Quotes about self

A collection of quotes on the topic of self, other, use, doing.

Alan Watts quote: “It comes only in the awareness that one has no self to love.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson quote: “Self-trust is the first secret of success.”

Quotes about self

“When Agatha already felt like she was dying, for a second she thought about turning him into a eunuch for life, in self-defense, she would argue.”

José Baroja book El lado oscuro de la sombra y otros ladridos

Life

“If you have ever seen the play Peter Pan you will remember how the pirate chief was always making his dying speech because he was afraid that possibly when the time came for him to die he might not have time to get it off his chest. It is much the same with me, and so, although I am not at this moment dying, I shall be doing so one of these days and I want to send you a parting word of goodbye.

Remember, it is the last you will ever hear from me, so think it over.

I have had a most happy life and I want each one of you to have as happy a life too.

I believe that God put us in this jolly world to be happy and enjoy life. Happiness doesn't come from being rich, nor merely from being successful in your career, nor by self-indulgence. One step towards happiness is to make yourself healthy and strong while you are a boy, so that you can be useful and so can enjoy life when you are a man.

Nature study will show you how full of beautiful and wonderful things God has made the world for you to enjoy. Be contented with what you have got and make the best of it. Look on the bright side of things instead of the gloomy one.

But the real way to get happiness is by giving out happiness to other people. Try and leave this world a little better than you found it and when your turn come to die, you can die happy in feeling that at any rate you have not wasted your time but have done your best. "Be Prepared" in this way, to live happy and to die happy - stick to your Scout promise always - even after you have ceased to be a boy - and God help you do it.”

Robert Baden-Powell (1857–1941) lieutenant-general in the British Army, writer, founder and Chief Scout of the Scout Movement

Life, God, People, World

“The reflective teacher makes the learners decide for themselves and ensures that the decision is sound and reasonable. He or she asks a lot of questions for the learners to carry out self-assessment.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Teacher

Question, Teachers, Self-confidence, Decision

“I think the hardest thing in life is to forgive. Hate is self destructive. If you hate somebody, you're not hurting the person you hate, you're hurting yourself. It's a healing, actually, it's a real healing… forgiveness.”

Louis Zamperini (1917–2014) Italian-American middle distance runner

Variant: I think the hardest thing in life is to forgive. Hate is self destructive. If you hate somebody, you're not hurting the person you hate, you're hurting yourself. It's healing, actually, it's real healing...
Forgiveness.

Life, Hate, Forgiveness, Thinking

“An individual who has reached the stage of self-esteem almost always makes a sound and rational decision. He or she always sets a reachable yet challenging goal in his or her endeavour. When the endeavour results in a success, his or her self-concept will increase or widen.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Education helps reduce social problems and improves quality of life

Self-confidence, Success, Making love, Decision

“Pure philosophy cannot be taught in school, it has to start as a self-journey without filling your head with other people's ideologies.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

School, People

“In fostering a sense of success, teachers have to be responsive to the learners and create several self-assessment activities in learning.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Teacher

Success, Learning, Teachers, Self-confidence

“Education is the result of self-learning, being taught by one or more people. Learning is the key word here. Schools, colleges and universities only divide you into CLASSES according to your level of understanding.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Learning, People, Universe, Education

“There are no dangerous thoughts; thinking it-self is dangerous.”

Hannah Arendt (1906–1975) Jewish-American political theorist

Thinking

“To make teachers more reflective, a series of self-assessment sessions have to be conducted, beginning with an analysis of the learners, or the students. Teachers have to be trained or retrained on how to make their teaching more effective and successful.”

Sukavich Rangsitpol (1935) Thai politician

Teacher

Success, Teachers, Self-confidence, Training

“Consider again that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar", every "supreme leader", every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there — on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.”

Carl Sagan book Pale Blue Dot

Source: Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994), p. 8, Supplemental image at randi.org http://www.randi.org/images/122801-BlueDot.jpg

Love, Life, World, Religion

“Human rights' are a fine thing, but how can we make ourselves sure that our rights do not expand at the expense of the rights of others. A society with unlimited rights is incapable of standing to adversity. If we do not wish to be ruled by a coercive authority, then each of us must rein himself in… A stable society is achieved not by balancing opposing forces but by conscious self-limitation: by the principle that we are always duty-bound to defer to the sense of moral justice.”

Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (1918–2008) Russian writer

Source: Rebuilding Russia: Reflections and Tentative Proposals

Justice, Sense

“To exist is not a choice, but a gift. Living to your full potential is a personal choice you must make after finding your true Self.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Personality

“Winning the men's confidence requires much of a commander. He must exercise care and caution, look after his men, live under the same hardships, and—above all— apply self discipline. But once he has their confidence, his men will follow him through hell and high water.”

Erwin Rommel (1891–1944) German field marshal of World War II

Source: Attacks

Men, Exercises, Confidence, Hell

“Though thou loved her as thyself,
As a self of purer clay,
Tho' her parting dims the day,
Stealing grace from all alive,
Heartily know,
When half-gods go,
The gods arrive.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet

Give All to Love, st. 4
1840s, Poems (1847)

Love, God, Parting

“You must worship the Self in Krishna, not Krishna as Krishna.”

Swami Vivekananda (1863–1902) Indian Hindu monk and phylosopher

“EVERY STUDENT MUST CHOOSE ONE OF TWO PAINS: THE PAIN OF SELF-DISCIPLINE OR THE PAIN OF REGRET OF NEGLECTED OPPORTUNITIES.”

Ahmed Omaar

Pain

“Romantic love, in pornography as in life, is the mythic celebration of female negation. For a woman, love is defined as her willingness to submit to her own annihilation…. The proof of love is that she is willing to be destroyed by the one whom she loves, for his sake. For the woman, love is always self-sacrifice, the sacrifice of identity, will, and bodily integrity, in order to fulfill and redeem the masculinity of her lover.”

Andrea Dworkin (1946–2005) Feminist writer

Speech at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge (September 26, 1975). "The Root Cause", ch. 9, Our Blood (1976).

Love, Life, Lovers

“I think it's a mistake to ever look for hope outside of one's self.”

Arthur Miller After the Fall

After the Fall (1964)
Context: I think it's a mistake to ever look for hope outside of one's self. One day the house smells of fresh bread, the next of smoke and blood. One day you faint because the gardener cuts his finger off, within a week you're climbing over corpses of children bombed in a subway. What hope can there be if that is so? I tried to die near the end of the war. The same dream returned each night until I dared not to go to sleep and grew quite ill. I dreamed I had a child, and even in the dream I saw it was my life, and it was an idiot, and I ran away. But it always crept onto my lap again, clutched at my clothes. Until I thought, if I could kiss it, whatever in it was my own, perhaps I could sleep. And I bent to its broken face, and it was horrible … but I kissed it. I think one must finally take one's life in one's arms.

Hope, Hope, Thinking

“It’s the journey of self, I guess. You start with this kind of loner, outside guy, which a lot of people can relate to, and he goes out into the world.”

Keanu Reeves (1964) Canadian actor, director, producer and musician

People, Self-confidence, Relation ships, World

“One’s virtue cannot always be trusted; for some, use their righteousness for self-righteous purposes.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1981

Self-confidence

“I always encourage self-taught before all other methods. Otherwise, we will end up filling our minds with the opinions of others.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Self-realization is realizing the truth that was already there when you were still unaware of it. Self-help means regaining your full freedom and living according to your desires.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Freedom, Help, Truth

“Drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with your self esteem.”

Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) American musician and artist

As quoted in Rolling Stone (1992-04-16).
Interviews (1989-1994), Print
Context: All drugs are a waste of time. They destroy your memory and your self-respect and everything that goes along with your self-esteem. They’re no good at all. But I’m not going to go around preaching against [them].

Memory, Time

“Love goes very far beyond the physical person of the beloved. It finds its deepest meaning in his spiritual being, his inner self. Whether or not he is actually present, whether or not he is still alive at all, ceases somehow to be of importance.”

Viktor E. Frankl book Man's Search for Meaning

Source: Man's Search for Meaning

Love, Personality

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Life

“The life of a Christian is nothing but a perpetual struggle against self; there is no flowering of the soul to the beauty of its perfection except at the price of pain”

Padre Pio (1887–1968) Italian saint, priest, stigmatist and mystic

Life, Pain, Beauty, Soul

“A man so painfully in love is capable of self-torture beyond belief.”

John Steinbeck book East of Eden

Source: East of Eden

Love

“Your own Self-realization is the greatest service you can render the world.”

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian religious leader

Abide as the Self

World

“I played over the music of that scoundrel Brahms. What a giftless bastard! It annoys me that this self-inflated mediocrity is hailed as a genius.”

