Quotes About Self-awareness

It was in the defects that they [servants] invariably acquired that I learned of my own natural, invariable defects, and their character presented me with a sort of negative proof of my own.

When a mind has a tendency towards day-dreams, it's a mistake to shield it from them, to ration them. So long as you divert your mind from its day-dreams, it will not know them for what they are; you will be the victim of all sorts of appearances because you will not have grasped their true nature. If a little day-dreaming is dangerous, the cure for it is not to dream less but to dream more, to dream all the time.

He that has light within his own clear breast May sit in the center, and enjoy bright day: But he that hides a dark soul and foul thoughts Benighted walks under the mid-day sun; Himself his own dungeon.

Who reads Incessantly, and to his reading brings not A spirit and judgment equal or superior, (And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unsettled still remains, Deep versed in books, and shallow in himself.

The mind is its own place, and in it self Can

Which way I fly is hell; myself am hell

The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a heaven of hell, a hell of heaven

However, many books, Wise men have said, are wearisome; who reads Incessantly, and to his reading brings not A spirit and judgment equal or superior, (And what he brings what needs he elsewhere seek?) Uncertain and unsettled still remains, Deep-versed in books and shallow in himself, Crude or intoxicate, collecting toys And trifles for choice matters, worth a sponge, As children gathering pebbles on the shore.

Yet how hard most people work for mere dust and ashes and care, taking no thought of growing in knowledge and grace, never having time to get in sight of their own ignorance.

Most of us are moving through such an undergrowth of excess that we cannot sense the shape of ourselves any more.

refuse to begin can be an act of great self-neglect.

When you're in your twenties, someone once wrote, you live to please other people. When you're in your thirties, you get tired of trying to please others, so you get miffed with them for making you worry about it. When you're in your forties, you realize nobody was thinking about you anyway.

Somebody once said that the biggest difference between you and God is that God doesn't think he's you. In pain, we get very clear about not being God.

Author Evelyn Waugh was a Catholic who fell pretty woefully short of his faith's standards. Somebody asked Waugh one time, "How can you call yourself a Catholic and be so badly behaved, so mean, such a jerk, so spiteful?" Waugh responded, "Just imagine me if I were not a Catholic." And

Humility is the freedom to stop trying to be what we're not, or pretending to be what we're not, and accepting our "appropriate smallness.

It is to be feared that very many have little knowledge of the main enemy that they carry about them in their bosoms. This makes them ready to justify themselves, and to be impatient of reproof or admonition, not knowing that they are in any danger. 2 Chronicles 16:10

The philosopher Ernst Mach once got on a bus, and saw a scruffy unkempt bookish-looking person at the far end. He thought to himself (1) That man is a shabby pedagogue. In fact, Mach was seeing himself in a large mirror at the far end of the bus, of the sort conductors used to help keep track of things. He eventually realized this, and thought to himself: (2) I am that man. (3) I am a shabby pedagogue.

how's it hanging? One lower than the other

In general, pride is at the bottom of all great mistakes.

Saya yakin ujian pertama bagi orang besar adalah kerendahan hati.

He believes he's the only real soul in an ocean of puppets.

at the end of a five-year round of silliness, decided he didn't want to be a four-time loser, so he stopped getting married

I'm a monster. You're a monster. We're all fucking inhuman monsters, and we don't see a damned thing wrong with it.

You're an interesting person, Jack. Sullivan said. I wish I could figure out what you were thinging when you punched Stern and turned on Isabel. Well, I think that's the thing. Holloway said. I think it's clear that sometimes I just don't think. I think you do. Sullivan said. It's just you think about you first. The not thinking part comes right after that.