Quotes About Self-awareness

Han hadde godtatt det alle stakk hodet i sanden for å skjule; at vi alle sakte men sikkert ble slipt like som stein på stranda, samme hva vi mente. Bak vår tilkjempete eksentrisitet, bak valget av fritidssysler, bak valg av kone, av studier, av forbilder, elskerinner, sigarettmerker og dagdrømmer, var vi alle konforme, snart var det bare fingeravtrykkene som viste at vi ikke var identiske.

sometimes there have been moments when I have perfectly understood the self-portrait called Man Screaming which Egon Schiele painted after his return from Trieste to Vienna, and it has dawned upon me what a nightmare hiatus we all pass through, on the way from birth to death. Surely the only logical response would be to stand on a bridge and scream? But no, self-deception sees us through.

I was three or perhaps four years old when I realized that I had been born into the wrong body, and should really be a girl (AS: I don't share that part of her feelings fully). I remember the moment well, and it is the earliest memory of my life.

The best we can do for others is work on ourselves.

If my client had not distracted his wife from her moments of unhappiness so that he could stay calm, she would have had the opportunity to learn to handle her own moods.

If we can't laugh at ourselves, who can we laugh at?" I stared at her. "Other people?

Did you ever think you had all the answers when you were in the thick of something, but then when you take a step back, you realize you were so busy getting things done that you never stopped to ask yourself if it's what you really want to do?

I felt a sense of pride swell in me. Not for myself but for these two women. They were everything I wanted to be someday—successful, happy, dedicated to their town and its people, and most importantly they knew who they were.

When the entire moral energy of an individual goes into the cultivation of personal integrity, we all know how unlovely the result may become; the character is upright, of course, but too coated over with the result of its own endeavor to be attractive.

I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable for me to keep it up and never relax into laughing at myself or other people, I am sure I should be hung before I had finished the first chapter. No, I must keep to my own style and go on in my own way; and though I may never succeed again in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other.

To know our refuse is to know ourselves. We mark our own trail from past to present with what we've used and consumed, fondled, rejected, outgrown.

you can be different if u be u

What I don't want is to be called an octogenarian. I saw 'Octogenarian Jane Gardam' and I thought 'Blow me!' I mean, I am, but that's not the point." (Inteview, The Guardian, 8 January 2011)

I'm not sure that insecurity is a good enough excuse for that sort of behavior. We're all insecure, and I really think he's old enough to have discovered the reasons behind his insecurity, and do something about them." ...Lucy

I feel like I don't have all the ingredients a person is supposed to have.

There the beloved red sweater, bright tangle of necklace, earrings of amber. Each confirming: I chose these, I. But habit is different: it chooses. And we, it's good horse, opening our mouths at even the sight of the bit.

Think assailable thoughts, or be lonely.

those who follow their own breath will come to know both Being's nature and their own.

We have to make friends with ourselves and be kind to those aspects of ourselves we like least. Learning to be kind to ourselves brings the discovery that fundamentally we are quite soft. We become hard when we habitually deny our own woundedness and blame others for causing our pain. In admitting our own hurt, we become soft and vulnerable.

In meditation practice, we learn to let go of the thoughts and fantasies that block the direct intuitive experience of who and what we really are. Our constant mental activity is what maintains the illusion of a separate self, and this effort makes us weary.

Asked once what he was doing to keep busy in retirement, Hank Aaron replied, "I'm being Hank Aaron.

True discipline guides, teaches, and invites healthy behavior. As you may have discovered, you can never really control anyone's behavior but your own, and attempts to control your child usually create more problems and power struggles.

First of all, a soul is not something that you have. It is what you are.

You have to count on living every single day in a way you believe will make you feel good about your life--so that if it were over tomorrow, you'd be content with yourself.