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–1893) Russian composer

Diary entry for October 9, 1886, quoted in Nicolas Slonimsky, Lexicon of Musical Invective (1953), p. 73.

Music

“Value of a man depends upon his courage; his veracity depends upon his self-respect and his chastity depends upon his sense of honor.”

Ali book Nahj al-Balagha

Nahj al-Balagha

Courage, Sense, Dependency

“What is man’s life but love, love of self;
Man is dust, dust as his passion, dust as the beloved.Death, it is your great act of piety for man –
You take him to your house or he’d be left to himself.Death is a covenant between the lover and the beloved;
Death is a secret wedlock between being and non-being.Death harbors the hidden port of life’s ocean;
Death is helpless and a vision of beauty to itself.Death is the only witness of my life and your grace,
And O strange lord, of night and the crescent.”

Ghani Khan (1914–1996) Pakistani poet

Death, st. 8-12

Love, Life, Death, Secret

“All these trod the road to Hell, removing from this house of clay to the pit of perdition. The enemy's country was full, as Hell is full, of wounded who had died on the road. The lowest pit was gorged with miscreants who had surrendered their souls to the lord of Hell. In whatever direction one from the army of Islam hastened, he found everywhere a self-willed one dead; whatever march the illustrious camp made in the wake of the fugitives, it found no foot-space without its prostrate foe. All the Hindus slain, abject and mean, By matchlock-stones, like the Elephants' lords, Many hills of their bodies were seen, And from each hill a fount of running blood.”

Babur (1483–1530) 1st Mughal Emperor

https://archive.org/stream/baburnama017152mbp/baburnama017152mbp_djvu.Txt

Soul, Hell, Housing, Dead

“Anybody white could take your whole self for anything that came to mind. Not just work, kill, or maim you, but dirty you. Dirty you so bad you couldn't like yourself anymore. And though she and others lived through and got over it, she could never let it happen to her own. The best things she was, was her children. Whites might dirty her all right, but not her best thing, her beautiful, magical best thing — the part of her that was clean.”

Toni Morrison book Beloved

Source: Beloved (1987), Ch. 26

Children, Beauty, Parting

“Think of life as it really is, think of the details of life; and then think that there is no meaning in it, no purpose, no goal except the grave. Surely only fools or self-deceivers, or those whose lives are exceptionally fortunate, can face that thought without flinching?”

George Orwell book A Clergyman's Daughter

A Clergyman's Daughter, Ch. 2 (1935)

Life, Fools, Thinking

“Charisma is the radiance produced by the interaction of male and female elements in a gifted personality. The charismatic woman has a masculine force and severity. The charismatic man has an entrancing female beauty. Both are hot and cold, glowing with presexual self-love.”

Camille Paglia (1947) American writer

Source: Sexual Personae: Art and Decadence from Nefertiti to Emily Dickinson (1990), p. 521

Love, Beauty, Personality

“It has always been the particular forte of German leadership to grant wide scope to the self-dependence of subordinate commanders - to allot them tasks which leave the method of execution to the discretion of the individual. From time immemorial - certainly since the elder Moltke's day - this principle has distinguished Germany's military leadership from that of other armies.”

Erich von Manstein (1887–1973) German general

Describing Mission Command, Lost Victories, The Winter Campaign In South Russia

Time, Dependency

“(…) Watch your mind, how it comes into being, how it operates. As you watch your mind, you discover your self as the watcher. When you stand motionless, only watching, you discover your self as the light behind the watcher. (…).”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

Mind
Source: I am That, P.188.

Light

“Dwelling on one side of the Chauci and Chatti, the Cherusci long cherished, unassailed, an excessive and enervating love of peace. This was more pleasant than safe, for to be peaceful is self-deception among lawless and powerful neighbours. Where the strong hand decides, moderation and justice are terms applied only to the more powerful; and so the Cherusci, ever reputed good and just, are now called cowards and fools, while in the case of the victorious Chatti success has been identified with prudence. The downfall of the Cherusci brought with it also that of the Fosi, a neighbouring tribe, which shared equally in their disasters, though they had been inferior to them in prosperous days.”

