Quotes about self
page 10

“It is important for this country to make its people so obsessed with their own liberal individualism that they do not have time to think about a world larger than self.”

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

Source: Black Genius: African-American Solutions to African-American Problems

People, World, Thinking, Time

“There you have it: our lives in a nutshell. Emphasis on.
But if the above whipped your mind into a frenzy, here's something even more interesting: Fang started a blog. Not that he's self-absorbed or trendy or anything. Nope, not him.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

Source: Saving the World and Other Extreme Sports

“She couldn’t very well let him join her in bed like that.
Sure you could.
No I can’t.
Please?
Hush, self, let me think.’ (Grace)”

Sherrilyn Kenyon Fantasy Lover

Source: Fantasy Lover

Thinking

“But to mean it when I say that I want my life to count for His glory is to drive a stake through the heart of self - a painful and determined dying to me that must be a part of every day I live.”

Louie Giglio (1958) American clergy

Life, Pain, Heart, Parting

“Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-incurred immaturity.”

Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) German philosopher

What is Enlightenment? (1784)
Context: Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another.
Context: Enlightenment is man’s leaving his self-caused immaturity. Immaturity is the incapacity to use one's intelligence without the guidance of another. Such immaturity is self-caused if it is not caused by lack of intelligence, but by lack of determination and courage to use one's intelligence without being guided by another. Sapere Aude! Have the courage to use your own intelligence! is therefore the motto of the enlightenment.

“Pessimism becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy; it reproduces itself by crippling our willingness to act.”

Howard Zinn (1922–2010) author and historian

Source: You Can't Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times

“The Lord's way builds individual self esteem and develops and heals the dignity of the individual, whereas the world's way depresses the individual's view of himself and causes deep resentment”

Spencer W. Kimball (1895–1985) President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

World, Way

“Perfectionism is self-abuse of the highest order.”

Anne Wilson Schaef (1934–2020) American psychotherapist and author

“Note to self: Rachel Morgan is a totally awesome liar.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

“Be yourself; no base imitator of another, but your best self. There is something which you can do better than another. Listen to the inward voice and bravely obey that. Do the things at which you are great, not what you were never made for.”

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

Source: Self-Reliance and Other Essays

“Men are selfish and don't think about anything else but them self." pg. 45”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Men, Thinking, Selfishness

“It turns out that one can perpetrate all manner of heinous villainy under a cloak of courtesy and good cheer… a man will forfeit all sensible self-interest if he finds you affable enough to share your company over a flagon of ale.”

Christopher Moore book Fool

Source: Fool

“Self-evident, adj. Evident to one's self and to nobody else.”

Ambrose Bierce book The Devil's Dictionary

Source: The Devil's Dictionary

“I thought about all the people I knew who spent many of their waking hours feeling sorry for themselves. How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity. Just a few tearful minutes, then on with the day.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie

People, Feeling, Tear

“That’s pretty much how we get through our own lives, watching television. Smoking crap. Self-medicating. Redirecting our attention. Jacking off. Denial.”

Chuck Palahniuk book Choke

Source: Choke

“Don't they always go from bad to worse? There's no turning back--your
old self rejects you, and shuts you out. ~Lilly Bart”

Edith Wharton book The House of Mirth

Source: The House of Mirth

“It seems to me that since I've had children, I've grown richer and deeper. They may have slowed down my writing for a while, but when I did write, I had more of a self to speak from.”

Anne Tyler (1941) American novelist

Children

“To venture causes anxiety, but not to venture is to lose one's self…. And to venture in the highest is precisely to be conscious of one's self.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

“When you're at peace with yourself and love your self, it is virtually impossible to do things to yourself that are destructive.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Love, Peace

“In the dark, with the windows lit and the rows of books glittering, the library is a closed space, a universe of self-serving rules that pretend to replace or translate those of the shapeless universe beyond.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Source: The Library at Night

Books, Universe

“In self-defense and in defense of the innocent, cowardice is the only sin.”

