Quotes about self
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“Education must provide the opportunities for self-fulfillment; it can at best provide a rich and challenging environment for the individual to explore, in his own way.”

Noam Chomsky (1928) american linguist, philosopher and activist

Education, Way

“When men talk about the agony of being men, they can never quite get away from the recurrent theme of self-pity. And when women talk about being women, they can never quite get away from the recurrent theme of blaming men.”

Pat Conroy book The Prince of Tides

Source: The Prince of Tides

Women, Men

“Butterflies are not insects,' Captain John Sterling said soberly. 'They are self-propelled flowers.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Source: The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

Flowers

“How can I accept a limited definable self when I feel, in me, all possibilities?… I never feel the four walls around the substance of the self, the core. I feel only space. Illimitable space.”

Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica

Source: The Diary of Anaïs Nin, Vol. 1: 1931-1934

Feeling

“When you imagine mistakes, there can be no self-defense.”

Frank Herbert book Dune

Source: Dune

Imagination

“Hatred is always self hatred, and there is something suicidal about it.”

James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States

Suicide

“It was mortifying to find how strong the habit of idle speech may become in one’s self. One need not always be saying something in this noisy world.”

Sarah Orne Jewett (1849–1909) American novelist, short story writer and poet

Source: The Country of the Pointed Firs and Other Stories

World, Strong

“The only one who gets to canoodle in my bedroom is my magnificent self.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Bones

Source: City of Bones

“The Nature of This Flower Is to Bloom

Rebellious. Living.
Against the Elemental Crush.
A Song of Color
Blooming
For Deserving Eyes.
Blooming Gloriously
For its Self.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

Color, Flowers, Nature

“Grief and disappointment are like hate: they make men ugly with self-pity and bitterness. And how selfish they make us too.”

Graham Greene (1904–1991) English writer, playwright and literary critic

Men, Hate, Disappointment, Selfishness

“D’Artagnan: Why is Athos sitting by himself?
Aramis: He takes his drinking very seriously. Not to worry, he’ll be his usual charming self by morning.”

Alexandre Dumas book The Three Musketeers

Source: The Three Musketeers

Drink

“I pull my lower lip all the way in between my teeth. If I try hard enough, maybe I can gobble my whole self this way…. I didn't try hard enough to swallow myself.”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Way

“… it is necessary
to reteach a thing its loveliness,
to put a hand on its brow
of the flower
and retell it in words and in touch
it is lovely
until it flowers again from within, of self-blessing…”

Galway Kinnell (1927–2014) Poet

Love, Flowers

“That's kind of what trust is, isn't it? A willful self-delusion.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

“I am sometimes almost terrified at the scope of the demands made upon me, at the perfection of the self-abandonment required of me; yet outside of such absoluteness can be no salvation.”

George MacDonald (1824–1905) Scottish journalist, novelist

Perfection

“It’s said that the biggest determinant of our lives is whether we see the world as welcoming or hostile. Each becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.”

Gloria Steinem (1934) American feminist and journalist

Source: My Life on the Road

Hostility, World

“The serious revolutionary, like the serious artist, can't afford to lead a sentimental or self-deceiving life.”

Adrienne Rich (1929–2012) American poet, essayist and feminist

Life

“If babies held the same tendency toward self-criticism as adults, they might never learn to walk or talk. Can you imagine infants stomping, 'Aarggh! Screwed up again!' Fortunately, babies are free of self-criticism. They just keep practicing.”

Dan Millman (1946) American self help writer

Imagination, Learning, Baby

“To simply think about the people, as the dominators do, without any self-giving in that thought, to fail to think with the people, is a sure way to cease being revolutionary leaders.”

Paulo Freire book Pedagogy of the Oppressed

Source: Pedagogia do oprimido (Pedagogy of the Oppressed) (1968, English trans. 1970)

People, Way, Thinking

“The world was reduced to the surface of her skin and her inner self was safe from all bitterness.”

Gabriel García Márquez book One Hundred Years of Solitude

Source: One Hundred Years of Solitude (1967), p. 279, referring to Amaranta

World

“Sit down every day and DO IT. Writing is a self-taught craft; the more you work at it, the more skilled you become. And when you're not writing, READ.”

Lois Duncan (1934–2016) American young-adult and children's writer

Reading

“Reading gives one something to think about other than one's self.”