Tacitus book Germania

Source: Germania (98), Chapter 36

Peace, Justice, Success, Strong

“When one evaluates the best possible choice, we need to assess how the decision will affect others, including family, associates in the workplace and friends. Sometimes others outweigh the value of a choice that benefits our self-interest the most.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

2007

Self-confidence, Family, Decision

“Since no one wishes to become a weakling in the first place, it would make sense to turn to self-defence.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Sense

“Gaining the sense of immortality or eternal life will make you appear like a god, prophet or saint before those who lack self-knowledge.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God, Knowledge, Appearance, Sense

“It is almost impossible to become a pious person, without having any self-interest left within you.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Personality

“Self-interest must be sacrificed if you wish to keep your marriage alive, or to keep your significant one attracted to your attributes.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Marriage

“The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint to keep from meddling with them while they do it.”

Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919) American politician, 26th president of the United States

For Team, Leadership, Men, Sense

“There's only one rule you need to remember: laugh at everything and foget everybody else! It sound egotistical, but it's actually the only cure for those suffering from self-pity.”

Anne Frank Diary of Anne Frank

Source: The Diary of Anne Frank

Suffering

“Maybe love is just about finding the person you can be your weird self with.”

Matt Haig book Reasons to Stay Alive

Variant: So love is about finding the right person to hurt you?”
“Pretty much.
Source: Reasons to Stay Alive

Love, Personality

“Someone else's vision will never be as good as your own vision of your self. Live and die with it 'cause in the end it’s all you have. Lose it and you lose yourself and everything else. I should have listened to myself.”

Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) American artist

“Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence.”

Robert Frost (1874–1963) American poet

Variant: You are educated when you have the ability to hear almost anything without losing your temper, or your self-confidence.

Education, Self-confidence, Confidence

“We don’t need self-confidence we need God-confidence”

Joyce Meyer (1943) American author and speaker

God, Confidence, Self-confidence

“The way to happiness: Keep your heart free from hate, your mind from worry. Live simply, expect little, give much. Scatter sunshine, forget self, think of others. Try this for a week and you will be surprised.”

Norman Vincent Peale book The Power of Positive Thinking

Source: The Power of Positive Thinking

Hate, Way, Thinking, Heart

“While clothes may not make the woman, they certainly have a strong effect on her self-confidence, which, I believe, does make the woman.”

Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001) Entrepreneur

Confidence, Strong, Self-confidence, Clothes

“We are all alone, born alone, die alone, and—in spite of True Romance magazines—we shall all someday look back on our lives and see that, in spite of our company, we were alone the whole way. I do not say lonely—at least, not all the time—but essentially, and finally, alone. This is what makes your self-respect so important, and I don't see how you can respect yourself if you must look in the hearts and minds of others for your happiness.”

Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005) American journalist and author

Source: The Proud Highway: Saga of a Desperate Southern Gentleman, 1955-1967

Way, Time, Heart, Happiness

“Complete self-government for the province [gubernia and region], district and community through bureaucrats elected by universal suffrage; the abolition of all local and provincial authorities appointed by the state.”

Vladimir Lenin book The State and Revolution

Source: The State and Revolution

Communication, Universe

“My wealth is in my knowledge of self, love, and spirituality.”

Muhammad Ali book The Soul of a Butterfly

Source: The Soul of a Butterfly: Reflections on Life's Journey

Love, Knowledge, Wealth

“Very often in everyday life one sees that by losing one's temper with someone who has already lost his, one does not gain anything but only sets out upon the path of stupidity. He who has enough self-control to stand firm at the moment when the other person is in a temper, wins in the end. It is not he who has spoken a hundred words aloud who has won; it is he who has perhaps spoken only one word.”

Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882–1927) Indian Sufi

Source: Mastery through Accomplishment

Life, Stupidity, Personality

“In terms of experience, we want to make this (referring to the self) very pleasant. We want this to be blissful, ecstatic. But, as I said before, even being ecstatic is not goal by itself. If you are blissful by your own nature, then the important thing is that you are no more the issue. There are other issues in this existence; we can look at those. But if you are an issue, what other issue will you take in your hands? You will not touch anything. When I am enough trouble myself, why do I want to take on this one or that one? When I am no more an issue, now I am willing to dig into the whole existence and see what it is all about.”

Sadhguru (1957) Yogi, mystic, visionary and humanitarian

Source: Of Mystics & Mistakes

Nature

“Love… no such thing.

Whatever it is that binds families and married couples together, that's not love. That's stupidity or selfishness or fear. Love doesn't exist.

Self interest exists, attachment based on personal gain exists, complacency exists. But not love. Love has to be reinvented, that’s certain.”

