Quotes About Introspection

if you shall seem to some to be a person of importance, distrust yourself.

Put up with being laughed at on occasion; look around you, and give yourself a good shaking to find out who you really are.

One person likes tending to his farm, another to his horse; I like to daily monitor my self-improvement.

Difficulties are things that show a person what they are.

For determining the rational and the irrational, we employ not only our estimates of the value of external things, but also the criterion of that which is in keeping with one's own character. (Book I.2, 17p)

Consider first, man, what the matter is, and what your own nature is able to bear. If you would be a wrestler, consider your shoulders, your back, your thighs; for different persons are made for different things.

Every difficulty in life presents us with an opportunity to turn inward and to invoke our own submerged inner resources. The trials we endure can and should introduce us to our strengths...Dig deeply. You possess strengths you might not realize you have. Find the right one. Use it.

When therefore we are hindered, or disturbed, or grieved, let us never attribute it to others, but to ourselves; that is, to our own principles. An uninstructed person will lay the fault of his own bad condition upon others. Someone just starting instruction will lay the fault on himself. Some who is perfectly instructed will place blame neither on others nor on himself.

You must be one man, either good or bad. You must cultivate either your own ruling faculty or externals, and apply yourself either to things within or without you; that is, be either a philosopher, or one of the vulgar.

if anyone should tell you that a particular person has spoken critically of you, don't bother with excuses or defenses. Just smile and reply, "I guess that person doesn't know about all my other faults. Otherwise, he wouldn't have mentioned only these.

The first task of the person who wishes to live wisely is to free himself or herself from the confines of self-absorption.

Es normal esperar de alguien poco instruido que atribuya a los demás sus propias desgracias; de una persona que comienza a instruirse, reprocharse a sí misma; y de una persona altamente instruida, no reprochar ni a los demás ni a sí misma.

If you are told that such an one speaks ill of you, make no defence against what was said, but answer, He surely knew not my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these only!

Whenever misfortune befalls you, ask yourself how you would react if it were someone else in the same situation.

If you are praised by others, be skeptical of yourself.

When the soul cries out, it is a sign that we have arrived at a necessary, mature stage of self-reflection. The secret is not to get stuck there dithering or wringing your hands, but to move forward by resolving to heal yourself.

If a person had handed over your body to a stranger, you would certainly be angry. So why do you not feel any shame in handing over your own mind to any criticiser, to be unsettled and annoyed.

Most of what passes for legitimate entertainment is inferior or foolish and only caters to or exploits people's weakness. If you yourself don't choose what thoughts and images you expose yourself to, someone else will, and their motives may not be the highest.

That's the kind of attitude you need to cultivate if you would be a philosopher, the sort of sentiments you should write down every day and put in practice.

sophistical questions, so we ought to exercise ourselves

So why not care for that side of you, where you and the gods are equals?

So when we are frustrated, angry or unhappy, never hold anyone except ourselves – that is, our judgements – accountable.

It betrays a lack of an interior life when a person is overly focused on bodily things—whether indulging in food and drink, exercising to exhaustion, or spending excessive time on grooming. Care for your body as needed, but put your main energies and efforts into cultivating your mind.

Here is the primary means of training yourself: as soon as you leave in the morning, subject whatever you see or hear to close study. Then formulate answers as if they were posing questions.