Quotes About Self-discovery

We must learn to be alone in the midst of whatever denies us useful solitude.

Perhaps identity, like hell, was merely other people.

Once a person has become detached from his possessions, his customary duties, his moments of solitude, where is he? What is he?

She had begun to bake to have her eyes looking at a bowl, a flour bin, an oven, a fire, a face, anything but water. Her hands shaped loaves like scallop shells, like moon shells, like starfish; she ate them as if she ate the sea, to make it part of her, to transform bone to shell and lose herself in it, eyeless, thoughtless, wrapped in memories and anchored on some hoary rock against the currents of the deep.

Don't you have much more faith in ideas that you discover for yourself than in ideas that are handed to you on a silver platter? If so, isn't it bad judgment to try to ram your opinions down the throats of other people? Isn't it wiser to make suggestions—and let the other person think out the conclusion?

In a flash, I realized I had brought all this miser on myself by trying to fit myself into a pattern to which I did not conform.

Let's not imitate others. Let's find ourselves and be ourselves.

the human individual thus lives far within his limits. He possesses powers of various sorts which he habitually fails to use.

Alexander Pope: Men must be taught as if you taught them not And things unknown proposed as things forgot. Over three hundred years ago Galileo said: You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him to find it within himself.

If you wish to grow in your spiritual life, you must not allow yourself to be caught up in the workings of the world; you must find time alone, away from the noise and confusion, away from the allure of power and wealth. — THOMAS À KEMPIS AUGUSTINIAN MONK

No wonder he has no real idea of who he will be; and he must content himself with the mere identity: "apprentice of Jesus." That is the starting point from which his new identity will emerge, and it is in fact powerful enough to bear the load.

great part of our growth includes disengaging from the expectations of others.

Abandon the search for God... instead, take yourself as the starting place.

Each of us knows all. We need only open our minds to hear our own wisdom. It

The circumstances of life-the events of life-the people around me in life-do not make me the way I am. They reveal the way I am.

I understand that she was very unhappy, and maybe she was so devastated by her mother's death that she couldn't stand to face it. But who just abandons their family in that way? What kind of person decides that they can throw everything away and reinvent themselves? As if you could just discard the parts of your life that you didn't want anymore.

What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us. And when we bring what is within out into the world, miracles happen. HENRY DAVID THOREAU

only then do I realize that the jewel had always been with in me, even then and that the light had always shinned, only my eyes were closed

The forest didn't really change much at night, but I did.

Everything you need to know is within you. Listen. Feel. Trust the body's wisdom.

Part Three, "Solving the Problem," helps you let go of a painful childhood and the lasting effects of unhealthy control so that you can emotionally leave home. We'll explore a broad array of paths to healing, along with exercises you may find helpful. This section will help you design your own healing process, at your own speed, in a way that suits you best.

You can learn to be what you've always been," the wizard said, "if you've the gift of knowing. But you can't learn from whence you came 'til you learn where you're going.

No lifetime is long enough for those who wish to create, Raul. Or for those who simply wish to understand themselves and their lives. It is, perhaps, the curse of being human, but also a blessing.

Crozier hurts to the cavity in the center of his self where he is sure his soul had resided until it floated away on a sea of whiskey over the decades.