Dean Koontz (1945) American author

“My urge to write is an urge not to self-expressionism but to self-transcendence. My work is both bigger and smaller than I am.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

“I don't see,' I said, 'how people stand being old. Your insides all dry up. When you're young you're so self-reliant. You don't even need much religion.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

People, Religion

“And I realized that I’d tolerated him this long because of self-doubt.”

Anne Rice book Interview with the Vampire

Source: Interview with the Vampire

“Of course to adhere to standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.”

Robert F. Kennedy (1925–1968) American politician and brother of John F. Kennedy

Day of Affirmation Address (1966)
Context: The second danger is that of expediency: of those who say that hopes and beliefs must bend before immediate necessities. Of course, if we must act effectively we must deal with the world as it is. We must get things done. But if there was one thing that President Kennedy stood for that touched the most profound feeling of young people around the world, it was the belief that idealism, high aspirations, and deep convictions are not incompatible with the most practical and efficient of programs — that there is no basic inconsistency between ideals and realistic possibilities, no separation between the deepest desires of heart and of mind and the rational application of human effort to human problems. It is not realistic or hardheaded to solve problems and take action unguided by ultimate moral aims and values, although we all know some who claim that it is so. In my judgment, it is thoughtless folly. For it ignores the realities of human faith and of passion and of belief — forces ultimately more powerful than all of the calculations of our economists or of our generals. Of course to adhere to standards, to idealism, to vision in the face of immediate dangers takes great courage and takes self-confidence. But we also know that only those who dare to fail greatly, can ever achieve greatly.

Confidence, Courage, Self-confidence

“I know that love is about power, too. Who gives, who takes. Who is willing to risk showing their true self.”

Alison Goodman (1966) Australian science-fiction writer

Source: Eona: The Last Dragoneye

Love

“True happiness, we are told, consists in getting out of one's self; but the point is not only to get out — you must stay out; and to stay out you must have some absorbing errand.”

Henry James Roderick Hudson

Source: Roderick Hudson http://www.gutenberg.org/files/176/176.txt (1875), ch. I: Rowland.

Happiness

“The warrior's nobility is like a prostitute's smile, the truth of which is self-interest.”

Georges Bataille book Inner Experience

Source: Inner Experience

Truth, Smile

“Look at self-satisfied pop singers or greasy, semi-literate athletes. People worship them. Why?”

"Because they’re talented.”

Anthony Horowitz book Crocodile Tears

Source: Crocodile Tears

People

“A good way to rid one's self of a sense of discomfort is to do something. That uneasy, dissatisfied feeling is actual force vibrating out of order; it may be turned to practical account by giving proper expression to its creative character.”

William Morris (1834–1896) author, designer, and craftsman

Way, Feeling, Sense

“My schedule for today lists a six-hour self-accusatory depression.”

Philip K. Dick book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

Source: Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?

“Men think that self-sacrifice is the most charming of all the cardinal virtues for women, and in order to keep it in healthy working order, they make opportunities for its illustration as often as possible. I would fain teach women that self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton book The Woman's Bible

The Woman's Bible (1898)
Source: The Woman's Bible: A Classic Feminist Perspective

Women, Men, Thinking

“I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said that the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater to one than one's-self is”

Walt Whitman (1819–1892) American poet, essayist and journalist

God, Soul

“She rested her head against his and felt, for the first time, what she would often feel with him: a self-affection. He made her like herself.”

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie book Americanah

Source: Americanah

Feeling, Time

“When you're surrounded by stupidity, self-preservation isn't a sin.”

Meljean Brook (1977)

Source: Riveted

Stupidity

“But my dreaming self refuses to be consoled. It continues to wander, aimless, homeless, alone. It cannot be convinced of its safety by any evidence drawn from my waking life.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Life, Dreams

“What we don't let out traps us. We think, "No one else feels this way, I must be crazy." So we don't say anything. And we become enveloped by a deep loneliness, not knowing where our feelings come from or what to do with them. "Why do I feel this way? Last week, I was on top of the world and now my feelings don't make sense." Voicing it, getting it out and letting it other people hear it, helps to dissipate it. The fears and self-criticisms begin to leak. And we begin to heal.”

