Quotes About Self-discovery

What must it feel like, I wondered, to begin again? Would I still be the same person if I woke up in a different language and another existence?

Unless we know the weight of our bodies, unless we feel the force of gravity, we'll forget what we are, we'll lose ourselves without even noticing.

I felt she saw into me, past every facade and flourish, and that the more she knew me, the more she loved me. I was too young, then, to know how lasting this kind of love is, how rarely it comes in one's life, how difficult it is to accept oneself, let alone another.

When she returned, she was full of life, impassioned. She seemed to want change, within herself, between them, and she believed all things were possible. She said that the past was not static, our memories fold and bend, we change with every step taken into the future.

It is normal to be curious. The only shame is if all the musts and shoulds drown out the wants that we hear inside ourselves.

Our children cannot be assumed to follow in our footsteps, assuage our losses, or compensate for our inadequacies.

the development of a sense of self.

Working primarily to please others and to gain their approval takes time and energy away from children's real job of figuring out their authentic talents, skills, and interests.

Adolescents need tremendous support as they go about the task of figuring out their identities, their future selves. Too often what they get is intrusion. Intrusion and support are two fundamentally different processes: support is about the needs of the child, intrusion is about the needs of the parent.

I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open.

I had been old and stern for so long, carved with regrets and years like a monolith. But that was only a shape I had been poured into. I did not have to keep it.

But there was no wound she could give me that I had not already given myself.

Little by little I began to listen better: to the sap moving in the plants, to the blood in my veins. I learned to understand my own intention, to prune and to add, to feel where the power gathered and speak the right words to draw it to its height. That was the moment I lived for, when it all came clear at last and the spell could sing with its pure note, for me and me alone.

With every step I felt lighter. An emotion was swelling in my throat. It took me a moment to recognize what it was. I had been old and stern for so long, carved with regrets and years like a monolith. But that was only a shape I had been poured into. I did not have to keep it.

The scars themselves I offered to wipe away. He shook his head. "How would I know myself?

I will not be like a bird bred in a cage, I thought, too dull to fly even when the door stands open. I stepped into those woods and my life began.

For a hundred generations, I had walked the world drowsy and dull, idle and at my ease. I left no prints, I did no deeds. Even those who had loved me a little did not care to stay. Then I learned that I could bend the world to my will, as a bow is bent for an arrow. I would have done that toil a thousand times to keep such a power in my hands. I thought: this is how Zeus felt when he first lifted the thunderbolt.

I had a wild thought there, beneath that sky. I will eat these herbs. Then whatever is truly in me, let it be out, at last. I brought them to my mouth. But my courage failed. What was I truly? In the end, I could not bear to know.

named me Hawk, Circe, for my yellow eyes, and the strange, thin sound of my crying.

What was I truly? In the end, I could not bear to know.

Will you teach it to me?" "Sorcery cannot be taught. You find it yourself, or you do not.

Know yourself is carved above their doors. But I had been a stranger to myself, turned to stone for no reason I could name.

How long would I cling to that handful of minutes, trying to cover myself as if with some threadbare blanket?

Day upon patient day, you must throw out your errors and begin again. So why did I not mind? [...] For a hundred generations, I had walked the world drowsy and dull, idle and at my ease. I left no prints, I did no deeds. Even those who had loved me a little did not care to stay. Then I learned that I could bend the world to my will, as a bow is bent for an arrow.