Quotes About Self-awareness

We'll have to get over the idea that we're the greatest people on earth in every respect, that we're infallible and that no one else has ideas worth considering. One of the reasons we had to fight against odds on Guadalcanal was this insufferable American notion of superiority, and our carelessness in face of danger. It goes back to Pearl Harbor and far beyond.

And what is it, thought I, after all! It's only his outside; a man can be honest in any sort of skin.

but let Ahab beware of Ahab; beware of thyself, old man.

Better be an old maid, a woman with herself for a husband, than the wife of a fool; and Solomon more than hints that all men are fools; and every wise man knows himself to be one.

But when a man suspects any wrong, it sometimes happens that if he be already involved in the matter, he insensibly strives to cover up his suspicions even from himself. And much this way it was with me.

Nic nie istnieje samo w sobie. Je?eli si? ?udzicie, ?e poczucie wygody ogarnia ca?? wasza istot? i ?e stan taki trwa od d?u?szego czasu, wtedy nie mo?na ju? o was powiedzie?, ?e jest wam wygodnie. - Ismael, Moby Dick, Herman Melville

Methinks that in looking at things spiritual, we are too much like oysters observing the sun through the water, and thinking that thick water the thinnest of air. Methinks my body is but the lees of my better being. In fact take my body who will, take it I say, it is not me.

But, perhaps, to be true philosophers, we mortals should not be conscious of so living or so striving. So soon as I hear that such or such a man gives himself out for a philosopher, I conclude that, like the dyspeptic old woman, he must have broken his digester.

Let us speak, though we show all our faults and weaknesses, - for it is a sign of strength to be weak, to know it, and out with it - not in a set way and ostentatiously, though, but incidentally and without premeditation.

No man can ever feel his own identity aright excepr his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essence, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.

Porque ningún hombre puede sentir bien su propia identidad si no es con los ojos cerrados; como si la tiniebla fuera efectivamente el elemento adecuado de nuestras esencias, aunque la luz sea mas afín a nuestra parte arcillosa.

Ain't one limb enough?

Marjorie, your lack of self-knowledge is fabulous. Being a Jew is your whole life. Good Lord, you don't eat bacon. I've seen you shove it off your plate as though it were a dead mouse." "Well, I can't help that, it's habit." Noel shook

No one pigeonholes us better than we ourselves do.

Working identity is not just who we are. It is also who we are not. Being able to discard possibilities means we are making progress.

Writing feels safer somehow. I can catch myself before I say the wrong thing.

los hombre que si bien reconocen que otros son más sagaces, más elocuentes o más cultos, difícilmente llegan a creer que haya muchos tan sabios como ellos mismos, ya que cada uno ve su propio talento a la mano, y el de los demás hombres a distancia. [...]" (Hobbes, Leviatán. Cap XIII.).

I'm ashamed, thinking back Not about the lies I'm used to lying now No, I'm ashamed of how pathetic it all was.

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.

Often, to be free means the ability to deal with the realities of one's own situation so as not to be overcome by them.

He recognized with authentic realism that anyone who permits another to determine the quality of his inner life gives into the hands of the other the keys to his destiny.

Remember, to be radical is simply to grasp the root of the problem. And the root is us.

To give advice to a man who asks what to do with his life implies something very close to egomania. To presume to point a man to the right and ultimate goal — to point with a trembling finger in the RIGHT direction is something only a fool would take upon himself.

Finally, you had to measure yourself by other people - there really was nothing else. every now and then, quite unintentionally, someone taught you something about yourself.