisely the self that cannot and must not be sacrificed. It is the unsacrificed self that we must respect in man above all.” Ayn Rand, “The Fountainhead” - 1943

“He felt himself, and did not want to be any one else. All he wanted now was to be better than before.” Leo Tolstoy, “Anna Karenina” - 1877

“The outer is of the day, under the empire of mode; the outer passes away, in swift endless changes; the inmost is the same yesterday, to-day and forever.” Thomas Carlyle, “On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History” - 1841

“If you know you are yourself, you know that you are not somebody else; but do you know that you are yourself?” George MacDonald, “Lilith” - 1895

“When a man dreams his own dream, he is the sport of his dream; when Another gives it him, that Other is able to fulfil it.” George MacDonald, “Lilith” - 1895

“Self-loathing is not sorrow. Yet it is good, for it marks a step in the way home, and in the father's arms the prodigal forgets the self he abominates. Once with his father, he is to himself of no more account.” George MacDonald, “Lilith” - 1895

“Only by the reflex of other lives can he ripen his specialty, develop the idea of himself, the individuality that distinguishes him from every other.” George MacDonald, “Lilith” - 1895

“Our business here is not to know all things, but those which concern our conduct.” John Locke, “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” - 1689

“EGOTIST, n. A person of low taste, more interested in himself than in me.” Ambrose Bierce, “The Devil's Dictionary” - 1911

“I often stood in front of the mirror alone, wondering how ugly a person could get.” Charles Bukowski, “Ham on Rye” - 1982

“Getting drunk was good. I decided that I would always like getting drunk. It took away the obvious and maybe if you could get away from the obvious often enough, you wouldn't become obvious yourself.” Charles Bukowski, “Ham on Rye” - 1982

“It was almost as though I had erected someone outside myself who was the President’s wife. I was lost somewhere deep down inside myself. That is the way I felt and worked until I left the White House.” Eleanor Roosevelt, “The Autobiography of Eleanor Roosevelt” - 1961

“Promoting self under the guise of promoting Christ is currently so common as to excite little notice.” A. W. Tozer, “The Pursuit of God” - 1948

“People are generally better persuaded by the reasons which they have themselves discovered than by those which have come into the mind of others.” Blaise Pascal, “Pensées” - 1670

“This is why I am continuing my travels—not to seek other, better teachings, for I know there are none, but to depart from all teachings and all teachers and to reach my goal by myself or to die.” Hermann Hesse, “Siddhartha” - 1922

“But though the ways led away from the self, their end nevertheless always led back to the self.” Hermann Hesse, “Siddhartha” - 1922

“But there is one thing which these so clear, these so venerable teachings do not contain: they do not contain the mystery of what the exalted one has experienced for himself, he alone among hundreds of thousands.” Hermann Hesse, “Siddhartha” - 1922

“It is not my place to judge another person's life. Only for myself, for myself alone, I must decide, I must chose, I must refuse.” Hermann Hesse, “Siddhartha” - 1922

“Relationship is the mirror in which you discover yourself — to be is to be related.” Bruce Lee, “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” - 1975

“If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow — you are not understanding yourself.” Bruce Lee, “Tao of Jeet Kune Do” - 1975

“The whole point of being alive is to become the person you were intended to be, to grow out of and into yourself again and again.” Oprah Winfrey, “What I Know For Sure” - 2014

“You can put a new shirt on your back, slide a fresh chain around your neck, and accumulate all the money and power in the world, but at the end of the day those are just layers. Money and power don’t change you, they just further expose your...” Jay-Z, “Decoded” - 2010

“Around 1995, after almost two decades of yo-yoing, I finally realized that being grateful for my body, whatever shape it was in, was the key to giving more love to myself.” Oprah Winfrey, “What I Know For Sure” - 2014

“There was a missing person inside of myself and I needed to find him.” Bob Dylan, “Chronicles, Volume One” - 2004

“The moment we recognize that the self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action, the whole situation clears up.” John Dewey, “Democracy and Education” - 1916

“Pride, therefore, is pleasure springing from a man thinking too highly of himself.” Baruch Spinoza, “Ethics” - 1677

“The effort for self-preservation is the first and only foundation of virtue.” Baruch Spinoza, “Ethics” - 1677

Related topics

love knowledge choice others individualism way mind power loneliness mirror action body individuality teaching development strength wisdom seeking sacrifice reason

Related authors

George MacDonald (4)
Charles Bukowski (4)
Hermann Hesse (4)
Jane Austen (3)
Oscar Wilde (3)
Ralph Waldo Emerson (3)
Bruce Lee (3)
William Shakespeare (2)
George Orwell (2)
Oprah Winfrey (2)
Baruch Spinoza (2)
J. K. Rowling (1)
Albert Einstein (1)
Muhammad Ali (1)
Ayn Rand (1)
Leo Tolstoy (1)
Nathaniel Hawthorne (1)
Thomas Carlyle (1)
Henry James (1)
John Locke (1)

Related sources

Lilith (4)
Ham on Rye (4)
Siddhartha (4)
Self-Reliance (3)
Tao of Jeet Kune Do (3)
The Picture of Dorian Gray (2)
1984 (2)
What I Know For Sure (2)
Ethics (2)
Much Ado About Nothing (1)
King Lear (1)
Sense and Sensibility (1)
The world as I see it (1)
The Soul of a Butterfly (1)
The Fountainhead (1)
Anna Karenina (1)
The Scarlet Letter (1)
On Heroes, Hero-Worship, and The Heroic in History (1)
The Portrait of a Lady (1)
An Essay Concerning Human Understanding (1)