Quotes About Self-discovery

My dear, you cannot make someone else happy. The other person must find happiness in themselves.

To some extent, it doesn't matter who we are or where we came from—what kind of family brought us into this world," Josie said softly. "We become who we were meant to be, and all those other influences fall away.

She was not who she wanted to be. And not only did she not know how to make herself over into someone else, she wasn't even sure who she wanted to become.

I did no such thing as sit there with my mouth open, though I may as well have, since I felt as if my mind was gaping. It had simply never occurred to me to wonder what kind of person I was, what kind of person I wanted to be. I had not envisioned this as something I had any control over, just as I could not alter the round shape of my face or the dense black curl of my hair.

I am not like other women. I do not like the things they like or feel the things they feel. And it is better so. I do not want to be like them. I do not want to turn into one of them.

It is always good to know who you are, what matters to you, and what you are capable of.

He is so kind that he makes me search my soul to find new ways to be compassionate to others.

For those of us who have felt this broken piece that has left us unable to mate as others seem to do, there is such comfort in solitude. There is comfort in the alone time, I guess. Or it just seems less dangerous.

It is easier to see who is real and truthful and who is pretending for nefarious reasons. While it can feel lonely to realize this piece of life, it is important to spend this alone time, to find a deeper place within oneself.

I opened the door to my own cage and freed myself. My illnesses ended. I demanded good medical care and got it. I respected myself and, with compassion for my whole self, got it. I learned that my anger was a beautiful thing. A powerful part of me, like my other valuable senses, like smell and taste and touch. That anger, when used properly, when controlled, when chosen appropriately, is a valuable action.

It's as if they take all our questions and offer them straight back: Who are you? Why are you here? What do you want?

We are curious creatures, we Taiwanese. Orphans. Eventually, orphans must choose their own names and write their own stories. The beauty of orphanhood is the blank slate.

I was a woman and did not yet think of myself as a writer. I was a mapmaker.

I've been kissed Slade. I'm a virgin, not a nun.

It is only when you get older that everyone makes you feel bad about being alone, or implies that spending time with other people is somehow better, because it proves you to be likeable. But being unlikeable wasn't the reason she was alone. She was alone so she could hear herself thinking. She was alone so she could hear herself living.

When I was younger, thinking about whether I wanted children, I always came back to this formula: if no one had told me anything about the world, I would have invented boyfriends. I would have invented sex, friendship, art. I would not have invented child-rearing.

Whether I want kids is a secret I keep from myself—it is the greatest secret I keep from myself.

How far beyond your mother do you hope to get? You are not going to be a different woman entirely, so just be a slightly altered version of her, and relax.

She was alone so she could hear herself thinking. She was alone so she could hear herself living.

But being unlikeable wasn't the reason she was alone. She was alone so she could hear herself thinking. She was alone so she could hear herself living.

I felt like I was the tin man, the lion, and the scarecrow in one: I could not feel my heart, I had no courage, I could not use my brain,

Maybe I have to think about myself less as a woman with this woman's special task, and more as an individual with her own special task—not put woman before my individuality.

Most people live their entire lives with their clothes on, and even if they wanted to, couldn't take them off. Then there are those who cannot put them on. They are the ones who live their lives not just as people but as examples of people. They are destined to expose every part of themselves, so the rest of us can know what it means to be a human.

I'd never before wanted to uncover all the molecules of shit that were such a part of my deepest being which, once released, would smell forever of the shit that I was, and which nothing--not exile, not fame, could ever disappear. But I threw the shit and the trash and the sand, and for years and years I just threw it. And I began to light up my soul with scenes. I made what I could with what I had. And I finally became a real girl.