Arthur Rimbaud (1854–1891) French Decadent and Symbolist poet

Source: A Season in Hell/The Drunken Boat

Love, Stupidity, Fear, Family

“I had the chance to make every possible mistake and figure out a way to recover from it. Once you realize there is life after mistakes, you gain a self-confidence that never goes away.”

Bob Schieffer (1937) Journalist, Anchor for CBS News

Source: This Just in: What I Couldn't Tell You on TV

Life, Way, Confidence, Chance

“Someday, everything will make perfect sense. So for now, laugh at the confusion, smile through the tears, be strong and keep reminding your self that everything happens for a reason.”

John Mayer (1977) guitarist and singer/songwriter

Smile, Sense, Tear, Strong

“I wish more of us could understand that our increasing isolation, no matter how much it seems to express pride and self-affirmation, is not the answer to our problems. Rather, the answer is a revival of our ancient commitment to God, who rules over all the peoples of the world and exalts no one over any other, and to the moral and spiritual values which were once legendary in America. We must reach out our hand in friendship both to those who would befriend us and those who would be our enemy. We must believe in the power of education. We must respect just laws. We must love ourselves, our old and our young, our women as well as our men.
I see nothing inconsistent between being proud of oneself and one's ancestors and, at the same time, seeing oneself first and foremost a member of the commonwealth of all races and creeds.”

Arthur Ashe (1943–1993) American tennis player

Source: Days of Grace: A Memoir (1994), p. 186

Love, Women, Men, God

“I started with an impulse of my heart, with that instinct of defense which even the least of the worms has, not with the instinct of personal self-preservation, but of defense of the race to which I belong. This is why I have always had the feeling that the whole race rests on our shoulders, the living, and those who died for the Fatherland, and our entire future, and that the race struggles and speaks through us, that the hostile flock, however huge, in relation to this historical entity, is only a handful of human detritus which we will disperse and defeat… The individual in the framework and in the service of his race, the race in the framework and in the service of God and of the laws of the divinity: those who will understand these things will win even though they are alone. Those who will not understand will be defeated.”

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (1899–1938) Romanian politician

For My Legionaries: The Iron Guard (1936), Nation and Culture

God, Hostility, Law, Feeling

“Afghans want to regain their right to self-determination through a democratic or traditional mechanism acceptable to our people.… We are willing to move toward this noble goal. We consider this as part of our duty to defend humanity against the scourge of intolerance, violence and fanaticism.”

Ahmad Shah Massoud (1953–2001) Afghan military leader

" Message to the people of the United States of America http://www.afghan-web.com/documents/let-masood.html" (1998).

People, Parting

“Attacking the rich is not envy. It is self defense. The hoarding of wealth is the cause of poverty. The rich aren’t just indifferent to poverty; they create it and maintain it.”

Jodie Foster (1962) American actor, film director and producer

Incorrectly attributed to Foster, according to snopes.com https://www.snopes.com/attacking-the-rich/ Misattributed

Envy, Indifference, Wealth

“However great the work that God may achieve by an individual, he must not indulge in self-satisfaction. He ought rather to be all the more humbled, seeing himself merely as a tool which God has made use of.”

Vincent de Paul (1581–1660) French priest, founder and saint

As quoted in Reflection for November 5 in Saint Companions for Each Day (1986) by A. J. M. Mousolfe & J. K. Mousolfe, p. 417

God

“What men and women need is encouragement. Their natural resisting powers should be strengthened, not weakened…. Instead of always harping on a man's faults, tell him of his virtues. Try to pull him out of his rut of bad habits. Hold up to him his better self, his REAL self that can dare and do and win out!… The influence of a beautiful, helpful, hopeful character is contagious, and may revolutionize a whole town…. People radiate what is in their minds and in their hearts. If a man feels kindly and obliging, his neighbors will feel that way, too, before long. But if he scolds and scowls and criticizes — his neighbors will return scowl for scowl, and add interest!… When you look for the bad, expecting it, you will get it. When you know you will find the good — you will get that…. Tell your son Tom you KNOW he'll be glad to fill that woodbox — then watch him start, alert and interested!”

Eleanor H. Porter (1868–1920) American novelist

Works, Pollyanna (1913)

Women, Men, People, Beauty

“One ought to fast, watch, and labor to the extent that such activities are needed to harness the body’s desires and longings; however, those who presume that they are justified by works pay no attention to the need for self-discipline but see the works themselves as the way to righteousness. They believe that if they do a great number of impressive works all will be well and righteousness will be the result. Sometimes this is pursued with such zeal that they become mentally unstable and their bodies are sapped of all strength. Such disastrous consequences demonstrate that the belief that we are justified and saved by works without faith is extremely foolish.”