Sabrina Ward Harrison (1975) Canadian writer

Quoted by Katherine Martin in Women of Courage: Inspiring Stories from the Women Who Lived Them, p. 268 (1999)

People, World, Fear, Way

“I'm not a very nostalgic person. I don't really look at the past and summon up regrets, or self-congratulations, it just is not a mechanism that operates very strongly in me. So I neither have regrets nor occasions for self-congratulations.”

Leonard Cohen (1934–2016) Canadian poet and singer-songwriter

Past, Personality

“I normally can't stand vice-free people. They conflate a narcissistic instinct for self-preservation with moral superiority. Plus they suck the life right out of a party.”

Dennis Lehane book Moonlight Mile

Source: Moonlight Mile

Life, People

“LOVE of others is the appreciation of one's self.

MAY your egotism be so gigantic that you comprise mankind in your self-sympathy.”

Mina Loy (1882–1966) Futurist poet and actress

Source: The Lost Lunar Baedeker: Poems of Mina Loy

Love

“Everybody is original, if he tells the truth, if he speaks from himself. But it must be from his *true* self and not from the self he thinks he *should* be.”

Brenda Ueland (1891–1985) Journalist and writer

Source: If You Want to Write: A Book about Art, Independence and Spirit

Truth, Thinking

“Boys! Are they always this impossible? Do they always say cryptic, indecipherable things? (Note
to self: work with Liz to adapt her boy-to-English translator into a more mobile form—like maybe a
watch or necklace.)”

Ally Carter Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Source: Cross My Heart and Hope to Spy

Boy

“I read in self-defense.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician

Reading

“We all of us need to be toppled off the throne of self, my dear," he said. "Perched up there the tears of others are never upon our own cheek.”

Elizabeth Goudge (1900–1984) English fiction writer

Source: The White Witch

Tear

“Arguing with anonymous strangers on the Internet is a sucker's game because they almost always turn out to be—or to be indistinguishable from—self-righteous sixteen-year-olds possessing infinite amounts of free time.”

Neal Stephenson book Cryptonomicon

Source: Cryptonomicon

Game, Time

“Happiness lies within one's self, and the way to dig it out is cocaine.”

Aleister Crowley book Diary of a Drug Fiend

Source: Diary of a Drug Fiend

Happiness, Way

“You will be at your best forever, Even now you have good moments. Occasional glimpses of your heavenly self. When you change your baby's diaper, forgive your boss's temper, tolerate your spouse's moodiness, you display traces of saintliness.”

Max Lucado (1955) American clergyman and writer

Source: 3:16: The Numbers of Hope

Forgiveness, Change, Baby

“Every form of happiness is private. Our greatest moments are personal, self-motivated, not to be touched".”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

Happiness, Motivation, Personality

“If you find yourself asking yourself (and your friends), "Am I really a writer? Am I really an artist?" chances are you are. The counterfeit innovator is wildly self-confident. The real one is scared to death.”

Steven Pressfield (1943) United States Marine

Source: The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks & Win Your Inner Creative Battles

Death, Confidence, Chance, Self-confidence

“The girls took into their own hands decisions better left to God. They became too powerful to live among us, too self-concerned, too visionary, too blind.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book The Virgin Suicides

Source: The Virgin Suicides

God, Girl, Decision

“We improve ourselves by victory over our self. There must be contests, and you must win.”

Edward Gibbon (1737–1794) English historian and Member of Parliament

Victory

“Patriotism… is a superstition artificially created and maintained through a network of lies and falsehoods; a superstition that robs man of his self-respect and dignity, and increases his arrogance and conceit.”

Emma Goldman (1868–1940) anarchist known for her political activism, writing, and speeches

“There are no self-proclaimed villains, only regiments of self-proclaimed saints. Victorious historians rule where good or evil lies.”

