Quotes About Introspection

The act of making art exposes a society to itself. Art brings things to light. It illuminates us. It sheds light on our lingering darkness. It casts a beam into the heart of our own darkness and says, See?

each of us is our own country, an interesting place to visit. It is the accurate mapping out of our own creative interests that invites the term original. We are the origin of our art, its homeland. Viewed this way, originality is the process of remaining true to ourselves.

By its very nature, discipline is rooted in self-admiration. (Think of discipline as a battery, useful but short-lived.) We admire ourselves for being so wonderful. The discipline itself, not the creative outflow, becomes the point.

The reward for attention is always healing. It may begin as the healing of a particular pain—the lost lover, the sickly child, the shattered dream. But what is healed, finally, is the pain that underlies all pain: the pain that we are all, as Rilke phrases it, "unutterably alone.

Be particularly alert to any suggestion that you have become selfish or different.

Art ... illuminates us. It sheds light on our lingering darkness. It casts a beam into the heart of our own darkness and says, See?

What do I need to know?" "What do I need to try?" "What do I need to accept?" "What do I need to do?

When we feel anger, we are often very angry that we feel anger.

Las páginas están concebidas para que nos familiaricemos simplemente con el acto de mover la mano a través del papel y volcar en él todo aquello que te pasa por la cabeza, sea lo que sea. Incluiremos todo, por nimio, tonto, estúpido o raro que pueda parecer.

We've all heard that the unexamined life is not worth living, but consider too that the unlived life is not worth examining ... Most of us are practiced at talking ourselves out of risk. We are skilled speculators on the probably pain of self-exposure.

The truth is, we do know and we know that we know. Each of us has an inner dream that we can unfold if we will just have the courage to admit what it is.

Se medita para descubrir la propia identidad, el verdadero lugar que ocupamos en el universo

To believe in God or in a guiding force because someone tells you to is the height of stupidity. We are given senses to receive our information with. With our own eyes we see, and with our skin we feel. With our intelligence, it is intended that we understand. But each person must puzzle it out for himself or herself.

I'm afraid that surprise, shock, and regret is the fate of authors when they finally see themselves on the page.

We are so bemused by our own petard, that we are unable to look at things objectively.

I had a lack of confidence, which caused me to back down from forcefully stated positions; an i was overly emotional at the expense of careful, scientific thought. I was thirty-seven years old and still discovering who I was

Was it a sign of Creeping Decrepitude?

Thanks to Granna, Werner and Walter had grown up to be highly functioning, productive citizens -- but if you were to ask Walter, Werner had a far easier time of it and lived his life with the sanctified nonchalance of those who will do anything to avoid dissecting their souls.

Deep inside, she knew who she was, and that person was smart and kind and often even funny, but somehow her personality always got lost somewhere between her heart and her mouth, and she found herself saying the wrong thing or, more often, nothing at all.

When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.

He didn't really like travel, of course. He liked the idea of travel, and the memory of travel, but not travel itself.

To own a certain book - and to choose it without help - is to define yourself.

There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond these, there is unrest. There is great unrest.

You get towards the end of life—no, not life itself, but of something else: the end of any likelihood of change in that life. You are allowed a long moment of pause, time enough to ask the question: what else have I done wrong?