Martin Luther (1483–1546) seminal figure in Protestant Reformation

Source: The Freedom of a Christian (1520), p. 73

Faith, Way

“Note to self: While on the treadmill you may lip-sync to the songs on your iPod but DO NOT dance along. You look like an idiot.”

Chris Colfer (1990) actor, singer, book author

Personal Quotes 2009–2012

Dance

“Arrogance is a killer, and wearing ambition on one's sleeve can have the same effect. There is a fine line between arrogance and self-confidence. Legitimate self-confidence is a winner. The true test of self-confidence is the courage to be open—to welcome change and new ideas regardless of their source. Self-confident people aren't afraid to have their views challenged. They relish the intellectual combat that enriches ideas.”

Jack Welch (1935) American executive: General Electric CEO

Source: Jack: Straight from the Gut (2001), Ch. 24.

People, Confidence, Idea, Courage

“I can better understand the inert blindness & defiant ignorance of the reactionaries from having been one of them. I know how smugly ignorant I was—wrapped up in the arts, the natural (not social) sciences, the externals of history & antiquarianism, the abstract academic phases of philosophy, & so on—all the one-sided standard lore to which, according to the traditions of the dying order, a liberal education was limited. God! the things that were left out—the inside facts of history, the rational interpretation of periodic social crises, the foundations of economics & sociology, the actual state of the world today … & above all, the habit of applying disinterested reason to problems hitherto approached only with traditional genuflections, flag-waving, & callous shoulder-shrugs! All this comes up with humiliating force through an incident of a few days ago—when young Conover, having established contact with Henneberger, the ex-owner of WT, obtained from the latter a long epistle which I wrote Edwin Baird on Feby. 3, 1924, in response to a request for biographical & personal data. Little Willis asked permission to publish the text in his combined SFC-Fantasy, & I began looking the thing over to see what it was like—for I had not the least recollection of ever having penned it. Well …. I managed to get through, after about 10 closely typed pages of egotistical reminiscences & showing-off & expressions of opinion about mankind & the universe. I did not faint—but I looked around for a 1924 photograph of myself to burn, spit on, or stick pins in! Holy Hades—was I that much of a dub at 33 … only 13 years ago? There was no getting out of it—I really had thrown all that haughty, complacent, snobbish, self-centred, intolerant bull, & at a mature age when anybody but a perfect damned fool would have known better! That earlier illness had kept me in seclusion, limited my knowledge of the world, & given me something of the fatuous effusiveness of a belated adolescent when I finally was able to get around more in 1920, is hardly much of an excuse. Well—there was nothing to be done … except to rush a note back to Conover & tell him I'd dismember him & run the fragments through a sausage-grinder if he ever thought of printing such a thing! The only consolation lay in the reflection that I had matured a bit since '24. It's hard to have done all one's growing up since 33—but that's a damn sight better than not growing up at all.”

H.P. Lovecraft (1890–1937) American author

Letter to Catherine L. Moore (7 February 1937), in Selected Letters V, 1934-1937 edited by August Derleth and Donald Wandrei, pp. 407-408
Non-Fiction, Letters

God, Age, World, Education

“When Adam and Eve realize they're naked is that same moment they realize the difference between good and evil. What's the relationship between consciousness, knowledge of nakedness, and knowledge of good and evil? When you know that you're vulnerable, and they also developed a knowledge of death so there's deep knowledge of vulnerability, and they get embarrassed about that and they cover themselves up. So that's culture. So it's a very profound shock when they come to recognize that they're naked. It even causes Adam to run and hide from God. Then they develop the knowledge of good and evil. This is about how human beings have this peculiar capacity that no other creatures have. I know how I can be hurt, because I am aware of my own limitations – painfully aware. And now, because I know how I can be hurt, I know how you can be hurt. And I can take advantage of that. And that's how evil enters the world. It gives people another attribute of divinity, knowing the difference between good and evil. The cosmos switches when that self-consciousness manifests itself, and that's when the possibility of evil enters the world.”

Jordan Peterson (1962) Canadian clinical psychologist, cultural critic, and professor of psychology

Other

Death, God, People, World

“The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behaviour which makes the original false conception come "true".”

