Quotes About Self-awareness

One does not lash hat lies at a distance. The foibles that we ridicule must at least be a little bit our own. Only then will the work be a part of our own flesh. The garden must be weeded.

False humility is better than no humility at all.

In his moments of pride he had said all those things, half in fun and half in earnest, and he began to wonder how he could have been so many kinds of a fool for so long without realising it.

The sum total of our life experiences guides us in a way our conscious minds could never decipher. We make choices without realizing why and trigger events we never foresee. And always we rationalize who we are and why we act the way we do.

undeserved guilt is just another form of indulgent self-pity.

Knowledge of self is a precious commodity, dearer than the finest gemstone. The mirror I held before me now was not laced with gold filigree. It was cold and flat and bared every shadow on my soul.

Damn, a mirror can be a lethal weapon, and self-knowledge a poisoned pill. I had been a self-centered and egotistical jock with all the trappings of stunted male adolescence. Back then, I had yet to develop the empathy for others that marks the passage into manhood.

All we have to do to see is open our eyes and look. As we teach what we learn, I am in essence talking to myself.

Me? I'm a mocker!

That is one of the shocking things about a hospital: its leveling of you to your body's weakest link. The Ph.D. in Comp Lit, the years in Paris, the wall of books—you do not wear these badges on your johnny gown. No wonder I was forever giving our resumes to doctors and nurses, as if to beg them to see us for real, see what happy lives we had left at the border, which waited still like a dog on the front stoop.

I want the two million—or the five million, depending on whose scenario piques your fancy—to have themselves tested and know, so I will have people to talk to. Because after midnight and during weekends I cannot talk to those who play at business as usual.

When you know who you are, it's harder for people to fuck with you.

When you know who you are, it's harder for people to fuck with you. Hollywood is dangerous because the great hobby they have in that town is fucking with other people. Building you up, knocking you down, until finally you are destroyed. They all want to create you and mold you.

You're only who you think you are until you aren't anymore. And it isn't up to you. It's up to time. Life is timing. The test of time. We all have to take it, and none of us pass. No matter how hard you study. Perfect attendance. All that homework. Extracurricular activities. You're still getting an F, just like everyone else. Finite. Failed. Fucked.

I never ask my wife about my flaws. Instead I try to get her to ignore them and concentrate on my sense of humor. You don't want any woman to look under the carpet, guys, because there's lots of flaws underneath. Joanne believes my character in a film we did together, 'Mr. and Mrs. Bridge' comes closest to who I really am. I personally don't think there's one character who comes close . . . but I learned a long time ago not to disagree on things that I don't have a solid opinion about.

Even more important though, is the stress he places on our ability to create our relationships rather than to merely react to the various people and events that come into our lives. He points out that if we aren't creators, then we are habitual reactors.

most people looking for help with relationship problems react all day to the actions of other people and thereby generate their own negative reactions to people. This, he insists, is a habit, and like any other habit, it can be changed.

I dislike myself when I act like a passive wimp or an aggressive bully. It feels good to feel good, and I want all the good feeling I can get. Essentially, emotional maturity demands on-going, total acceptance of people, places, things and situations as they are, rather than as I might wish them to be.

Anger isn't harmful, it's what we do with anger that causes problems.

you have chosen the person most able to help you grow in emotional maturity.

early in sobriety I routinely threw my sobriety at other drivers on the freeway, people who didn't even want it.

Who or what makes you happy or sad, confident or fearful, up-beat or worried? Do you choose your feelings, or does some other person or situation make you feel the way you feel?

What would your life be like if you had the courage and wisdom to take charge? What if you made up your mind that from now on for the rest of your life, you alone would decide how you were going to feel? What kind of emotional life would you choose for yourself?

An otherwise really sharp lady, it never occurred to her that she had the power to alter her life—by simply choosing to do so.