Quotes About Introspection

Friend, client, child, sickness, fear, want, charity, all knock at once at thy closet door, and say, 'Come out unto us.' But keep thy state; come not into their confusion. The power men possess to annoy me, I give them by a weak curiosity. No man can come near me but through my act. "What we love that we have, but by desire we bereave ourselves of the love.

These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world.

My book should smell of pines and resound with the hum of insects. The swallow over my window should interweave that thread or straw he carries in his bill into my web also. We pass for what we are. Character teaches above our wills.

The mind of this country, taught to aim at low objects, feeds upon itself.

Outside, among your fellows, among strangers, you must perceive appearances, a hundred things you cannot do; but inside, the terrible freedom!

We do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more.

Our opinions of the world, are confessions of character.

Of that ineffable essence which we call Spirit, he that thinks most, will say least.

The purpose of life seems to be to acquaint a man with himself and whatever science or art or course of action he engages in reacts upon and illuminates the recesses of his own mind. Thus friends seem to be only mirrors to draw out and explain to us ourselves; and that which draws us nearer our fellow man, is, that the deep Heart in one, answers the deep Heart in another, -- that we find we have (a common Nature) -- one life which runs through all individuals, and which is indeed Divine.

He who knows that power is inborn, that he is weak because he has looked for good out of him and elsewhere, and so perceiving, throws himself unhesitatingly on his thought, instantly rights himself, stands in the erect position, commands his limbs, works miracles; just as a man who stands on his feet is stronger than a man who stands on his head.

There may be two or three or four steps, according to the genius of each, but for every seeing soul there are two absorbing facts, --I and the abyss.

They measure their esteem of each other by what each has, and not by what each is. But a cultivated man becomes ashamed of his property, out of new respect for his nature.

The ancient precept, "Know thyself," and the modern precept, "Study nature," become at last one maxim.

I am not solitary whilst I read and write, though nobody is with me. But if a man would be alone, let him look at the stars.

Apa yang kita fikir ibarat bunga,bahasa ibarat putik,manakala tindakan adalah buahnya.

A man is reputed to have thought and eloquence; he cannot, for all that, say a word to his cousin or his uncle. They accuse his silence with as much reason as they would blame the insignificance of a dial in the shade. In the sun it will mark the hour. Among those who enjoy his thought, he will regain his tongue.

We are too civil to books. For a few golden sentences we will turn over and actually read a volume of four or five hundred pages.

It is said to be the age of the first person singular

In every work of genius we recognize our own rejected thoughts.

We are what we think about all day long.

That popular fable of the sot who was picked up dead drunk in the street, carried to the duke's house, washed and dressed and laid in the duke's bed, and, on his waking, treated with all obsequious ceremony like the duke, and assured that he had been insane, owes its popularity to the fact that it symbolizes so well the state of man, who is in the world a sort of sot, but now and then wakes up, exercises his reason and finds himself a true prince.

Most of the shadows of this life are caused by standing in our own sunshine.

The world -- this shadow of the soul, or other me, lies wide around. Its attractions are the keys which unlock my thoughts and make me acquainted with myself. I run eagerly into this resounding tumult...So much only of life as I know by experience...The true scholar grudges every opportunity of action past by, as a loss of power.

Every man supposes himself not to be fully understood; and if there is any truth in him ... I see not how it can be otherwise.