“We truly know only what we have taught ourselves.”

“Experience has rude lessons, and we grow
Like what we have been taught too late to know,
And yet we hate ourselves for being so.”

Letitia Elizabeth Landon (1802–1838) English poet and novelist

“The only lies for which we are truly punished are those we tell ourselves.”

V.S. Naipaul book In a Free State

“A reminder of what it was to be mortal and so doomed to tread one road only and that one only once…We can never truly know the path we have not walked.”

Guy Gavriel Kay book Tigana

“You and I, it's as though we have been taught to kiss in heaven and sent down to earth together, to see if we know what we were taught.”

Borís Pasternak book Doctor Zhivago

“Only what we have lost forever, we possess forever. Only where there are graves, are there resurrections. Only when we have drunk from the river of darkness, shall we truly see. Only when our legs have rotted off, shall we truly dance.”

Brother Theodore (1906–2001) German-American monologuist and comedian

“On Elsewhere we fool ourselves into thinking we know what will be just because we know the amount of time we have left. We know this, but we never really know what will be. We never know what will happen…”

Gabrielle Zevin book Elsewhere

“It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth -- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up -- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

“Only when we give joyfully, without hesitation or thought of gain, can we truly know what love means.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

“Okay, you were probably taught there are five senses," he said. "We see, hear, touch, smell and taste. But how do we know those are the only five? What are the senses that we don't have? What are we failing to perceive?”

Louis Sachar (1954) American writer of children's books