Quotes About Self-awareness

Each of us must turn inward and destroy in himself all that he thinks he ought to destroy in others.

I really see no other solution than to turn inwards and to root out all the rottenness there. I no longer believe that we can change anything in the world until we first change ourselves. And that seems to me the only lesson to be learned.

One must also accept that one has 'uncreative' moments. The more honestly one can accept that, the quicker these moments will pass.

What matters is not to allow my whole life to be dominated by what is going on inside me. That has to be kept subordinate one way or another. What I mean is: one must not let oneself be completely disabled by just one thing, however bad; don't let it impede the great stream of life that flows through you. I have the feeling of something secret deep inside me that no one knows about.

Pessimistische Depressionen sind als schöpferische Pausen zu betrachten, in denen sich die Kräfte wieder herstellen. Wenn man sich hiervon bewusst is, so werden die Depressionen schneller vorübergehen. Man sol sich niet deprimiert fühlen über eine Depression.

I was always my own teacher.

The Dog and the Cow," an experimental fable. Once upon a time another cow asked another dog: "Why have you not swallowed your trunk?" "Pardon me," replied the dog, "it is because I thought that I was an elephant.

I can't stick it. Perhaps it's my liver. I feel I've aged. Of course, I'm not exactly young any more. Still, to feel like this . .

The hermit crab doesn't look too closely, he just crawls into a shell that isn't his. But remains a hermit. That's my hang-up: if I leave my shell, I can't crawl into yours.

By then I had moved often enough not to have the usual illusions about a clean slate or a fresh start or a new life. I knew that I could not escape myself. And the idea of beginning again, with no furniture and no friends, was exhausting. So my happiness then is hard to explain. I am tempted now to believe that entering the life one is meant to inhabit is a thrilling sensation and that is all.

This isn't just 'the way things are.' This is the way you made them. This is the result of your choices, your actions. Yours.

The unexamined life is not worth living, but the unlived life is not worth examining.

You cannot know yourself alone, any more than you can see your own face without a mirror.

You are . . . depressed? Bored?" "Are there other feelings?

It had occurred to me lately that it was much more possible than I'd previously considered to be both 'self-aware' and fundamentally wrong about the nature of the self.

Whatever thoughts are causing you pain, they are only thoughts. You can change a thought.

we don't even know we are being negative when we're being negative.

The problem is that monsters rarely see themselves that way.

I understand guilt. I know pain. The only antidote I have is brutal honesty.

But another part of me wonders if you do know how smart you are, but you've never tried to tackle a bigger problem because you're afraid you'll fail and then . . . well, and then in your eyes, you'll be a failure to your father.

Joe Vik knew what he was. He saw that he was a monster in human skin and maintained that facade for as long as he could.

This is what scares me—the idea of becoming a monster without ever realizing it.

As natural and easy as it has been to be proud, it must become natural for us to be humble.

I didn't want to look at him through rose-colored glasses, knowing all along that what I was seeing could very well be untrue, and yet when I was with him, I welcomed my refusal to search for and find flaws. The irony was I was often sickened by the way my girlfriends made excuses for their husbands, even the way I sometimes made excuses for Ronnie. Of course, we were really making excuses for ourselves, finding ways not to look like fools.