Tom Bissell (1974) American journalist

Thinking, Reading

“Not likely!” Howl yelled. “I’m a coward. Only way I can do something this frightening is to tell my self I’m not doing it!”

Diana Wynne Jones book Howl's Moving Castle

Source: Howl's Moving Castle

Way

“Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion.”

Brennan Manning (1934–2013) writer, American Roman Catholic priest and United States Marine

Source: Abba's Child: The Cry of the Heart for Intimate Belonging

God

“Unhappiness is the ultimate form of self-indulgence.”

Tom Robbins (1932) American writer

“my feeling is that if you're not self-obsessed you're probably boring.”

Dave Eggers book A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Variant: Still though, I think if you're not self-obsessed, you're probably boring.
Source: A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius

Feeling

“Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are alone.”

Octavio Paz (1914–1998) Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature

“My father, Zeus, did not love me. The demigods at Camp Half-Blood did not love me. Python and the Beast and his comrades at Triumvirate Holdings did not love me. It was almost enough to make me question my self-worth.

No, no. That was crazy talk.”

Rick Riordan book The Hidden Oracle

Source: The Hidden Oracle

Love, Question

“Good manners reflect something from inside-an innate sense of consideration for others and respect for self.”

Emily Post (1872–1960) American etiquette expert

Sense

“Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.”

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

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

Thinking

“I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.”

Audre Lorde (1934–1992) writer and activist

Source: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

Parting

“Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself… It's a self-exploratory operation that is endless. An exorcism of not necessarily his demon, but of his divine discontent.”

Harper Lee (1926–2016) American author

“The world is full of people who are grabbing and self-seeking. So the rare individual who unselfishly tries to serve others has an enormous advantage.”

Dale Carnegie (1888–1955) American writer and lecturer

Source: How to Win Friends & Influence People

People, World

“Self respect is something that can't be killed. The worst thing is to kill a man's pretense at it.”

Ayn Rand book The Fountainhead

Source: The Fountainhead

“To say that I am made in the image of God is to say that Love is the reason for my existence, for God is love.
Love is my true identity. Selflessness is my true self. Love is my true character. Love is my name.”

Thomas Merton (1915–1968) Priest and author

Seeds of Contemplation (1949).

Love, God

“Why does shame and self-loathing become cruelty to the innocent?”

Anne Rice book Merrick

Source: Merrick

“When a woman starts to disentangle herself from patriarchy, ultimately she is abandoned to her own self.”

Sue Monk Kidd (1948) Novelist

Source: The Dance of the Dissident Daughter: A Woman's Journey from Christian Tradition to the Sacred Feminine

“public self is a conditioned construct of the inner psychological self.”

Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian neurologist known as the founding father of psychoanalysis

“What I saw wasn't a ghost. It was simply--myself. I can never forget how terrified I was that night, and whenever I remember it, this thought always springs to mind: that the most frightening thing in the world is our own self. What do you think?”

Haruki Murakami (1949) Japanese author, novelist

Source: Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman: 24 Stories

World, Spring, Thinking, Night

“The price of self-destiny is never cheap, and in certain situations it is unthinkable. But to achieve the marvelous, it is precisely the unthinkable that must be thought.”

Tom Robbins book Jitterbug Perfume

Source: Jitterbug Perfume

“To have a girl two thousand miles away going to pieces over you, weeping at the mere memory of you, losing her appetite, losing herself and her self respect - well, that’s a trophy enough for a guy’s ego, huh?”

Jerry Spinelli book Love, Stargirl

Source: Love, Stargirl

Guy, Girl, Memory

“Self-discipline is the ability to make yourself do what you should do, when you should do it, whether you feel like it or not.”

Elbert Hubbard (1856–1915) American writer, publisher, artist, and philosopher fue el escritor del jarron azul

Feeling

“a human being is never what he is but the self he seeks.”

Octavio Paz (1914–1998) Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature

“Perfectionism is self destructive simply because there's no such thing as perfect. Perfection is an unattainable goal.”

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

Perfection

“I have peanut M&M's up there."
"Not my style"
"Raisinets."
"Feh."
"Sam Adams."
Thor narrowed his eyes. "Cold?"
"Downright icy."
Thor crossed his arms over his chest and told him self he was not pouting like a five-year-old. "I want Milk Duds.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

Source: Lover Reborn

“A difference in self loathing? Please. The only difference between a gun and a rope is the time it takes to tie the knot.”