Glen Cook (1944) American fiction writer

Source: Chronicles of the Black Company

Evil, Victory

“You have the freedom to be yourself, your true self, here and now, and nothing can stand in your way".”

Richard Bach book Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Source: Jonathan Livingston Seagull

Way, Freedom

“Never be ruled by possessions, and never, ever make wealth more important to you than your self-respect and your dignity." - Lady Taylor”

Julie Garwood (1946) American writer

Wealth

“Self-respect — The secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.”

H.L. Mencken (1880–1956) American journalist and writer

1940s–present, A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949)

Feeling

“All novels… are concerned with the enigma of the self. As soon as you create an imaginary being, a character, you are automatically confronted by the question: what is the self? How can it be grasped?”

Milan Kundera (1929–2023) Czech author of Czech and French literature

Source: The Art of the Novel

Question

“My idea of feminism is self-determination, and it's very open-ended: every woman has the right to become herself, and do whatever she needs to do.”

Ani DiFranco (1970) musician and activist

Idea

“What a fool you must be," said my head to my heart, or my sterner to my softer self.”

Anne Brontë book Agnes Grey

Source: Agnes Grey

Fools, Heart

“Nothing that lived and breathed was truly objective—even in a vacuum, even if all that possessed the brain was a self-immolating desire for the truth.”

Jeff VanderMeer book Annihilation

Source: Annihilation

Truth

“Only through our connectedness to others can we really know and enhance the self. And only through working on the self can we begin to enhance our connectedness to others.”

Harriet Lerner (1944) American psychologist

“Before you diagnose yourself with depression or low self-esteem, first make sure that you are not, in fact, just surrounded by assholes.”

William Gibson (1948) American-Canadian speculative fiction novelist and founder of the cyberpunk subgenre

Misattributed <br class="br">Source: thought to be Gibson's words as a result of Twitter attribution decay, despite repeated disavowals. https://twitter.com/#!/GreatDismal/status/144940064990961664 https://twitter.com/#!/GreatDismal/status/144941061578559488 https://twitter.com/#!/GreatDismal/status/144941447936884736 https://twitter.com/#!/GreatDismal/status/171091202161131520. The source, according to Gibson, is Steven Winterburn https://twitter.com/greatdismal/status/119133581598666752 https://twitter.com/5tevenw/status/73091190475595776. However, Steven Winterburn is NOT the original creator of that quote. The original quote is the creation of Twitter account holder "@debihope" https://twitter.com/debihope?lang=en. See research by quoteinvestigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/10/25/diagnose/.

Powerful

“There are many ways a self-respecting (not to mention sane) teenage girl might react to having a teenage boy suddenly in her bedroom in the middle of the night.
Hit.
Panic.
Flail.
Freeze.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

Way, Girl, Boy, Night

“The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

World

“[D]on’t cling to your self-righteous suffering, let it go…. Nothing is too good to be true, let yourself be forgiven. To the degree you insist that you must suffer, you insist on the suffering of others as well. (90)”

Stephen Levine (1937–2016) American poet and author

Source: A Year to Live: How to Live This Year as If It Were Your Last

Suffering

“The original, shimmering self gets buried so deep that most of us end up hardly living out of it at all. Instead we live out all the other selves, which we are constantly putting on and taking off like coats and hats against the world’s weather.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Source: Telling Secrets (1991)

World, Weather

“Nothing is changed, except
there was a moment when

the wolf, the mongering wolf
who stands outside the self

lay lightly down, and slept.”

Maxine Kumin (1925–2014) American poet and author

Wolf, Change

“This person, this self, this me, finally, was made somewhere else. Everything had come from somewhere else, and it would all go somewhere else. I was nothing but a pathway for the person known as me.”

Haruki Murakami book The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Source: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle

Personality

“The egocentric is always frustrated, simply because the condition of self-perfection is self-surrender. There must be a willingness to die to the lower part of self, before there can be a birth to the nobler.”

