Quotes About Introspection

We fear to know the fearsome and unsavory aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.

Become aware of internal, subjective, sub-verbal experiences, so that these experiences can be brought into the world of abstraction, of conversation, of naming, etc. with the consequence that it immediately becomes possible for a certain amount of control to be exerted over these hitherto unconscious and uncontrollable processes.

Religion will always have a future because it is an expression of the profound search for the meaning of life and a consequence of introspection and encounters with Him. As long as life continues to be a mystery and man wonders who created the natural order—while those questions, which I believe will be eternal, persist— the concept of religion will endure as a manifestation of the urgent calling to understand who we are.

I'd become aware of human complexity--that's a kinder word than "deceit.

just as she kept her thoughts to herself, I was learning to do the same. This was what growing up was about: HIDE the corpse, DON'T bare your heart, DO make assumptions about the motives of others.

He had so many ways of climbing into the tree house in his head, escaping the madness below, and pulling the ladder up behind him...

All possibilities resided within me, and they required me to be here. If I left, what would be left of me?

I'm so sorry,' Stone said. I don't know whether he was speaking to me, or Ghosh, or the universe. It wasn't enough, but it was about time.

When a man is a mystery to himself you can hardly call him mysterious.

I was temperamentally better suited to a cognitive discipline, to an introspective field—internal medicine, or perhaps psychiatry. The sight of the operating theater made me sweat. The idea of holding a scalpel caused coils to form in my belly. (It still does.) Surgery was the most difficult thing I could imagine. And so I became a surgeon.

telling herself stories about herself in a singsong voice, creating her own mythology.

Departure or imminent death will force you to define your true tastes.

just as she kept her thoughts to herself, I was learning to do the same. This was what growing up was about: hide the corpse, don't bare your heart, do make assumptions about the motives of others. They're certainly doing all these things to you. I

The mistake, Digby, of choosing to see more in your future mate than the evidence has already suggested.

sometimes we have to "live the question," not push for the answer.

You can confide in quiet people. They make way for one's thoughts.

The days that follow feel awkward. But silence still feels better than confessing. Besides, how does one rationally explain irrational fears? He

question," not push for the answer.

Solitude is better than the society of evil persons.

The few weeks I have had at my disposal have not given me the chance to revive and to work through my old memories in such a way that I might offer you a solid introduction into the psychic life of Indians.

I imagine what it must be like to stay hidden, disappear in the dusky nothing and stay still in the night. It's not sadness, though it may sound like it. I'm thinking about people and trees and how I wish I could be silent more, be more tree than anything else, less clumsy and loud, less crow, more cool white pine, and how it's hard not to always want something else, not just to let the savage grass grow.

I remembered what had been circling in me: I am beautiful. I am full of love. I am dying.

All I've been working on is napping, and maybe being kinder to others, to myself.

I am not obsessing. I am just sitting here perforating this post-it with a push-pin.