Quotes about self
page 15

Dinesh D'Souza photo
Kamisese Mara photo

“It was the work of opportunists, crooks, thugs for their own self-gain and interest.”

Kamisese Mara (1920–2004) President of Fiji

Attributed to him posthumously by his friend, business tycoon Hari Punja[citation needed]

Vladimir Lenin photo
Frances Bean Cobain photo

“Self-fulfillment and Growth are some of the most courageous acts on this planet”

Frances Bean Cobain (1992) American artist

21 May 2016 https://twitter.com/alka_seltzer666/status/734272248199057409
Twitter https://twitter.com/alka_seltzer666 posts

Norman G. Finkelstein photo
Alexander Maclaren photo
Richard Maurice Bucke photo

“Cosmic Consciousness is a third form which is as far above Self Consciousness as is that above Simple Consciousness. With this form, of course, both simple and self consciousness persist (as simple consciousness persists when self consciousness is acquired), but added to them is the new faculty”

Richard Maurice Bucke (1837–1902) prominent Canadian psychiatrist in the late 19th century

First Words
Cosmic Consciousness (1901)
Context: Cosmic Consciousness … is a higher form of consciousness than that possessed by the ordinary man. This last is called Self Consciousness and is that faculty upon which rests all of our life (both subjective and objective) which is not common to us and the higher animals, except that small part of it which is derived from the few individuals who have had the higher consciousness above named. To make the matter clear it must be understood that there are three forms or grades of consciousness. (1) Simple Consciousness, which is possessed by say the upper half of the animal kingdom. By means of this faculty a dog or a horse is just as conscious of the things about him as a man is; he is also conscious of his own limbs and body and he knows that these are a part of himself. (2) Over and above this Simple Consciousness, which is possessed by man as by animals, man has another which is called Self Consciousness. By virtue of this faculty man is not only conscious of trees, rocks, waters, his own limbs and body, but he becomes conscious of himself as a distinct entity apart from all the rest of the universe. It is as good as certain that no animal can realize himself in that way. … The animal is, as it were, immersed in his consciousness as a fish in the sea, he cannot, even in imagination, get outside of it for one moment so as to realize it. … Cosmic Consciousness is a third form which is as far above Self Consciousness as is that above Simple Consciousness. With this form, of course, both simple and self consciousness persist (as simple consciousness persists when self consciousness is acquired), but added to them is the new faculty … The prime characteristic of cosmic consciousness is, as its name implies, a consciousness of the cosmos, that is, of the life and order of the universe … Along with the consciousness of the cosmos there occurs an intellectual enlightenment or illumination which alone would place the individual on a new plane of existence — would make him almost a member of a new species. To this is added a state of moral exaltation, an indescribable feeling of elevation, elation and joyousness, and a quickening of the moral sense, which is fully as striking and more important both to the individual and to the race than is the enhanced intellectual power. With these come, what may be called, a sense of immortality, a consciousness of eternal life, not a conviction that he shall have this, but the consciousness that he has it already.

Stanley Baldwin photo
Confucius photo
Don DeLillo photo
Allen West (politician) photo
Max Tegmark photo
Colin Wilson photo
Ela Bhatt photo

“[So], in 1972, we started SEWA, the Self Employed Women’s Association. SEWA in many respects is a microcosm of the general picture of the informal sector, in India and worldwide.”

Ela Bhatt (1933) founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA)

Discussion with Ela Bhatt, Founder, Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)

Bryce Dallas Howard photo
André Maurois photo

“Living with someone always means a denial of self in SOME way and I suppose I have always known it was something I couldn't accomplish. So I've always stayed on the sidelines. Getting the pleasure vicariously. It's not wholly satisfactory, but then of course no lives are, and you know what I think about indiscriminate sex and promiscuous trade. I think it's the beginning of a long, long road to despair.”

Kenneth Williams (1926–1988) English actor and comedian

Letter, quoted in The Observer, Sunday 10 October 2010.
Source: Kenneth Williams: secret loves behind the life of a tormented man, The Observer, 10 October 2010 http://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/oct/10/kenneth-williams-biography-christopher-stevens,

Hayley Williams photo
Condoleezza Rice photo

“If you have any doubt about the degree with which this is self-defense, just look at those pictures from September 11th.”

