Quotes About Self

Against the background of such considerations, which incidentally entail that we ought to be very cautious in ascribing subjectivity to individuals with severe forms of autism, the very notions of pre-reflective self-consciousness and mineness have been taken to be not only theoretical aberrations but also redundant and explanatorily vacuous

had a smattering of chest hair that looked

I've just become a character, we all have, in a story we don't get to write ourselves.

It interested Carrie, where the film was going, however obvious its point; how enslaved we are by our bodies, our selves concealed. How much are we our bodies? And why is it so different for women? Why is Nicole's tumid, faded person so much less appealing than worn, old Jack? And it isn't just success or money. It is men and women. Carrie felt a heat rise in her face.

A lie of invention, a lie about yourself, should not be called a lie. It needs a different word.

I need these records because one day, years from now, I will listen to this music and I will remember exactly what it was like to be me now, or me a year ago, at fifteen, totally inhabited by this work, in this very specific place and time.

Rather than feeling vindicated, I felt guilty. It seemed cruel, and all my fault, somehow. My relationship with my mother had always brought into question any sense I had of myself as a good and decent person. [p. 128]

To forget oneself-to lose oneself in the music, in the moment- that kind of absorption seems to be at the heart of every creative endeavor.

The intellectual takes as a starting point his self and relates the world to his own sensibilities the scientist accepts an existing field of knowledge and seeks to map out the unexplored terrain.

What ignited the progress wasn't any innate skill or gene. It was a small, ephemeral, yet powerful idea: a vision of their ideal future selves, a vision that oriented, energized, and accelerated progress, and that originated in the outside world.

The thing about performance, even if it's only an illusion, is that it is a celebration of the fact that we do contain within ourselves infinite possibilities.

Your brain is the organ of your personality, character, and intelligence and is heavily involved in making you who you are.

the feeling of control—whether real or illusory—is one of the wellsprings of mental health.

if you are like most people, then like most people, you don't know you're like most people.

If you are like most people, then like most people, you don't know you're like most people.

Autonomous motivation involves behaving with a full sense of volition and choice," they write, "whereas controlled motivation involves behaving with the experience of pressure and demand toward specific outcomes that comes from forces perceived to be external to the self.

Why We Do What We Do: Understanding Self-Motivation BY EDWARD L. DECI WITH RICHARD FLASTE

The hero's journey has three main parts: Departure, Initiation, and Return. The hero hears a call, refuses it at first, and then crosses the threshold into a new world. During Initiation, he faces stiff challenges and stares into the abyss. But along the way—usually with the help of mentors who give the hero a divine gift—he transforms and becomes at one with his new self. Then he returns, becoming the master of two worlds, committed to improving each.

But if you instead ask, "Can I make a great pitch?" the research has found that you provide yourself something that reaches deeper and lasts longer

writing is an act of discovering what you think and what you believe

We are all expressions of our own minds, projected onto the world.

I'm the hero of my own story, but others tell their stories as well.

We try to make our celebrities stand in for the heroes we no longer have, or for those who have been pushed out of our view... Yet the celebrity is usually nothing greater than a more-publicized version of us. In imitating him, in trying to dress like him, talk like him, look like him, think like him, we are simply imitating ourselves.

We are always in a perpetual state of being created and creating ourselves. (p. 221)