Quotes About Self-awareness

All men have in themselves that which is truly honorable. Only they do not think of it.

He who attends to his greater self becomes a great man, and he who attends to his smaller self becomes a small man.

I have lived this life, and no matter what others may decide about it, I must claim each decision as mine. I have caused harm, failed in the expectations and obligations of love. I have loved well. What I do each day is carried within me until I die.

Whatever you have forgotten, you can remember. Whatever you have buried you can unearth. If you are willing to look deep into your own nature, if you are willing to peel away the layers of not-self you have adopted in making your way through the tribulations of life, you will find that your true self is not as far removed as you think.

All this navel-gazing is virtually unreadable now—at least it is to me. I wrote things as they were, and I stayed stuck. It's frustrating to read them for that reason. I want to yell, "Get out of there! Quit that job! Leave that guy! Get a new apartment! Speak up!" It's a bit like watching a horror movie and wishing you could tell the girl not to go into the abandoned house alone at night, but of course she does it anyway.

Why do you give people so much power over you? That M.D. behind his name just means that he's trained to facilitate your healing. You're the one who's actually got to make it happen. Therapy doesn't work unless you know what you want out of it. You're the one who has the power to change things.

Never pretend to understand what you don't understand," Orion used to say, "and never let anybody tell you you should like something. You can educate your taste, but you can't change it. So trust it.

Until you divest yourself of the notion that you are a collection of needs, an empty vessel that someone else must fill up, there will be no safe place to harbor yourself, no safe shore to reach. As long as you think mostly of getting, you will have nothing real to give.

I overheard a young man once saying to his wife, "I can't control you. That's the problem and it's been the problem ever since day one!" And then I heard her answer him and heard her terrible voice. "No!" she said. "The problem isn't that you can't control me, the problem is that you're trying to. Why don't you stop worrying about controlling me and start worrying about controlling yourself?

I longed to stabilize my core identity and to withstand the pressure of other people's words, behaviors, moods, and perceptions. I wanted to be less easily thrown.

I know insecurity is unattractive. I hate this side of me. I don't really hate this side of me. I think other people will hate it so I hate it preemptively to ward off the unbearable feeling of having my shortcomings pointed out by other people. I want to get there before anyone else and stake my claim on hating my jealousy so no one else can.

I know I'm not okay. I am nose to nose with a fire and it's too hot. I want to fix the fire—as if the fire itself were uncomfortable, as if the discomfort I feel were not my own.

I am clever enough to know that I am clever.

Poznavati se, zna?ilo bi znati ono što ne treba.

You are who you are, and no one can change that. So be yourself, because no one can do it better.

Os meninos não sabem que o escuro só existe é dentro de nós.

O medo é uma faca que corta com o cabo e não com a lâmina. A gente empunha a faca e, quanto maior o pulso, mais nos cortamos.

Os mulatos só são pretos quando lhes convém. (...) - Não sou preto! - Então? - Sou extremamente mulato!

A dor é uma estrada: vocês anda por ela, no diante da sua lonjura, para chegar a um outro lado. E esse lado é uma parte de nós que não ocnhecemos. Eu, por exemplo, já viajei muito dentro de mim...

Matar o patrão? Mais difícil é matar o escravo dentro de nós.

A person without regrets is a nincompoop.

She told me that after a lifetime "in service"—living in other people's houses, taking care of other people's things, and making no judgments—when the time came for her to buy a couch, or a lamp, or dishes, she discovered that she had no tastes or preferences.

It's a dangerous thing, to divide yourself, to break off bits of yourself until there's no solid core. We are, after all, just the sum of our total experiences, each one lying beneath us like a brick in the foundation of a house. To be selective, to block out portions, is to destabilize the very ground on which you stand.

I was brought up in a tradition of reading and thinking at university that, in a sense, left the body out. It was all about your mind. That good writing didn't have a "self" in it, didn't have an ego in it. Oh my God, I had so much to unlearn when I became a writer!