Fulton J. Sheen (1895–1979) Catholic bishop and television presenter

Source: Seven Words of Jesus and Mary: Lessons from Cana and Calvary

Birth, Parting, Perfection

“There's no room for demons when you're self-possessed.”

Carrie Fisher (1956–2016) American actress, screenwriter and novelist

“… one of the worst things about being a parent, for me, is the self-discovery, the being face to face with one's secret insanity and brokenness and rage.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Operating Instructions: A Journal of My Son's First Year

Secret, Parent, Rage

“When a woman conceives her true self, a miracle occurs and life around her begins again.”

Marianne Williamson (1952) American writer

Life

“The feminist movement taught women to see themselves as victims of an oppressive patriarchy…. Self-imposed victimhood is not a recipe for happiness.”

Phyllis Schlafly (1924–2016) American activist

Women, Happiness

“Note to self: It's hard to attain a state of no-mind when you're incredibly pumped up on tea and sugar and have to urinate every three and a half minutes.”

Jordan Sonnenblick (1969) American writer

Source: Zen and the Art of Faking It

Tea

“life's endless war against the self you cannot live without.”

David Foster Wallace book Infinite Jest

Source: Infinite Jest

Life, War

“Don't think. Thinking is the enemy of creativity. It's self-conscious and anything self-conscious is lousy. You can't "try" to do things. You simply "must" do things.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

Thinking

“The serial number of a human specimen is the face, that accidental and unrepeatable combination of features. It reflects neither character nor soul, nor what we call the self. The face is only the serial number of a specimen”

Milan Kundera book Immortality

Source: Immortality

Soul

“Loneliness is caused by an alienation from life. It is a loneliness from your real self.”

Maxwell Maltz (1889–1975) Plastic surgeon, self-help author

Life, Loneliness

“There are naive questions, tedious questions, ill-phrased questions, questions put after inadequate self-criticism. But every question is a cry to understand the world. There is no such thing as a dumb question.”

Carl Sagan book The Demon-Haunted World

Source: The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

World, Understanding, Question, Cry

“It was only the matter of a new voice. Nobody listened to an old voice anymore. Old voices became a part of one's self, like a fingernail.”

Charles Bukowski book Women

Source: Women

Parting

“Also she signed away the right to self-destruct years ago. The fine print on the birth certificate, her friend calls it.”

Jenny Offill book Dept. of Speculation

Source: Dept. of Speculation

Birth

“the great lack of parity between husbands and wives has always been spawned by the disproportionate degree of self-sacrifice that women are willing to make on behalf of those they love.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Source: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace with Marriage

Love, Women

“The ability to think for one's self depends upon one's mastery of the language.”

Joan Didion book Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Source: Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Thinking, Dependency

“I am self-educated from genre books.”

Charlaine Harris (1951) American writer

Books, Education

“Perfectionism is a self destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.”

Brené Brown (1965) US writer and professor

Source: The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are

Pain, Feeling, Perfection

“No wonder studies show that women's intellectual self-esteem tends to go down as years of education go up. We have been studying our own absence.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Source: My Life on the Road

Women, Education, Study

“The frightened individual seeks for somebody or something to tie his self
to; he cannot bear to be his own individual self any longer,
and he tries frantically to get rid of it and to feel security again by the elimination of this burden:
the self.”

Erich Fromm book Escape from Freedom

Source: Escape from Freedom

Feeling

“I suddenly had a little epiphany: all the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal.”

Nick Hornby book The Polysyllabic Spree

Source: The Polysyllabic Spree

Books, Reading

“self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815–1902) Suffragist and Women's Rights activist

“I pack my trunk, embrace my friends, embark on the sea and at last wake up in Naples, and there beside me is the stern fact, the sad self, unrelenting, identical, that I fled from.”

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

Sadness, Sea

“People around the world are confusing the therapeutic value of self-expression with permission to manipulate others with their wounds.”

