Quotes About Self-discovery

Sandy was ready for a bit of excitement in her life too. She was tired of being treated like she was so immature, like she didn't know anything about boys or sex or anything. While it was true that she didn't have any experience, she was more than ready to learn. She was ready to say goodbye to Sandra Dee. At least, she thought she was.

He had had an inkling, even then, that only by losing himself, the well-behaved Connecticut boy he'd always been, might he ever hope to find his other, truer self.

when you reach a point where you can distinguish between the things you thought you wanted and the things you actually need, that is an epiphany.

Loneliness can be conquered only by those who can bear solitude.

Loneliness expresses the pain of being alone and solitude expresses the glory of being alone.

We must be ourselves, we must decide where to go.

It is the expression of the anxiety of meaninglessness and of the attempt to take this anxiety into the courage to be as oneself. (139)

What soul would hesitate to turn the universe upside down in order to be a little more itself?

She is entirely in her closed eyes, and quite alone with her soul, in the bosom of the most intimate attention... She feels in herself that she is becoming some event.

Long years must pass before the truths we have made for ourselves become our very flesh.

s Morgens ben ik het liefst alleen, ik wil een paar uur voor mezelf. Later op de dag heb ik behoefte aan anderen. Een week teruggetrokken leven, in mijn eentje, doet mij erg veel deugd. Maar aan het einde van zo'n week kan ik meestal niet snel genoeg bij mijn geliefden zijn. De wankeling tussen het verlangen om samen te vallen met de ander en te verdwijnen in hem of haar enerzijds, en het verlangen naar autonomie en dus naar scheiding van hem of haar anderzijds, zit ingebakken in wie wij zijn.

Be neither a conformist or a rebel, for they are really the same thing. Find your own path, and stay on it

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.1 RALPH WALDO EMERSON

I've left Bethlehem and I feel free... I've left the girl I was supposed to be and some day I'll be born.

Walking is magic. Can't recommend it highly enough. I read that Plato and Aristotle did much of their brilliant thinking together while ambulating. The movement, the meditation, the health of the blood pumping, and the rhythm of footsteps...this is a primal way to connect with one's deeper self.

I feel like a little kid in a toy shop. All those books. I've always wanted to be a writer, but before I met Ms. Finney, Barbara, I was afraid to tell anyone. I think it's some kind of miracle that all we have to work with is the twenty-six letters of the alphabet. And they turn into words, sentences, paragraphs, chapters, books, conversations, plays. It's just incredible to me.

Loneliness is not the worst emotion

We're all of us afraid of many things, but if you make yourself smaller or let your fear confine you, then you really aren't your own person at all—are you? The real question is whether or not you will risk what it takes to be happy.

Proper learning isn't just useful in society, Beryl. It can be wonderfully yours, a thing to have and keep just for you.

Sometimes our dreams can be the most revealing things about us. Who we are when no one's looking, who we believe we're truly supposed to be, if we can get there.

We're all of us afraid of many things, but if you make yourself smaller or let your fear confine you, then you really aren't your own person at all—are you? The real question is whether or not you will risk what it takes to be happy." She was referring to Jock, but her words made me think of other things, too. "Are you happy, Karen?" "Not yet. But I mean to be.

Dreams can tell us a lot of things," I go on. "They're a kind of map of the inner life. Sometimes thinking of who we might someday be is the only way we can get through the reality of who we actually are.

It's not what you carry, but how you can learn to carry it. You need to heal yourself. Your child self too, Anna. Make room for her. Find a way to let her in.

Maybe that's the secret to surviving all sorts of trouble, knowing who you are apart from it, I mean.