Quotes About Self-awareness

Had any one dared to say this truth to me then, I should have bade him go and preach nonsense to children,—but now,—when I recall those white leaves of days that were unrolled before me fresh and blank with every sunrise, and with which I did nothing save scrawl my own Ego in a foul smudge across each one, I tremble, and inwardly pray that I may never be forced to send back my self-written record!

Par exemple, tu vois, là, tu crois que tu es en train de me parler, mais peut-être pas. Peut-être que tu imagines que tu me parles, et moi en vrai je ne t'écoute pas. Alors qu'on pourrait se parler directement de soi à soi. Tu vois, il vaut mieux rencontrer l'altérité, quitte à être malheureux, que rester dans sa petite sûreté personnelle. L'essentiel c'est d'avoir des failles. Pas sa petite conscience tranquille. (p154)

Life felt hideously empty. But she told herself that was only because women are educated to think that marriage will be a sudden panacea to all emptiness, and although she'd fought off such notions, she had no doubt been infected by them.

I needed to stop being victimized by my own weaknesses and insecurities about other people

I've never fooled anyone. I've let people fool themselves. They didn't bother to find out who and what I was. Instead they would invent a character for me. I wouldn't argue with them. They were obviously loving somebody I wasn't.

She was a girl who knew how to be happy even when she was sad. And that's important—you know

People who feel any sort of regret where you are concerned will suppose you are angry, and they will see anger in what you do, even if you're just quietly going about a life of your own choosing. They will make you doubt yourself, which, depending on cases, can be a severe distraction and a waste of time. This is a thing I wish I had understood much earlier than I did.

You best keep to yourself, except you never can.

That's one good thing about the way life is, that no one can know you if you don't let them.

She was afraid to be angry and that made her angry.

How we think about ourselves has everything to do with how we act toward one another.

In my experience of it, age has a tendency to make one's sense of oneself harder to maintain, less robust in some ways.

So per esperienza che il rimorso è capace di irrompere da una breccia piccolissima e inondare il paesaggio, dimorandovi in pozze e umori con la stessa naturalezza dell'acqua.

When defects of character are your character, you become a what.

but if there was one thing I should have learned from them and did not learn, it was to control my temper. This is wisdom I should have attained a long time ago. Even now, when a flutter of my pulse makes me think of final things, I find myself losing my temper, because a drawer sticks or because I've misplaced my glasses.

Each morning I'm like Adam waking up in Eden, amazed at the cleverness of my hands and at the brilliance pouring into my mind through my eyes--old hands, old eyes, old mind, a very diminished Adam altogether, and still it is just remarkable. What of me will I still have? Well, this old body has been a pretty good companion. Like Balaam's ass, it's seen the angel I haven't seen yet, and it's lying down in the path.

I don't write the way I speak. I'm afraid you would think I didn't know any better. I don't write the way I do for the pulpit, either, insofar as I can help it. That would be ridiculous, in the circumstances. I do try to write the way I think. But of course that all changes as soon as I put it into words. And the more it does seem to be my thinking, the more pulpitish it sounds, which I guess is inevitable. I will resist that inflection, nevertheless.

himself, then according to the sign he should be one of those he does not shave. On the other hand

What's past is past," Gronevelt said. "Never go back. Not for excuses. Not for justification, not for happiness. You are what you are, the world is what it is."  

Fill my head with any thoughts but those that fill it now.' She could not yet cry, for her tears were far too deep to reach.

Living by principles is not living your own life. It is easier to try to be better than you are than to be who you are.

even though adults were tall, what we knew about anything, including ourselves, was small.

En la vida encontrarás muchos imbéciles. Si te hieren, piensa que es su estupidez la que les empuja a hacerte daño. Así evitarás responder a su maldad. Porque no hay nada peor en el mundo que el rencor y la venganza... Mantén siempre tu dignidad, tu integridad y la fidelidad a ti misma (p.159)

My experience of meditation was different from one day to the next, but a common thread emerged: the way I felt afterward. I began to experience a quiet satisfaction from my daily practice of quieting my mind.