Quotes About Self-awareness

And that was how, after twelve years of never thinking for as much as five minutes about myself, I became able finally to muster the nerve, and the strength, to start facing the facts, to think for myself.

Our business in life is not to get ahead of other people, but to get ahead of ourselves.

Wer nicht weiß, was die Welt ist, der weiß auch nicht, wo er lebt. Wer aber den Zweck ihres Daseins nicht kennt, der weiß weder, wer er selbst, noch was die Welt ist. Wem aber eins von diesen Stücken fehlt, der kann auch wohl seine eigene Bestimmung nicht angeben. In welchem Lichte erscheint dir nun ein Mensch, welcher um den lauten Beifall derer buhlt, die nicht wissen, wo, noch wer sie selbst sind?

Blicke in dein Inneres! Im Innern ist die Quelle des Guten, eine unversiebare Quelle, wenn du immer nachgräbst.

Stop swimming around in your own mind. That is a dangerous neighborhood that you should not go into alone.

By the time I wrote this book I had begun to finally figure out that: a) there was a direct relationship between my behavior and those attempts on my life: b) maybe my previous strategy of becoming better at violence instead of not pissing off people needed to be reviewed: c) that there were knowable 'rules' in different environments: d) you could learn them so as not to run afoul with point A.

Diverting a river is easier than facing the truth; Cyrus did not want to acknowledge the fact that his horse would not have drowned if he had not forced it to try and cross the river.

a monologue defines its author as reliably as his fingerprints.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in one's own sunshine. —Ralph Waldo Emerson, writer and philosopher

We are disturbed not by what happens to us, but by our thoughts about what happens. —Epictetus, Greek philosopher I

For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose.

Regain your senses, call yourself back, and once again wake up. Now that you realize that only dreams were troubling you, view this 'reality' as you view your dreams.

If you are pained by external things, it is not they that disturb you, but your own judgement of them. And it is in your power to wipe out that judgement now.

Take full account of what Excellencies you possess, and in gratitude remember how you would hanker after them, if you had them not.

It is not the actions of others which trouble us (for those actions are controlled by their governing part), but rather it is our own judgments. Therefore remove those judgments and resolve to let go of your anger, and it will already be gone. How do you let go? By realizing that such actions are not shameful to you.

Remember how long you've been putting this off, how many extensions the gods gave you, and you didn't use them. At some point you have to recognize what world it is that you belong to; what power rules it and from what source you spring; that there is a limit to the time assigned to you, and if you don't use it to free yourself it will be gone and will never return.

In your actions, don't procrastinate. In your conversations, don't confuse. In your thoughts, don't wander. In your soul, don't be passive or aggressive. In your life, don't be all about business.

It is a ridiculous thing for a man not to fly from his own badness, which is indeed possible, but to fly from other men's badness, which is impossible.

Will any man despise me? Let him see to it. But I will see to it that I may not be found doing or saying anything that deserves to be despised.

Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.

Today I escaped all circumstance, or rather I cast out all circumstance, for it was not outside me, but within my judgements.

It's silly to try to escape other people's faults. They are inescapable. Just try to escape your own.

That all is as thinking makes it so – and you control your thinking. So remove your judgements whenever you wish and then there is calm - as the sailor rounding the cape finds smooth water and the welcome of a waveless bay.

The man of ambition thinks to find his good in the operations of others; the man of pleasure in his own sensations; but the man of understanding in his own actions.