Condoleezza Rice (1954) American Republican politician; U.S. Secretary of State; political scientist

Interview by Wolf Blitzer on CNN http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/24/se.22.html, September 24, 2001.

Vyasa photo
Martin Amis photo
John Newton photo
Henry James photo
Paul Bloom photo
Ben Harper photo

“Every time feels like my first time. And I just find that the process of it feeds into one's own self-obsession.”

Ben Harper (1969) singer-songwriter and musician

About interviews
Ben Harper Interview http://music.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=90631, MusicFix (February 14, 2006).

“Love is a false synonym for propagation, as the soul is a wish fulfillment creation growing out of self-preservation.”

Henry Kuttner (1915–1958) American author

The Devil You Know (originally published in Unknown Fantasy Fiction, August 1941), p. 67
Short fiction, No Boundaries (1955)

Jordan Peterson photo
Immortal Technique photo
David Gerrold photo
Akio Morita photo
Eric Hoffer photo
Maurice Glasman, Baron Glasman photo
Walter Benjamin photo
François Fénelon photo
Joni Madraiwiwi photo

“It is not easy to remain motivated in the face of widespread apathy and self-indulgence.”

Joni Madraiwiwi (1957–2016) Fijian politician

Speech to the Lautoka Rotary Club (Centenary Dinner), 12 March 2005 http://www.fiji.gov.fj/publish/printer_4326.shtml.

Howard S. Becker photo
Zeev Sternhell photo

“Like all self-respecting revolutionaries, Mussolini considered himself a Marxist. He regarded Marx as the ‘greatest theoretician of socialism’ and Marxism as the ‘scientific doctrine of class revolution.”

Zeev Sternhell (1935) Israeli historian

Source: The Birth of Fascist Ideology: From Cultural Rebellion to Political Revolution, 1994, p. 197

James Joyce photo
Mahatma Gandhi photo

“Remember that there is always a limit to self-indulgence but none to self-restraint, and let us daily progress in that direction.”

Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948) pre-eminent leader of Indian nationalism during British-ruled India

Article http://books.google.com/books?id=lHnjAAAAMAAJ&q=%22Remember+that+there+is+always+a+limit+to+self-indulgence+but+none+to+self-restraint+and+let+us+daily+progress+in+that+direction%22 in Young India (2 February 1928, Volume 10, Page 35)
Posthumous publications (1950s and later)

Sinclair Lewis photo
Jane Roberts photo
Karl G. Maeser photo

“Be yourself, but always your better self.”

Karl G. Maeser (1828–1901) prominent Utah educator and a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Sentence-Sermons from Brigham Young University Quarterly quoted in The Latter-Day Saints' Millenial Star, Vol. 70 https://books.google.com/books?id=eItJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA452&lpg=PA452&dq=He+that+cheats+another+is+a+knave;+but+he+that+cheats+himself+is+a+fool.&source=bl&ots=WBAQiPjQX6&sig=WLEdKN2_kXPXj8jZALKCp2dguaQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjXmNeF_7HMAhUH42MKHdySDgsQ6AEILzAE#v=onepage&q=fool&f=false

James F. Amos photo
Samuel Johnson photo

“Self-confidence is the first requisite to great undertakings.”

Samuel Johnson (1709–1784) English writer

The Life of Pope http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/5101
Lives of the English Poets (1779–81)

Wallace Stevens photo

“There is a month, a year, there is a time
In which majesty is a mirror of the self:
I have not but I am and as I am, I am.”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

Notes Toward a Supreme Fiction (1942), It Must Give Pleasure

Coventry Patmore photo
J.M. Coetzee photo
Lewis Mumford photo
Alexej von Jawlensky photo

“The dominant mood of contemporary American culture is the self-celebration of the peasantry.”

William A. Henry III (1950–1994) American critic

In Defense of Elitism

John Ruysbroeck photo
Nyanaponika Thera photo
Michael Faraday photo
George Holmes Howison photo
Margaret Cho photo

“Self-hatred is a devastatingly difficult habit to break, especially when we are mostly unaware of it.”

