Quotes About Introspection

He looked right through them, refusing to see them, nursing a little growth of anger the way one caresses the beginnings of a toothache with the tip of the tongue.

Live as if you were living already for the second time and as if you had acted the first time as wrongly as you are about to act now!50

Whenever we suffer — no matter what the severity of our suffering is — we have the ability to find meaning in the situation.

Entre el estímulo y la respuesta hay un espacio. En ese espacio reside nuestra libertad y nuestra capacidad de elegir nuestra respuesta. En nuestra respuesta radica nuestro crecimiento y nuestra felicidad.»

She avoids deep thought like an empty restaurant, not out of stupidity, but a canny resolve to be happy.

The mirror's light sparks in the eyes, And horrified, my lids drawn tight, I step back to that realm of night Where not a single exit lies... (Untitled: "I pass away this life of mine...")

To understand is to forgive, even oneself.

To write is to sell a ticket to escape, not from the truth, but into it.

There is a part of you, you see now, that is reckless. A part of you that still always wants to die but never really wants to go after it. So it makes mistakes instead. Or it says, when trouble comes in and has lemonade, I wonder what this will look like. If I sit still. If I do nothing.

There are two kinds of people, I think: those who want to know the future and those who do not. I've never met anyone ambivalent about this. I have been both kinds. For now, I think I know which one is better, but I'm prepared to change my mind again. It may be I am like that drunk who tells himself he can handle his alcohol now. But if I told you I could tell the future, you would laugh at me. And I would laugh at me too.

What if the novel in you is one you yourself would never read? A beach novel, a blockbuster, a long, windy, character-driven literary drama that ends sadly? What if the one novel in you is the opposite of your idea of yourself?

51. What if the novel in you is one you yourself would never read? A beach novel, a blockbuster, a long, windy, character-driven literary drama that ends sadly? What if the one novel in you is the opposite of your idea of yourself?

The quiet around her seems to make the focus of her prettiness sharper, the air's stillness focuses her in the eye. As if talking might make it harder to see someone.

It's much like writing an essay or including autobiographical content in fiction—to succeed, it requires an ability to be coldly impersonal about yourself and your state, so as not to cloud what is there with what you want to see.

Every now and then, you find a book that feels like it was keyed to your DNA.

There was a question I wanted answered more than I wanted anything else, and it could take my life to answer it. This question was What could I be? This was what I wanted to know.

her interest was not the beginning of a friendship but more of a measuring. She

I was now both the secret and the keeper of it, but the idea that I could not know what is was I served, nor why, nor who, became nearly unendurable all at once

I was now both the secret and the keeper of it, but the idea that I could not know what it was I served, nor why, nor who, became nearly unendurable all at once

We could hardly believe that after so many ordeals, after all the trials of modern skepticism, there was still so much left in our souls to destroy.

In general modern man has no solutions

Life has taught me to think, but thinking has not taught me to live.

The road to the mountain of holiness first passes through the valley of humility.

In verità, qual è l'uomo che osa dire: "Questo è passato e quello è ancora da venire, questa è realtà e quello è un sogno, questa è una cosa e quella è un'altra"! Ma ogni tanto un lembo del velo che nasconde i misteri della vita si muove, e uno sguardo portentoso ci è concesso, dietro le apparenze che ci circondano.