Quotes About Introspection

Live no longer to the expectation of these deceived and deceiving people with whom we converse.

We do not know today whether we are busy or idle. In times when we thought ourselves indolent we have discovered afterward that much was accomplished and much was begun in us.

Our thinking is a pious reception.

Man is a god in ruins.

Good bye, proud world! I'm going home; Thou art not my friend, and I'm not thine

Nothing can work me damage except myself; the harm that I sustain I carry about with me, and never am a real sufferer but by my own fault.

The action of the soul is oftener in that which is felt and left unsaid than in that which is said in any conversation. It broods over every society, and they unconsciously seek for it in each other. We know better than we do. We do not yet possess ourselves, and we know at the same time that we are much more. I feel the same truth how often in my trivial conversation with my neighbors, that somewhat higher in each of us overlooks this by-play, and Jove nods to Jove from behind each of us.

The soul environs itself with friends, that it may enter into a grander self-acquaintance or solitude; and it goes alone for a season, that it may exalt its conversation or society.

But now we are a mob. Man does not stand in awe of man, nor is his genius admonished to stay at home, to put itself in communication with the internal ocean, but it goes abroad to beg a cup of water of the urns of other men.

?ovek je ono što misli tokom ?itavog dana

In proportion to the energy of his thought and will, he takes up the world into himself.

We must go alone. I like the silent church before the service begins, better than any preaching.

I chide society, I embrace solitude, and yet I am not so ungrateful as not to see the wise, the lovely, and the noble-minded, as from time to time they pass my gate.

Solitude is a sublime mistress but an intolerable wife

La persona debería aprender a detectar y observar ese destello de luz que atraviesa su mente desde adentro, más que el realce del firmamento de los bardos y sabios. Sin embargo, la persona desecha su propio pensamiento sin tomarlo en cuenta, porque es suyo.

But how insular and pathetically solitary are all the people we know! Nor dare they tell what they think of each other when they meet in the street. We have a fine right, to be sure, to taunt men of the world with superficial and treacherous courtesies!

Wise men read very sharply all your private history in your look and gait and behavior. The whole economy of nature is bent on expression. The telltale body is all tongues.

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

The last chamber, the last closet, he must feel, was never opened; there is always a residuum unknown, unanalyzable. That is, every man believes that he has a greater possibility.

Lo que queda detrás de nosotros, y lo que queda delante, es poca cosa comparada con lo que queda dentro de nosotros.

Why should I vapor and play the philosopher, instead of ballasting, the best I can, this dancing balloon?

At times the whole world seems to be in conspiracy to importune you with emphatic trifles. 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.

É impossível para um homem ser enganado por outra pessoa, a não ser por si mesmo". Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882).

The student is to read history actively and not passively; to esteem his own life the text, and books the commentary.