Robert K. Merton book Social Theory and Social Structure

Source: Social Theory and Social Structure (1949), p. 477 (1968 Enlarged edition)
Context: The self-fulfilling prophecy is, in the beginning, a false definition of the situation evoking a new behaviour which makes the original false conception come "true". This specious validity of the self-fulfilling prophecy perpetuates a reign of error. For the prophet will cite the actual course of events as proof that he was right from the very beginning.

Falseness

“The idol of your self is the mother of all idols.
To regard the self as easy to subdue is a mistake.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

Rumi Daylight (1990)

“Self love is the best medicine.”

Ralph Smart

Self-confidence, Love, Making love

“Don’t turn the truth into a lie using self-fulfilling prophecies.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1996

Truth, Self-confidence, Lie

“Here is a story of latifundia and death squads, masters and slaves, patriarchs and subordinated women, self-enriching capitalists and plundered provinces, proﬁteering slumlords and urban rioters. Here is a struggle between the plutocratic few and the indigent many, the privileged versus the proletariat, featuring corrupt politicians, money-driven elections, and the political assassination of popular leaders. I leave it to the reader to decide whether any of this might resonate with the temper of our own times.”

Michael Parenti book The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome

Introduction
The Assassination of Julius Caesar: A People's History of Ancient Rome (2003)

Money, Time, Self-confidence, Death

“The greatest gift the Parsis have bestowed on India is in your own good self.”

Dadabhai Naoroji (1825–1917) Indian politician

The Congress reception committee chairman at Lahore observed when he was honoured he was in Golden Temple in Armritsar quoted in Dr. Dadabhai Naoroji: "The Grand Old Man of India"
About Dadabhai

Self-confidence

“The humble rarely brag about accomplishments because they are typically significant, and their mannerism is one of confidence; but those with low self-esteem have developed a character of conceit and deception. You’re thinking of one now.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1982

Self-confidence, Confidence, Thinking

“Please, don't talk to me about 'Pure Awareness' or 'Dwelling in the Absolute'.
I want to see how you treat your partner,
your kids, your parents, your precious body.
Please, don't lecture me about 'the illusion of the separate self' or how you achieved permanent bliss in just 7 days.
I want to feel a genuine warmth radiating from your heart.
I want to hear how well you listen,
take in information that doesn't fit your personal philosophy.
I want to see how you deal with people who disagree with you.
Don't tell me how awakened you are, how free you are from ego.
I want to know you beneath the words.
I want to know what you're like when troubles befall you.
If you can fully allow your pain and not pretend to be invulnerable.
If you can feel your anger yet not step into violence.
If you can grant safe passage to your sorrow yet not be its slave.
If you can feel your shame and not shame others:
If you can fuck up, and admit it.
If you can say 'sorry', and really mean it.
If you can be fully human in your glorious divinity.
Don't talk to me about your spirituality, friend.
I'm really not that interested.
I only want to meet YOU.
Know your precious heart.
Know the beautiful human struggling for the light.
Before 'the spiritual one'.
Before all the clever words.”

Jeff Foster (1980) Spiritual teacher

Source: https://www.facebook.com/LifeWithoutACentre/posts/1523252961105640

“For in every action what is primarily intended by the doer, whether he acts from natural necessity or out of free will, it is the disclosure of his own image. Hence it comes about that every doer, in so far as he does, takes delight in doing; since everything that is desires its own being, and since in action the being of the doer is somehow intensified, delight necessarily follows... Thus, nothing acts unless [by acting] it makes patent its latent self.”

Dante Alighieri book De Monarchia

Libri iii, Caput XIII, (XV.) emendati Johann Heinrich F. Karl Witte (1874) p. 25. https://www.google.com/books/edition/De_monarchia_libri_iii_emendati_per_C_Wi/_RhcAAAAQAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&pg=PA25&printsec=frontcover Translation as quoted by Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition (1958) p. 175. https://archive.org/details/humancondition0000aren/page/175/mode/1up De Monarchia (1312-1313) Original: (la) Nam in omni actione principaliter intenditur ab agente, sive necessitate naturae, sive voluntarie agat, propriam similitudinem explicare, unde fit, quod omne agens, in quantum huiusmodi, delectatur; quia, quum omne quod est appetat suum esse, ac in agendo agentis esse quodammodo amplietur, sequiturde necessitate delectatio... Nihil igitur agit, nisi tale existens, quale patiens fieri debet...