Margaret Cho (1968) American stand-up comedian

From Her Books, I Have Chosen To Stay And Fight, MENTAL COLONIZATION

William S. Burroughs photo
Niklas Luhmann photo

“Does knowledge rest on construction in the sense that it only functions because the knowing system is operatively closed, therefore: because it can maintain no operative contact with the outside world; and because it therefore remains dependent, for everything that it constructs, on its own distinction between self-reference and allo-reference?”

Niklas Luhmann (1927–1998) German sociologist, administration expert, and social systems theorist

Luhmann (1991) “Wie lassen sich latente Strukturen beobachten?,” in Paul Watzlawick, Peter Krieg (eds.), Das Auge des Betrachters: Beiträge zum Konstruktivismus. Festschrift für Heinz von Foerster, Piper, München-Zürich, p. 71; cited in: Heinz von Foerster (1993) " For Niklas Luhmann: “How Recursive is Communication?” http://e1020.pbworks.com/f/fulltext-2.pdf". Translated by Richard Howe.

Nicholas Rescher photo
Alfred de Zayas photo

“Self-determination is an expression of the individual and collective right to democracy.”

Alfred de Zayas (1947) American United Nations official

Report of the Independent Expert on the promotion of a democratic and equitable international order on the right of self determination http://www.ohchr.org/EN/Issues/IntOrder/Pages/Reports.aspx.
2015, Report submitted to the UN General Assembly

Marcus Aurelius photo
Swami Vivekananda photo
James, son of Zebedee photo
Letitia Elizabeth Landon photo
Samuel Adams photo
Aldo Capitini photo
Sri Aurobindo photo
Rebecca Solnit photo
Sarojini Naidu photo
John Ruysbroeck photo

“Finally, and beyond all else, ravished out of self into the Glory of God, without limit, incomprehensible, immense, we are to enjoy Him for ever and ever”

John Ruysbroeck (1293–1381) Flemish mystic

Source: The Seven Steps of the Ladder of Spiritual Love, p. 144

Nadine Gordimer photo
Nisargadatta Maharaj photo
Clive Staples Lewis photo
Camille Paglia photo
Karl Polanyi photo
John Stuart Mill photo
Kuruvilla Pandikattu photo
Rose Wilder Lane photo

“That way of life against which my generation rebelled had given us grim courage, fortitude, self-discipline, a sense of individual responsibility, and a capacity for relentless hard work.”

Rose Wilder Lane (1886–1968) American journalist

Written in 1935, as quoted in The Ghost in the Little House, ch. 2, by William V. Holtz (1993).

George Holmes Howison photo

“The agnostic position, the largest historic view of philosophy would say, is an unwarrantable arrest of the philosophic movement of reason; and its unjustifiable character appears in the fact, which can clearly be shown, that it involves at once a petitio and a self-contradiction.”

George Holmes Howison (1834–1916) American philosopher

Source: The Limits of Evolution, and Other Essays, Illustrating the Metaphysical Theory of Personal Ideaalism (1905), The Limits of Evolution, p.15-6

Christopher Hitchens photo
Michael Moorcock photo

“Again that smile of exquisite and self-congratulatory piety.”

Source: The War Hound and the World's Pain (1981), Chapter 8 (p. 98)

Eric Hoffer photo
Martin Luther King, Jr. photo
Claude Lévi-Strauss photo
Anne Hathaway photo
Jair Bolsonaro photo

“Has anyone ever seen any Japanese begging? It's a race that has self-respect.”

Jair Bolsonaro (1955) Brazilian president elect

Talk at Clube Hebraica in Rio de Janeiro, on 3 April 2017. Bolsonaro: “Quilombola não serve nem para procriar” http://congressoemfoco.uol.com.br/noticias/bolsonaro-quilombola-nao-serve-nem-para-procriar/. Congresso em Foco (5 April 2017).

Lim Guan Eng photo

“When you improve the people's economic well-being, it will lead to higher wage increases and higher purchasing power, which will lead to better economic growth. This is a self-fulfilling and virtuous cycle.”

Lim Guan Eng (1960) Finance Minister of Malaysia

Lim Guan Eng (2018) cited in " Govt not just in cost-cutting mode, says Lim https://www.thestar.com.my/news/nation/2018/10/10/govt-not-just-in-costcutting-mode-says-lim/" on The Star Online, 10 October 2018