Caroline Myss (1952) author from the United States

People, World

“Life works on strange laws of nature (Karma).
One never knows when a friend turns enemy & vice-versa.
Rely on your Self; self-reliance”

Sri Sri Ravi Shankar (1956) spiritual leader

Life, Law, Nature

“The mind self-edits. The mind airbrushes. It's a different thing to be inside a body than outside. From outside, you can look, inspect, compare. From inside there is no comparison.”

Jeffrey Eugenides book Middlesex

Source: Middlesex

“There are many hypotheses in science which are wrong. That’s perfectly all right: it’s the aperture to finding out what’s right. Science is a self-correcting process.”

Carl Sagan book Cosmos

33 min 20 sec
Source: Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1990 Update), Heaven and Hell [Episode 4]
Context: There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That's perfectly alright; it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny.
Context: There are many hypotheses in science that are wrong. That's perfectly alright; it's the aperture to finding out what's right. Science is a self-correcting process. To be accepted, new ideas must survive the most rigorous standards of evidence and scrutiny. The worst aspect of the Velikovsky affair is not that many of his ideas were wrong or silly or in gross contradiction to the facts; rather, the worst aspect is that some scientists attempted to suppress Velikovsky's ideas. The suppression of uncomfortable ideas may be common in religion or in politics, but it is not the path to knowledge and there is no place for it in the endeavor of science. We do not know beforehand where fundamental insights will arise from about our mysterious and lovely solar system, and the history of our study of the solar system shows clearly that accepted and conventional ideas are often wrong and that fundamental insights can arise from the most unexpected sources.

Science

“If you wish to achieve worthwhile things in your personal and career life, you must become a worthwhile person in your own self-development.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

Life, Personality

“Thus, when you wake up in the morning, called by God to be a self again, if you want to know who you are, watch your feet. Because where your feet take you, that is who you are.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

Source: The Alphabet of Grace (1970)

God

“Sometimes the best offense was avoiding self-destruction.”

Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer

Source: Seeds of Rebellion

“One is happy as a result of one's own efforts, once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness — simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and, above all, a clear conscience.”

George Sand (1804–1876) French novelist and memoirist; pseudonym of Lucile Aurore Dupin

On est heureux par soi-même quand on sait s'y prendre, avoir des goûts simples, un certain courage, une certaine abnégation, l'amour du travail et avant tout une bonne conscience.
Letter to Charles Poney, (16 November 1866), published in Georges Lubin (ed.) Correspondance (Paris: Garnier Freres, 1964-95) vol. 20, p. 188; André Maurois (trans. Gerard Hopkins) Lélia: The Life of George Sand (New York: Harper, 1954) p. 418
Variant: One is happy once one knows the necessary ingredients of happiness: simple tastes, a certain degree of courage, self denial to a point, love of work, and above all, a clear conscience.
Source: Correspondance, 1812-1876, Volume 5

Love, Happiness, Courage, Effort

“There's a fine line between thinking about somebody and thinking about not thinking about somebody, but I have the patience and the self-control to walk that line for hours - days, if I have to.”

Jennifer Egan A Visit from the Goon Squad

Source: A Visit from the Goon Squad

Thinking, Patience

“Anxiety, the next gumption trap, is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong you're afraid to do anything at all. Often this, rather than "laziness," is the real reason you find it hard to get started. This gumption trap of anxiety, which results from over-motivation, can lead to all kinds of errors of excessive fussiness. You fix things that don't need fixing, and chase after imaginary ailments. You jump to wild conclusions and build all kinds of errors into the machine because of your own nervousness. These errors, when made, tend to confirm your original underestimation of yourself. This leads to more errors, which lead to more underestimation, in a self-stoking cycle. The best way to break this cycle, I think, is to work out your anxieties on paper. Read every book and magazine you can on the subject. Your anxiety makes this easy and the more you read the more you calm down.”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 26
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Books, Way, Error, Motivation

Quotes about self page 10

Quotes about self
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