Quotes About Self-awareness

There is no feeling so simple that it is not immediately complicated and distorted by introspection

Rather than recount his life as he has lived it, he must live his life as he will recount it.

Être aveugle pour se croire heureux. Croire qu'on y voit clair pour ne pas chercher à y voir puisque : L'on ne peut se voir que malheureux.

Connais toi-même. Maxime aussi pernicieuse que laide. Quiconque s'observe arrête son développement. La chenille qui chercherait à «bien se connaître» ne deviendrait jamais papillon.

et quand tu m'auras lu, jette ce livre - et sors. Je voudrais qu'il t'eût donné le désir de sortir - sortir de n'importe où, de ta ville, de ta famille, de ta chambre, de ta pensée. N'emporte pas mon livre avec toi. ... Que mon livre t'enseigne à t'intéresser plus à toi qu'a lui même, - puis à tout le reste plus qu'à toi.

Vertu des humbles - acceptation; et cela leur va si bien, à certains, qu'on croit comprendre que leur vie est faite à la mesure de leur âme. Surtout ne pas les plaindre : leur état leur convient ; déplorable ! Ils ne s'aperçoivent plus de la médiocrité, sitôt que ce n'est plus une médiocrité de fortune.

Une autre chose que j'ignorais, plus importante encore peut-être, c'est que j'étais d'une santé très délicate.

Era, por primera vez, la conciencia de mi propio valer: lo que me apartaba, me distinguía de los demás, eso importaba; lo que nadie sino yo decía y podía decir, eso era lo que tenía que decir.

Do not pose in your own presence. Id est: do not affect the qualities and virtues you would like to have but have not.

Je sens en moi, confusément, des aspirations extraordinaires, des sortes de lames de fond, des mouvements, des agitations incompréhensibles, et que je ne veux pas chercher à comprendre, que je ne veux même pas observer, par crainte de les empêcher de se produire.

What seems different in yourself: that's the one rare thing you possess, the one thing which gives each of us his worth; and that's just what we try to suppress. We imitate. And we claim to love life.

And if it is sufficient to imagine one loves, in order to love, so it is sufficient to say to oneself that when one loves one imagines one loves, in order to love a little less and even in order to detach oneself a little from one's love, or at any rate to detach some of the crystals from one's love.

Ne crois pas que ta vérité puisse être trouvé par quelque autre; plus que de tout, aie honte de cela.

Somehow she was becoming the kind of woman she didn't like, somebody who felt one way but smiled it off in a mask of cheerfulness, the kind of woman who got very good at small talk.

The fear of finding oneself alone – that is what they suffer from – and so they don't find themselves at all.

I love the literature that these men created; but I will not live my life as if they are real and I am not. Nor will I tolerate the continuing assumption that they know more about women than we know about ourselves.

Being naked takes on different values, according to the self-consciousness of the one who is naked; or according to the consciousness of the one who is looking at the nakedness. The men are tortured in their minds by the meaning of being naked, especially by the literal nakedness of women but also by their own nakedness: what it means to be seen and to be vulnerable. The nakedness of the women they look at, interpret, desire, associate with acts of violence they want to commit.

They don't act like human beings and they're pretty proud of it so there's no point in pretending they are; though you want to - pretend.

Es la ausencia de felicidad interior y paz en el corazón y la mente la que hace que una persona se sienta estresada y tome medicamentos, coma demasiadas proteínas y alimentos en general, abuse del alcohol y del tabaco, beba cantidades excesivas de café, se vuelva adicto al trabajo o esté descontento con su trabajo o consigo mismo.

He, who doesn't know why he lives, cannot feel love for people or for life itself. I don't love myself enough, so I don't love people enough. One of my major defects is impatience: I try to get rid of it, but i can't. I am not tolerant enough for my age. I suffer for this, because i can't approach people with sympathy. They annoy me.

Why do I feel this alone? Basically, because I've always been alone. I've always been alone. And alone I'll be. It's about time I become aware of it and never forget it.

I think a person needs to learn from childhood to find himself alone. It means to not be bored when you're by yourself, because a person who finds himself bored when alone – as it seems to me – is in danger.

I am becoming more and more convinced that there is something wrong with the way I live. Something false about everything I do. Even when I want to do something good; I feel that it's only in order to seem a better person.

But how can I put a name to what it is that I want? How am I to know that I really don't want what I want, or that I really don't want what I don't want? These are intangibles that the moment you name them their meaning evaporates like jellyfish in the sun.