Self-confidence, Making love, Nature

“When you meet someone better than yourself, turn your thoughts to becoming his equal. When you meet someone not as good as you are, look within and examine your own self.”

Confucius (-551–-479 BC) Chinese teacher, editor, politician, and philosopher

“Your definition of heaven lies wherever your self-interest and happiness dwells.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Happiness

“To be independent is to be free from all kinds of worries. Unleash the true Self to express itself.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“The more difficult the struggle, the more triumphant one is in the end.
An incredible reward is self-realization.
Fulfillment of one's own potential puts one
on a completely different
level.
It is an explosively
prodigious orgasmic experience.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

“I don't believe anyone ever suspects how completely unsure I am of my work and myself and what tortures of self-doubting the doubt of others has always given me.”

Tennessee Williams (1911–1983) American playwright

“A friend is a second self.”

Aristotle (-384–-321 BC) Classical Greek philosopher, student of Plato and founder of Western philosophy

Variant: A friend to all is a friend to none.

“Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”

Susan B. Anthony (1820–1906) American women's rights activist

Women, World, Feeling, Thinking

“I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, 'Where's the self-help section?' She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.”

George Carlin (1937–2008) American stand-up comedian

Help

“It takes courage… to endure the sharp pains of self discovery rather than choose to take the dull pain of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Source: A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles"

Courageous, Pain, Courage

“Outstanding leaders go out of their way to boost the self esteem of their personnel. If people believe in themselves it s amazing what they can accomplish.”

Sam Walton (1918–1992) Founder of Wal-Mart and Sam's Club

For Team, People, Way

“From the idea that the self is not given to us, I think there is only one practical consequence: we have to create ourselves as a work of art.”

Michel Foucault (1926–1984) French philosopher

Art, Idea, Thinking

“All that is required to realise the Self is to “Be Still.”

Ramana Maharshi (1879–1950) Indian religious leader

“If any female feels she need anything beyond herself to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power to be self-defining, her agency.”

Bell Hooks (1952) American author, feminist, and social activist

Source: Feminism is for Everybody: Passionate Politics

Feeling

“Sometimes, being true to yourself means changing your mind. Self changes, and you follow.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Change

“Because of the self-confidence with which he had spoken, no one could tell whether what he said was very clever or very stupid.”

Leo Tolstoy book War and Peace

Source: Война и мир

Stupidity, Confidence, Self-confidence

“This above all: to thine own self be true.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

Graduation

“Lord, make me an instrument of Thy peace.
Where there is hatred, let me sow love;
Where there is injury, pardon;
Where there is doubt, faith;
Where there is despair, hope;
Where there is darkness, light;
Where there is sadness, joy.

O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek
To be consoled as to console,
To be understood as to understand,
To be loved, as to love;
For it is in giving that we receive;
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned;
It is in dying to self that we are born to Eternal Life.
Amen.”

Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) Catholic saint and founder of the Franciscan Order

Widely known as The Prayer of St. Francis, it is not found in Esser's authoritative collection of Francis's writings. [Fr. Kajetan, Esser, OFM, ed., Opuscula Sancti Patris Francisci Assisiensis, Rome, Grottaferrata, 1978]. Additionally there is no record of this prayer before the twentieth century. [Fr. Regis J., Armstrong, OFM, Francis and Clare: The Complete Works, New York, Paulist Press, 1982, 10, 0-8091-2446-7]. Dr. Christian Renoux of the University of Orleans in France traces the origin of the prayer to an anonymous 1912 contributor to La Clochette, a publication of the Holy Mass League in Paris. It was not until 1927 that it was attributed to St. Francis. The Origin of the Peace Prayer of St. Francis, 2013-06-28, Renoux, Christian http://www.franciscan-archive.org/franciscana/peace.html,. [Christian, Renoux, La prière pour la paix attribuée à saint François: une énigme à résoudre, Paris, Editions franciscaines, 2001, 2-85020-096-4]. Misattributed

Love, Life, Sadness, Peace

“I define love thus: The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth.”

M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American psychiatrist

Source: The Road Less Traveled: A New Psychology of Love, Traditional Values, and Spiritual Growth

Love

“Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.”

James Allen book As a Man Thinketh

Source: As a Man Thinketh

“Above all the grace and the gifts that Christ gives to his beloved is that of overcoming self.”

Francis of Assisi (1182–1226) Catholic saint and founder of the Franciscan Order

Christ