Quotes About Self-examination

I am lithe, but fragile from constant involuntary self-analysis.

In a familiar place, your mind focuses solely on itself.

It is the only thing we can do. … Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others. And remember that every atom of hate added to this world makes it still more inhospitable. — ETTY HILLESUM29

I have never for one instant seen clearly within myself. How then would you have me judge the deeds of others?

Remember that you cannot work on yourself unless you begin to wonder why you say what you say and do what you do and behave as you behave and feel what you feel and think what you think. To take yourself for granted, to imagine you are always right, to ascribe to yourself all that you do ascribe to yourself—all that form of sheer imagination will prevent you from seeing what esotericism means, what the Gospels mean, and what you mean.

Beware of thinking all your own that you possess, and of living accordingly. It is a mistake that many people who have credit fall into.

Always be just and honest so that every time you look at the mirror you don't see an abominable creature on it!

What is your dream? To be the most famous man in the world? What a stupid dream you have! To conquer the whole world with an army? What a primitive dream you have! To earn millions of dollars? What a greedy dream you have! Question your dreams!

In the end, the sum of my vices is all me.

Knight, still furious about the image thirty years later, was a man acutely attuned to the ravages of shame. Had he done something shameful before he'd fled to the forest? He insisted that he had not.

reaching through time and speaking directly to him: Dostoyevsky's Notes from the Underground. "I recognize myself

Here, then, is a simple rule of thumb for all of us to apply: If the words of Jesus challenge something I believe or challenge the way I live, the problem is not with Jesus. The problem is with me. Charles Spurgeon expressed this in broader, scriptural terms when he said, "If there is any verse that you would like left out of the Bible, that is the verse that ought to stick to you, like a blister, until you really attend to its teaching."31

but I have grown accustomed to living alone, having one-sides conversations and arguments with myself that I still manage to lose.

I have seen no more evident monstrosity and miracle in the world than myself.

There is as much difference between us and ourselves as between us and others.

Meditation is a rich and powerful method of study for anyone who knows how to examine his mind.

If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.

Justice must always question itself, just as society can exist only by means of the work it does on itself and on its institutions.

Those who are brutally honest are seldom so with themselves.

Whoever, therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be answerable for the body and blood of the Lord. Examine yourselves, and only then eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For all who eat and drink without discerning the body, eat and drink judgment against themselves. (1 Corinthians 11:27-29)

There are two men in me--one lives in the full sense of the word, the other reasons and passes judgment on the first. The first will perhaps take leave of you and the world forever in an hour now; and the second . . . the second?

Analyze your diary by determining what seems excessive in your judgment. You might begin by asking, "What could I live without—or at least with less of?

Dao sam se zgaziti od glupana jer sam i sam glupan... Da se nisam dao zgaziti, nega da sam pravodobno gazio druge oko sebe, bio bih danas ugledno i poštovano gra?ansko lice!

Like many humorless and indignant people, he is hard on everybody but himself, and does not perceive it when he fails his own ideal.