Quotes About Self

she felt secure only in her terrible sense of insecurity.

Whoever we were—and it was not really important what religion we belonged to, whether we wished to wear the veil or not, whether we observed certain religious norms or not—we had become the figment of someone else's dreams.

To be a victim is to abdicate responsibility, to in effect give up most of all on yourself.

Was it any consolation, and did we even wish to remember, that what he did to us was what we allowed him to do?

Have you ever noticed, I said, cracking a nut, how strange it is when you look in the mirror of the opposite wall that instead of seeing yourself, you see the trees and the mountains, as if you have magically willed yourself away?

Yoga does not just change the way we see things, it transforms the person who sees.

It is through the alignment of the body that I discovered the alignment of my mind, self, and intelligence.

There is a universal reality in ourselves that aligns us with a universal reality that is everywhere.

You do not need to seek freedom in a different land, for it exists with your own body, heart, mind, and soul.

You exist without the feeling of existence.

The thing about getting old, Bar," Toot had told me, "is that you're the same person inside." I remember her eyes studying me through her thick bifocals, as if to make sure I was paying attention. "You're trapped in this doggone contraption that starts falling apart. But it's still you. You understand?" I did now.

faith can fortify a young woman's sense of self, a young man's sense of responsibility, and the sense of reverence all young people should have for the act of sexual intimacy.

Don't you know who I am? I'm an individual!           I

I hadn't grown up in Compton, or Watts. I had nothing to escape from except my own inner doubt. I

I started thinking about the struggles and disappointments he had seen in his life. I started to appreciate his need to feel respected in his own home. I realized that abiding by his rules would cost me little, but for him it would mean a lot. I recognized that sometimes he really did have a point, and that in insisting on getting my own way all the time, without regard to his feeling s or needs, I was in some way diminishing myself.

The thing about getting old, Bar," Toot had told me, "is that you're the same person inside." I remember her eyes studying me through her thick bifocals, as if to make sure I was paying attention. "You're trapped in this doggone contraption that starts falling apart. But it's still you. You understand?

The thing about getting old Bare, is that you're the same person inside... you're trapped inside this doggone contraption but it's the same you.

The thing about getting old, Bar," Toot had told me, "is that you're the same person inside.

For Americans, the idea of living in another country has not only exotic, but let us be frank, vaguely unpatriotic connotations. But having to explain what is after all one's own self over and over again makes the American abroad more ferociously patriotic than he would ever dare to be at home.

A thing cannot be conscious without having agency, but it can have agency without being conscious.

the very notion of personality, which is what we are trying to get at here, seems to have very limited application to me and quite possibly to everyone else. Self is another dodgy concept, since I am, when I subject this 'I' to careful inspection, not much more than a flickering of affinities, habits, memories, and predilections that could go either way- towards neediness or independence for example courage or cowardice.

T]he immune system is a metaphor for the self. Its ostensible job is the defense of the organism, but it is potentially a treacherous defender, like the Praetorian guard that turns its swords against the emperor. Just as the immune system can unleash the inflammations that ultimately kill us, the self can pick at a psychic scar - often some sense of defeat or abandonment - until a detectable illness appears, such as obsessive-compulsive disorder, depression, or crippling anxiety.

We may imagine that the mind houses a singular self, an essence of I-ness, distinct from all other selves and consistent over time. But attend closely to your thoughts and you find they are thoroughly colonized by the thoughts of others, through language, culture, and mutual expectations. The answer to the question of what I am, or you are, requires some historical and geographical setting.

Other people can be annoying, as Sartre famously suggested, but true hell is perpetual imprisonment in the self.