“Are you proud of yourself tonight that you have insulted a total stranger whose circumstances you know nothing about?”

“why do you condemn a man whom you have never met, whom no one knows and about whom even you yourself know nothing?”

Gaston Leroux book The Phantom of the Opera

“Regardless of what you may think about yourself or what you have been told about yourself or what you may have been taught to believe about yourself… THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH YOU. THERE NEVER WAS.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

“What you did tonight was clever,” Wit said. “You turned an attack into a promise. The wisest of men know that to render an insult powerless, you often need only to embrace it.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

“Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so, you are insulting yourself.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

“You are a total stranger and you want to take my library book.”

Elizabeth Kostova book The Historian

“Don't compare yourself with anyone in this world… if you do so, you are insulting yourself.”

Bill Gates (1955) American business magnate and philanthropist

“And I don't pretend to know what you know
no no
now please don't pretend to know what's on my mind
if we already knew everything that everybody knows
we would have nothing to learn tonight
and we would have nothing to show tonight
oh but everybody thinks
that everybody knows
about everybody else
nobody knows
anything about themselves
cause they're all worried about everybody else.”

Jack Johnson (musician) (1975) American musician

“Lima frightened him, it was too big, you could lose yourself in it and never find your way home; the people on the street were total strangers.”

Mario Vargas Llosa book The Time of the Hero

“Perhaps loneliness had nothing to do with place or circumstance; perhaps it was in you; yourself. Perhaps, wherever you were, you took your little circle of loneliness with you…”

Mary Stewart book Nine Coaches Waiting