Quotes About Introspection

An introspective man who doesn't keep a diary consigns himself to a special hell

I'm a private guy, and you don't want to be out there preaching to people. But faith leads you in the decisions you make. You don't always pick the right path, but it's there in your conscience.

Sometimes, I am my own worst enemy.

He wished he could've explained some of this. How he had been braver than he ever thought possible, but how he had not been so brave as he wanted to be. The distinction was important.

one has only learnt to get the better of words For the thing one no longer has to say, or the way in which One is no longer disposed to say it. And so each venture Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate

T]hese three days of meditation have revealed to me that every thought I think is, in one way or another, an ugly, fatuous form of self-congratulation. Even what appears to be the most searing self-criticism is in fact self-congratulation. A man capable of seeing his worst side, you congratulate yourself. Coetzee is pleased to have been so hard on himself.

Si te liberas de esa compulsión, pensó Paul de pronto, si escapas de esa necesidad de engatusar y convencer y seducir, lo que quede después serás tú, tu verdadero ser.

What wonderful minds we have, even though they don't seem to get us anywhere, or make us happy.

There are people who want to be on their own, to mark out their own territory and be quiet there, and there are people who are eager to invade that territory, to sit close to someone else.

I am not perfect, far from it, but there is no furnace of death inside me.

I loved this place. You could prop up the bar and watch the world go by; no one made you talk or expected anything of you

I am on a path of understanding more and more about myself every day and shifting my perspective just like my father did. I'm becoming more conscious about what I'm ignoring or denying, and my learning process has become faster, my struggles fewer and less intense.

When you sense yourself about to commit an unfriendly act, talk yourself out of it by asking yourself two questions and making two statements. They won't all apply at the same time, but at least one of them should work. - Will this fix anything? - Is this how I want to be remembered? - You are welcome here. - I should be helping you.

No one is going to put rumble strips in your life for you. That is up to you. Your rumble strips may not be the same as mine, and mine may not be the same as yours. But everyone needs rumble strips. It all begins with self-leadership; before we talk about leading a church or a business, we must talk about being a leader worth following.

You know how when you see someone day in, day out, year after year, you don't really notice him getting taller or wider or older or whatever? It can be like that with the way people are on the inside too.

You just go around acting like you're saving other people so you don't have to deal with your own problems.

No,' I say l. 'It's not all right. But I couldn't help it

Sin embargo, no me arrepiento de nada y no me siento amargado. Solamente me pregunto qué diablos pasaba dentro de sus cerebros, dentro de sus corazones, en aquellos días cuando debíamos acercarnos más y más. ¿Por qué todas querían un Sutter distinto al que empezó a salir con ellas? ¿Por qué ahora soy amigo de todas ellas y siempre es divertido cuando nos encontramos? ¿Por qué les agrado a las chicas pero no me aman?

It's how I fill the time when nothing's happening. Thinking too much, flirting with melancholy.

I liked books - the respite and privacy of them - books about plants and the formation of ice and the business of world wars. Whenever I sank into them I felt free.

Some things are worse than death... If a man lives, he must still live with himself.

We must look at the facts squarely, not to flounder in a bitter nostalgia of pain but to redeem a democratic promise rooted in the living ingredients of our own history.

Men go abroad to admire the heights of mountains, the mighty waves of the sea, the broad tide of rivers, the vast compass of the ocean, the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass over the mystery of themselves without a thought." We are spiritual beings. But for many of us, malnutrition of the soul is a plague of modern life.

Observing that his penis had a mind of its own — "sometimes it refuses to act when the mind wills, while often it acts against his will" — led Augustine to theorize that we were born flawed.