Quotes About Self-improvement

Above all, the Stoics sought wisdom, a condition that I myself hope to achieve after I stop wrecking and burning things.

Probably the most honest "self-made man" ever was the one we heard say: "I got to the top the hard way — fighting my own laziness and ignorance every step of the way."

Every man is said to have his peculiar ambition," he wrote. "I have no other so great as that of being truly esteemed of my fellow men, by rendering myself worthy of their esteem. How far I shall succeed in gratifying this ambition, is yet to be developed.

No man resolved to make the most of himself, can spare time for personal contention. Still less can he afford to take all the consequences, including the vitiating of his temper, and the loss of self-control. Yield larger things to which you can show no more than equal right; and yield lesser ones, though clearly your own. Better give your path to a dog, than be bitten by him in contesting for the right. Even killing the dog would not cure the bite." Frank

Get the books, and read and study them," he told a law student seeking advice in 1855. It did not matter, he continued, whether the reading be done in a small town or a large city, by oneself or in the company of others. "The books, and your capacity for understanding them, are just the same in all places. . . . Always bear in mind that your own resolution to succeed, is more important than any other one thing.

What fired in Lincoln this furious and fertile time of self-improvement? The answer lay in his readiness to gaze in the mirror and soberly scrutinize himself. Taking stock, he found himself wanting. From the beginning, young Lincoln aspired to nothing less than to inscribe his name into the book of communal memory.

No man resolved to make the most of himself, can spare time for personal contention," Lincoln was wont to say.

Yes, my child, you must read. You must read everything that comes your way. It doesn't matter what you read at first, later you'll learn discrimination. Schools are no good, Matty, you learn nothing at school. If you want to be anything, you must educate yourself.

Because, I think, of something you said. One should be able to face anything. I have learned to play chess again. I have learned to listen to music, and to play it. I have learned to buy self-indulgence and enjoy it. I have learned to take a line of logic and follow it through, whatever the consequences.

But this was exactly the age, she thought, when life ought to be spent, not hoarded. There had been enough years of comfortable living, and complacency was nothing but delusion. One could not always change the world, she felt, but one could change oneself.

Happiness is a choice that requires effort at times.

dare say it is good for one now and again to realize what an idiot one can be! But nobody relishes the process.

I attribute my success entirely to my habits of early rising, frugal living, and methodical habits.

It's second nature to make the best of yourself.

To be content with what Nature has given you, that - that is stupid!

It's second nature to make the best of yourself. I'd made a point of that at school and onwards, boasted about things a bit, said a few things stretching the truth a bit I wasn't ashamed of it. Uriah something his name was, always going about being humble and rubbing his hands, and actually planning and scheming behind that humility. I didn't want to be like that." -Mike Rogers Endless Night by Agatha Christie

I have always been a softie, and I fight it with every fiber of my being. Sadly, my being's fibers need to hit the gym.

On the path of the budo one does not strive for victory over an opponent. One strive to avoid defeat by one's own self.

You know Americans...Self-improvement. No matter who or what we are, we're always working on ways to become somebody else.

By pointing out the errors of others, we strive to elevate ourselves above them.

Replace self-criticism with regular, positive self-talk. Replace fear of failure with clear pictures of yourself functioning successfully and happily.

Fears are educated into us," Dr. Karl Menninger once wrote, "and they can, if we wish, be educated out.

SOMEONE WHO WANTS to be greater than others should not dig a pit for his friend; rather he should build a hill for himself. —RABBI YISRAEL SALANTER (1810–1883)

Blame someone else and get on with your life.