Quotes About Self-awareness

Experiences that we remember intrusively, despite desperately wanting to banish them from our minds, are closely linked to, and sometimes threaten, our perceptions of who we are and who we would like to be.

Work without working, and play without playing. Do without doing, and be without being. To live an effortless life, simply be yourself.

In the beginning of life, we're on fire and want to change the world. Yet as we get older, we realize how difficult that is, so we think that if we can have a positive influence on those around us, we'll have lived a worthwhile life. As we get older still, we understand that we can change no one, and simply look for the courage to change ourselves.

When life becomes difficult, allow yourself to feel the pain in the moment. Go with it for as long as it lasts, and then watch it dissolve away. Pleasure and pain are merely states of mind, rather than situations. Every situation is neutral.

Become aware of what you feel. When you see parts of yourself that you don't like, just watch the feelings come and go without getting too caught up in what it is you're feeling. Everything passes—these emotions will, too.

We don't always see ourselves as superior, but we almost always see ourselves as unique. Even when we do precisely what others do, we tend to think that we're doing it for unique reasons.

It is difficult to escape the focus of our own attention–difficult to consider what it is we may not be considering–and this is one of the reasons why we so often mispredict our emotional responses to future events.

and what he knows and we know (Odysseus), the poet introduces an important theme that will continue to grow throughout his poem, which is: What is the difference between who we are and what others know about us? This tension between anonymity and identity will be a

Au fond, ce journal aura été un perpétuel exercice d'accommodation. Échapper au flou, maintenir le corps et l'esprit dans le même axe… J'ai passé ma vie à « faire le point ».

Non vi è peggior crimine del volersi sostituire alla coscienza altrui.

Era uno di quei momenti in cui, malgrado i nostri tormenti interiori, siamo segretamente contenti di non essere l'altro. Così si sferruzzano i lutti. Piccoli istanti di gioia tra gli assalti della disperazione, un diritto e un rovescio, fino alla felicità ritrovata di essere se stessi… Sì, deve essere questa, dopo tutto, la felicità: la soddisfazione di non essere l'altro.

I realized that most thoughts are impersonal happenings, like self-assembling machines. Unless we train ourselves, the thoughts passing through our mind have little involvement with our will. It is strange to realize that even our own thoughts pass by like scenery out the window of a bus, a bus we took by accident while trying to get somewhere else.

There were a few years there when I was just so enamored with the idea of living some sort of famous person's lifestyle that really isn't suited to me.

As much as I would love to be a person that goes to parties and has a couple of drinks and has a nice time, that doesn't work for me. I'd just rather sit at home and read, or go out to dinner with someone, or talk to someone I love, or talk to somebody that makes me laugh.

A man who is pleased with himself can be an adequate restorer but only a man with a damaged canvas of his own can be a truly great restorer. Luigi Conti

Shamron nodded in agreement. Age had given him the ability to at least see his own shortcomings, even if it had robbed him of the time needed to remedy them.

So what are you planning to do with the rest of your life? Develop a drinking problem. More Scotch, please.

How do you know when it's me?" "Your footsteps are apologetic?" "What does that mean?" She turned, smiling wiping her hands on her long, black skirt. "It doesn't mean anything," she said. "Everybody else here just does what they want to do and doesn't think twice about it. But you're never sure.

Our sense of being a conscious agent who does things comes at a cost of being technically wrong all the time.

I pulled the rearview down and looked at myself in the mirror for a spell, trying to spot virtues.

É vergonhoso confessar isso: mas eu tenho consciência sem ter força. Eu tenho olhos sem ter vontade. Algum dia eu devo pagar por essa minha covardia, mas hoje eu não me vejo brigando, discutindo ou forçando uma mudança. Também não me vejo fingindo aceitar o que está acontecendo.

it's possible to go through our time on this ball floating in space without realizing that Fear has been pulling our strings all along. Our inner tyrant has made for us most of our choices—even those we were not aware of making. The fucked-up part about it is that Fear makes it easy for us to go along with this. It doesn't hurt us in an obvious way. It numbs us before injecting us with its poison—a slow form of euthanasia that takes a few decades to come to its conclusion. In

By spending years and years living entirely for yourself, thinking only about yourself, and having responsibility to no one but yourself, you end up inadvertently extending the introverted existence of a teenager deep into middle age.

Like serial killers and three of the worst men I ever dated, I never really had a grasp on what I was supposed to feel sorry about. Week after week, I filled the confessional with lies. I yelled at my teacher. I stole my best friend's favorite toy. I kicked a dog. I punched my brother in the nuts.