Quotes About Self-awareness

The most important thing I learned is that to be truly happy, you've got to pay attention to that stupid inner voice we all have. It knows what you need and will drive you shit crazy until you listen to it.

Another maternal insight --- you always dislike about your children that which you dislike about yourself because you understand the danger about that trait. ~ Dorothea Benton Frank, The Hurricane Sisters, p. 115.

Makes you grow up quick. Hard work makes you strong. I work hard every day; that's where I get my strength. That and knowing who I am.

But notice that where you must do work not your own, assume these responsibilities; see that you do not allow them to be thrust upon you. What you undertake open-eyed will seldom be made later a cause of martyrdom and sullenness.

As long as you cannot bear the notion that there is a creature under heaven who can regard you with an indifferent, an amused or hostile eye, you will probably see to it that you continue to fail with the utmost charm.

The only way to do this successfully is to have a well-thought-out set of standards drawn up for each type of work that you do, and in advance. If you wait till anyone item is finished you may find yourself reasoning after the fact, defending the fact-accomplished, and perhaps blinding yourself to real insufficiencies in it.

The first exercise is to spend an hour every day without saying anything except in answer to direct questions.

The correction of the "I mean," the "As a matter of fact" habit, takes cooperation. If you realize that you have picked up a verbal mannerism, call on the friend to whom you talk most fluently and emotionally. It is fairly easy to control such a mannerism in the presence of someone we hardly know, but in the heat of discourse the offending phrase will crop up in every other sentence.

People pay for that they do, and still more, for what they have allowed themselves to become. And the pay for it simply: by the lives they lead. - James Baldwin

But it can give me a turn, that face, any time I happen to catch it in a mirror; most particularly at times like this when I'm alone and have to admit it's really mine because there's no one else to accuse.

Don't call me a saint. I don't want to be dismissed so easily.

It is we ourselves that we have to think about, no one else. That is the way the saints worked. They paid attention to what they were doing, and if others were attracted to them by their enterprise, why, well and good. But they looked to themselves first of all.

Repressively, Lymond himself answered. "I dislike being discussed as if I were a disease. Nobody 'got' me," he said.

Marcus Aurelius, the Roman emperor and philosopher, wrote, "Every morning when I leave my house, I say to myself, 'Today I shall meet an impudent man, an ungrateful one, one who talks too much. Therefore do not be surprised.

To lead or attempt to lead without first having a knowledge of self is foolhardy and is sure to bring disaster and defeat.

I'd spent so long trying to fit in,trying to be someone i wasn't,that i had no idea who i was any more.

I sometimes think people can see that I'm defective, that there's nothing there. Behind the job and clothes and makeup there's nothing to know. I sometimes think I'm this shell and I can't work out why people like me. And when I'm with strangers it reminds me of that. That I'm insubstantial.

I imagine you come across a number of people who are disconcerted by the difference between what you do feel and what they fancy you ought to feel. It is fatal to pay the smallest attention to them.

Four be the things I'd have been better without: love, curiosity, freckles and doubt.

Four be the things I'd been better without:Love, curiosity, freckles, and doubt.

In youth, it was a way I had, To do my best to please. And change, with every passing lad To suit his theories. But now I know the things I know And do the things I do, And if you do not like me so, To hell, my love, with you.

When you find yourself responding to someone else's behavior, it can be easy to dwell on what that person has done and how terrible it is and what exactly they should should do to fix it. Instead, try looking at your own feelings as a true message about your internal state of being, and decide how you want to deal with whatever's going on.

When you find yourself worrying about how you are seen by others, remember that there is no point in pretending you are anyone except who you are. It does you no good to attract someone who thinks you are somebody else: all you get is someone who is excited about somebody who isn't you. When you are honest, you attract the people who are interested in you, just as you most wonderfully are.

Remember, as you look at yourself, to look kindly, and also remember that you are not balancing a checkbook: anything you see that you don't like, or that you want to change, is not a debit that you subtract from your virtues. When you learn to reflect on your strengths, it becomes easier to look at your weaknesses with acceptance and compassion. Keep your virtues at their full value and cherish them.