Quotes About Introspection

To overcome inertia, Peter Drucker, the legendary consultant, suggested asking the seemingly naïve question, "If we did not do this already, would we, knowing what we now know, go into it?"26

Of all the thoughts that are formed in our mind, the first is the thought 'I'. Our mind first forms itself as the thought 'I', and only then does it form other thoughts. Without an 'I' to think or know them, no other thoughts could be formed. All the other thoughts that

What I'm concerned about is the people who don't dwell on the meaninglessness of their lives, or the meaningfulness of it-who just pursue mindless entertainment.

Never walk away from failure. On the contrary, study it carefully for its hidden assets.

He stood at the edge of town feeling very small, powerless. Night in the mountains could do that to you, reminding you of your place in the world and laughing at any sense of self-importance.

Sometimes I wonder if we live life by reliving life, rather than by living life.

we're all thinkin' it.

Take the story of David. The way poor King Saul gets written about, it's like he's an idiot and a maniac, because you think, well, it was written by David's guys. But by the end, David looks more like the idiot and maniac, even though he's supposed to be the hero. Point: there comes a time in everyone's life when only the truth will do, and you have to look reality square in the eyes.

It is tempting to think that in order to change our experience of our world we need to force others to change. Such thinking is an abdication of our power to change ourselves.

Lord, I don't understand it, but when a person does something wrong, it never feels wrong until later. It's never as evil as you'd imagined.

Come sit down beside me, I said to myself, And although it doesn't make sense, I held my own hand As a small sign of trust And together I sat on the fence.

He suggested a new definition of the nerd: a person who knows his own mind well enough to mistrust it.

Making something secret makes it too important, elevates it to the point where it runs your life from the shadows. If you hide what's at your core from other people for too long, sooner or later you end up hiding it from yourself and waking up with no idea of who you are.

and only when that happens do you realise just how much silence there really is. Silence between lovers, when something really needs to be said; silence from a parent when a child needs some word more than anything else in the world; silences and in betweens and everything which isn't an answer.

When you let it get personal, the cost becomes personal too. You're opening your own heart here. You sure you want to do that?

The only advice I have ever wanted to give is this: 'If it is in your nature to do so be a little vulnerable. Don't be afraid to talk about yourself, your journey, your pain, your vision.

On the metro home that night, I struggled with a dilemma that would haunt me for decades. Was I an activist or an academic?

Searching outside oneself for what can only be found within can lead to a life lived in the wrong direction and sacrifices made for the wrong reasons. People can wind up alienated from themselves even if they achieve lofty goals set by others.

Admitting failure is quite cleansing, but never - pleasurable.

I'm sorry about today." "Do you want to talk about it?" "I was bored and lonely." "Some would call that the human condition.

We had not liked each other much at first. He mistook my shyness for arrogance and I failed to see that his arrogance masked his shyness.

Have you ever heard of a poet named Cavafy?" I told him no. "A Greek poet. Gay, in fact. He wrote a poem about a young dissolute man who tires of his life and resolves to move to a new city and mend his ways. The poet's comment is that moving away is futile because, having ruined his life in one place, he has ruined it everywhere.

The important thing is to recognize our faults, avoid self-denial, and have the courage and self-sufficiency to make constant adjustments in our lives.

I am just a low, uncouth person. I'm a low-type sort of man." Some