Quotes About Introspection

The only monster you need to worry about in this life is the one that stares at you from the mirror each morning. You tame him, make friends with him, and the rest of life is nothing you can't handle.

so, the water that would cleanse me was not water from my head—where I'd learned to rationalize my indifference. But water from my heart.

every man has a basement. Some lay dark. Unlit. Concealed. Others sprawl like airport runways for all the world to see. The difference is determined by whether he is hiding something or digging it up. Hammer or shovel says much about a man. [Murphy Shepherd']

I do know this: most people, myself included, are at their most vulnerable in a journal. They pour it all out. Sometimes a journal is the only ear that will listen, or at least the only one that you want to talk to.

He found identity and status in the possession of things. Liam was quiet, thoughtful, slow to speak, and always gave away more than he took in.

Memories surfaced and flashed before my mind's eye—the hospital, tear stained nights, never-ending days, loneliness so deep I thought I would drown—and maybe sometimes I wanted to. I flung open the doors of my mind, dug them out of their holes where I'd hidden them from Maggie, and pretty soon ten pads turned into twenty, and all the beauty and wonder—and yes, even ugliness—of my life stared back at me. The mirror told no lies.

I'm trying to play the truth of what I am. The reason it's difficult is because I'm changing all the time.

listen to the parts of ourselves that are more inclined toward curiosity, trust, and cooperation.

What we communicate to ourselves matters--

If you are alone, tell some stories to yourself. This is a different kind of pleasure and it has, indeed, its reward. I have tasted a little of everything, and I have truly never enjoyed anything more.

As the dead prey upon us,they are the dead in ourselves,awake, my sleeping ones, I cry out to you,disentangle the nets of being!

To demand to know is the obligation of every American. That it occasionally leads people down blind alleys, or off to Atlantis, is to be celebrated, not scorned.

Surrender is essentially an operation by means of which we set about explaining instead of acting.

Such people are their own punishment.

I don't think about you at all when your mouth is closed.

What is your work in this world?" "I don't know what it is yet. I'm back in school now." "It's getting pretty late in the day for you to have so few interests and convictions. How old are you, Mr. Midge?

Idleness and solitude led to these dramatics: an ordinary turd indulging himself as the chief of sinners.

You do not think much of me, do you, Cogburn?" "I don't think about you at all when your mouth is closed.

There is no knowing what is in a man's heart.

He was able to sit in silence for long stretches without feeling a need to make small talk.

3 "If my sinfulness appears to me to be in any way smaller or less detestable in comparison with the sins of others, I am still not recognising my sinfulness at all." —LIFE TOGETHER

Lord, help me first of all to confront in my own life all that is not according to Your will. Amen.

The reasons one gives for an action to others and to one's self are certainly inadequate. One can give a reason for everything. In the last resort, one acts from a level which remains hidden from us. So one can only ask God to judge us and to forgive us." —THE WAY TO FREEDOM

I mean to take a good look at any man ere I leap into his arms.' Then look your fill, and leap away.