Quotes About Awareness

The shift of self-perception is the most powerful ingredient in the chain reaction of becoming the person you are always becoming.

Sometimes I think of all the times in this sweet life when I must have missed the affection I was being given. A friend calls this "standing knee-deep in the river and dying of thirst.

The eye that looks in on us and the eye that looks out from us is not the same eye.

Does enlightenment lead to sorrowful disengagement or willing participation? Once you know where the roller coaster is going, are you still in for the ride?

If one man lives as though he would never die and another man lives as though he might die tomorrow, would either one wear a wristwatch?

When you meet a swordsman, draw your sword: Do not recite poetry to one who is not a poet.

Become who you are by learning who you are.

Everything that happens to you is a form of instruction if you pay attention.

Our natural tendency is to project onto other people our own belief and value systems, in ways in which we are not even aware.

As Gracián said, "The truth is generally seen, rarely heard.

You must be the mirror, training your mind to try to see yourself as others see you.

When you have success, be extra wary. When you are angry, take no action. When you are fearful, know you are going to exaggerate the dangers you face.

If you lead the sucker down a familiar path, he won't catch on when you lead him into a trap.

Man will only become better when you make him see what he is like. —Anton Chekhov

Chance favors only the prepared mind.

Anger is the most destructive of emotional responses, for it clouds your vision the most.

Your days are numbered. Will you pass them half awake and halfhearted or will you live with a sense of urgency?

You are like a hunter: your knowledge of every detail of the forest and of the ecosystem as a whole will give you many more options for survival and success.

There are very few men—and they are the exceptions—who are able to think and feel beyond the present moment.   CARL VON CLAUSEWITZ, 1780-1831

Life has more meaning in the face of Death.

Through continual exposure to people and by attempting to think inside of them we can gain an increasing sense of their perspective, but this requires effort on our part.

Most of us live in a semi-somnambulistic state: we do our daily tasks and the days fly by. The two exceptions to this are childhood and those moments when we are in love. In both cases, our emotions are more engaged, more open and active. And we equate feeling emotional with feeling more alive.

To help yourself to cultivate serendipity, you should keep a notebook with you at all times. The moment any idea or observation comes, you note it down. You keep the notebook by your bed, careful to record ideas that come in those moments of fringe awareness—just before falling asleep, or just upon waking.

Spectacle and entertainment, clearly, are excellent devices to conceal your intentions, but they cannot be used indefinitely. The public grows tired and suspicious, and eventually catches on to the trick.