Quotes About Introspection

The doorstep to the temple of wisdom is the knowledge of our own ignorance.

People calculate too much and think too little.

The best armour of old age is a well spent life perfecting it.

There is a certain way of being human that is my way. I am called upon to live my life in this way, and not in imitation of anyone else's life. But this notion gives a new importance to being true to myself. If I am not, I miss the point of my life; I miss what being human is for me .

the dark side of individualism is a centering on the self, which both flattens and narrows our lives, makes them poorer in meaning, and less concerned with others or society.

And after my imprisonment I could look back and

The things that are wrong with the country today are the sum total of all the things that are wrong with us as individuals.

It'll do you all the good in the world, Giles, to be a little uncertain of yourself".

There are tales that can give you yourself completely and the world could never treat you so badly then that you wouldn't neglect it. One can get everything by listening or looking in the right way: there are all sorts of turns.

Would you rather be more abominable than you sound or sound more abominable than you are? The answer is I would rather be neither but I am both.

Out of any two thoughts I have, one is devoted to death.

When what you write about is what you see, what do you write about when it's dark? from "32

Most people I know live their lives moving in a constant forward direction, the whole time looking backward.

Sometimes when I'm brushing my teeth, I'll look at the mirror and I swear my reflection seems kind of disappointed. I realized a couple of years ago that not only am I not super-skilled at anything, I'm not even particularly good at being myself.

Life is, to some extent, an extended dialogue with your future self about how exactly you are going to let yourself down over the coming years.

How many times have I failed before? How many times have I stood here like this, in front of my own image, in front of my own person, trying to convince him not to be scared, to go on, to get out of this rut? How many times before I finally convince myself, how many private, erasable deaths will I need to die, how may self-murders is it going to take, how many times will I have to destroy myself before I learn, before I understand?

What is this called, what I am doing, to myself, to my life, this wallowing, this pondering, this rolling over and over in the same places of my memory, wearing them thin, wearing them out? Why don't I ever learn? Why don't I ever do anything different?

You can just sit in here, impervious and invisible. So invisible you might even forget yourself.

How many times before I finally convince myself, how many private, erasable deaths will I need to die, how many self-murders is it going to take, how many times will I have to destroy myself before I learn, before I understand?

On the worst days, I feel fine. On the best days, I know I am not.

There is a sense in which I am pretty sure this makes no sense. I don't know where this is going. I don't know how it ends.

You are good," I say. "No I'm not. I'm not I'm not. I'm not," she says. "I'm no good." And then, softly to herself: "Am I?

I'm not a superhero. I'm background. I'm a good person wrapped in mediocre soul. I want to be better. I really do. But even now in my greatest moment I know this is as good as it will ever get for me and it's not that good. I have a small heart, a dark heart, a heart filled with exactly equal amounts of good and evil, one that is weak and will take us only so far, but for now it propels us higher and higher and higher.

the performer comes to be his own audience; he comes to be the performer and observer