Quotes About Self-awareness

But the finger I pointed at her turned back to me. I had loved her. Not only had I loved her, I had chosen her.

Often enough in my life I have done things I had not decided to do.

Luchaba siempre, y había luchado siempre, no para mostrar a los demás de lo que era capaz, sino para ocultarles de qué no era capaz. Una vida cuyos avances eran enérgicas retiradas y cuyas victorias eran derrotas encubiertas

am I me and you are you

I always had the feeling that no one understood me anyway, that no one knew who I was and what made me do this or that. And you know, when no one understands you, then no one can call you to account.

When did you know you were going to be a writer? I knew it when I was young, I forgot it in my 30ties, then I remembered it again.

These illustrations suggest four general maxims[...]. The first is: remember that your motives are not always as altruistic as they seem to yourself. The second is: don't over-estimate your own merits. The third is: don't expect others to take as much interest in you as you do yourself. And the fourth is: don't imagine that most people give enough thought to you to have any special desire to persecute you.

Whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants.

No man is liberated from fear who dare not see his place in the world as it is; no man can achieve the greatness of which he is capable until he has allowed himself to see his own littleness.

If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do.

Very few people are able to discount the effect of circumstances upon their own characters.

A man cannot possibly be at peace with others until he has learned to be at peace with himself.

Every civilized man or woman has, I suppose, some picture of himself or herself, and is annoyed when anything happens that seems to spoil this picture. The best cure is to have not only one picture, but a whole gallery, and to select the one appropriate to the incident in question. If some of the portraits are a trifle laughable, so much the better; it is not wise to see oneself all day long as a hero of high tragedy.

Nadie debería creerse perfecto, ni preocuparse demasiado por el hecho de no serlo.

We are not only aware of things, but we are often aware of being aware of them.

External discipline is the only road to happiness for those unfortunates whose self-absorption is too profound to be cured in any other way.

Our present predicament is due more than anything else to the fact that we have learnt to understand and control to a terrifying extent the forces of nature outside us, but not those that are embodied in ourselves.

It may be laid down as a general rule to which there are few exceptions that, when people are mistaken as to what is to their own interest, the course that they believe to be wise is more harmful to others than the course that really is wise. Therefore anything that makes people better judges of their own interest does good.

Nessuno può liberarsi della Paura se non osa vedere il suo posto nel mondo così com'è; nessuno può toccare la grandezza di cui pur è capace se prima non ha la forza di vedere la sua piccolezza

Every civilised man or woman has, I suppose, some picture of himself or herself, and is annoyed when anything happens that seems to spoil this picture. The best cure is to have not only one picture, but a whole gallery, and to select the one appropriate to the incident in question. If some of the portraits are a trifle laughable, so much the better; it is not wise to see oneself all day long as a hero of high tragedy.

suggest four general maxims, which will prove an adequate preventive of persecution mania if their truth is sufficiently realized. The first is: remember that your motives are not always as altruistic as they seem to yourself. The second is: don't overestimate your own merits. The third is: don't expect others to take as much interest in you as you do yourself. And the fourth is: don't imagine that most people give enough thought to you to have any desire to persecute you.

No man need fear that by making himself rational he will make his life dull. On the contrary, since rationality consists in the main of internal harmony, the man who achieves it is freer in his contemplation of the world and in the use of his energies to achieve external purposes that is the man who is perpetually hampered by inward conflicts. Nothing is so dull as to be encased in self, nothing so exhilarating as to have attention and energy directed outwards.

La disciplina externa es el único camino a la felicidad para aquellos desdichados cuya absorción en sí mismos es tan profunda que no se puede curar de ningún otro modo.

in the modern world the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.