Justine Larbalestier (1967) Australian young-adult fiction author

Source: Zombies Vs. Unicorns

Time

“a friend is a second self”

Marcus Tullius Cicero (-106–-43 BC) Roman philosopher and statesman

“Perhaps we shall learn, as we pass through this age, that the 'other self" is more powerful than the physical self we see when we look into a mirror.”

Napoleon Hill (1883–1970) American author

Source: Think and Grow Rich: The Landmark Bestseller - Now Revised and Updated for the 21st Century

Age, Learning

“Self-pity is like chocolate; as you get older, you can only afford a little bit.”

Charlaine Harris (1951) American writer

Source: Dead Over Heels

“I hold a beast, an angel, and a madman in me, and my enquiry is as to their working, and my problem is their subjugation and victory, down throw and upheaval, and my effort is their self-expression.”

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Welsh poet and writer

Angels, Problem, Effort, Victory

“The accumulation of all powers, Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.”

James Madison Federalist Papers

Federalist No. 47 (30 January 1788) Federalist (Dawson)/46 Full text at Wikisource http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The <br class="br">Source: 1780s, Federalist Papers (1787–1788) <br class="br">Context: One of the principal objections inculcated by the more respectable adversaries to the Constitution is its supposed violation of the political maxim, that the Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary departments ought to be separate and distinct. In the structure of the Fœderal Government, no regard, it is said, seems to have been paid to this essential precaution in favor of liberty. The several departments of power are distributed and blended in such a manner, as at once to destroy all symmetry and beauty of form, and to expose some of the essential parts of the edifice to the danger of being crushed by the disproportionate weight of other parts.<br>No political truth is certainly of greater intrinsic value, or is stamped with the authority of more enlightened patrons of liberty, than that on which the objection is founded. The accumulation of all powers, Legislative, Executive, and Judiciary, in the same hands, whether of one, a few, or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.

“For anything worth having one must pay the price; and the price is always work, patience, love, self-sacrifice.”

John Burroughs (1837–1921) American naturalist and essayist

Love, Patience

“Note to self:
Do not under any circumstances fall in love again.”

Cecelia Ahern book Love, Rosie

Source: Where Rainbows End

Love

“Everyone ends up moving alone towards the self”

Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) South african Nobel-winning writer

“Once, maybe I would have thought you a fool, but… well, that's kind of what trust is, isn't it? A willful self-delusion? You have to shut out that voice that whispers about betrayal, and just hope that your friends aren't going to hurt you.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Final Empire

Hope, Fools, Betrayal, Hurt

“The surgeons' market is imaginary, since there is nothing wrong with women's faces or bodies that social change won't cure; so the surgeons depend for their income on warping female self-perception and multiplying female self-hatred.”

Naomi Wolf book The Beauty Myth

Source: The Beauty Myth

Women, Change, Dependency

“I felt the need to clarify we were there for the self defense class, in case he also taught about dog breeding or riding the high seas.”

Richelle Mead book The Golden Lily

Source: The Golden Lily

Dogs, Sea

“Here I had a wonderful man who cared for me
and I was screwing around with a self-absorbed, conniving monster who'd betrayed me
in the worst possible way.”

Kelley Armstrong book Bitten

Source: Bitten

Way

“Listen to me: I never married because I was too easily bored. It's an awful, self-defeating trait to have. It's much better to be too easily interested.”

Rachel Cohn (1968) American writer

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

“Self respect, Colie. If you don't have it, the world will walk all over you.”

Sarah Dessen book Keeping the Moon

Source: Keeping the Moon

World

“Sometimes, when things take longer than you thought they would, it's just a gentle reminder from your greater self that you have more time than you thought, and that there's a journey to enjoy.”

Mike Dooley (1961) American writer

Time

“What condemnation could possibly be more harsh than one’s own, when self-pretense is no longer possible?”

Richard Matheson book What Dreams May Come

Source: What Dreams May Come

“We don't realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace.”

Elizabeth Gilbert book Eat, Pray, Love

Source: Eat, Pray, Love

Peace

“Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.”

Toni Morrison book Beloved

Source: Beloved (1987), Ch. 9
Context: Bit by bit, at 124 and in the Clearing, along with others, she had claimed herself. Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another.

For women

“If we fall, we don't need self-recrimination or blame or anger - we need a reawakening of our intention and a willingness to re-commit, to be whole-hearted once again.”

Sharon Salzberg (1952) American writer

Heart, Anger