Quotes about yourself

A collection of quotes on the topic of yourself, doing, thing, making.

Meryl Streep quote: “The minute you start caring about what other people think, is the minute you stop being yourself.”

Zayn Malik quote: “Before you judge someone else, judge yourself!”

+ 5 quotes

Marco Polo quote: “You will hear it for yourself, and it will surely fill you with wonder.”

Eleanor Roosevelt quote: “To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”

Mark Twain quote: “Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.”

Michael Jordan quote: “You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”

Ralph Smart quote: “You owe yourself the love that you so freely give to other people.”

Quotes about yourself

“Only once in your life, I truly believe, you find someone who can completely turn your world around. You tell them things that you’ve never shared with another soul and they absorb everything you say and actually want to hear more. You share hopes for the future, dreams that will never come true, goals that were never achieved and the many disappointments life has thrown at you. When something wonderful happens, you can’t wait to tell them about it, knowing they will share in your excitement. They are not embarrassed to cry with you when you are hurting or laugh with you when you make a fool of yourself. Never do they hurt your feelings or make you feel like you are not good enough, but rather they build you up and show you the things about yourself that make you special and even beautiful. There is never any pressure, jealousy or competition but only a quiet calmness when they are around. You can be yourself and not worry about what they will think of you because they love you for who you are. The things that seem insignificant to most people such as a note, song or walk become invaluable treasures kept safe in your heart to cherish forever. Memories of your childhood come back and are so clear and vivid it’s like being young again. Colours seem brighter and more brilliant. Laughter seems part of daily life where before it was infrequent or didn’t exist at all. A phone call or two during the day helps to get you through a long day’s work and always brings a smile to your face. In their presence, there’s no need for continuous conversation, but you find you’re quite content in just having them nearby. Things that never interested you before become fascinating because you know they are important to this person who is so special to you. You think of this person on every occasion and in everything you do. Simple things bring them to mind like a pale blue sky, gentle wind or even a storm cloud on the horizon. You open your heart knowing that there’s a chance it may be broken one day and in opening your heart, you experience a love and joy that you never dreamed possible. You find that being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure that’s so real it scares you. You find strength in knowing you have a true friend and possibly a soul mate who will remain loyal to the end. Life seems completely different, exciting and worthwhile. Your only hope and security is in knowing that they are a part of your life.”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

Love, Life, People, Pleasure

“This life is what you make it. No matter what, you're going to mess up sometimes, it's a universal truth. But the good part is you get to decide how you're going to mess it up. Girls will be your friends - they'll act like it anyway. But just remember, some come, some go. The ones that stay with you through everything - they're your true best friends. Don't let go of them. Also remember, sisters make the best friends in the world. As for lovers, well, they'll come and go too. And baby, I hate to say it, most of them - actually pretty much all of them are going to break your heart, but you can't give up because if you give up, you'll never find your soulmate. You'll never find that half who makes you whole and that goes for everything. Just because you fail once, doesn't mean you're gonna fail at everything. Keep trying, hold on, and always, always, always believe in yourself, because if you don't, then who will, sweetie? So keep your head high, keep your chin up, and most importantly, keep smiling, because life's a beautiful thing and there's so much to smile about.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

Life, Hate, Truth, World

“Bless yourself first before expecting God to bless you.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

God

“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, Happiness, People

“Your critics are your bestfriends, they push you to become the best version of yourself”

Cornelius Keagon (1996) Liberian humanitarian aid worker

“Don't ever change yourself to impress someone. They should be impress that you don't change to please others”

Cornelius Keagon (1996) Liberian humanitarian aid worker

Source: https://www.academia.edu/57019490/Cornelius_Keagon_biography Academic.edu, Cornelius Keagon biography

Change

“Think highly of yourself, that's how you get to the top”

Cornelius Keagon (1996) Liberian humanitarian aid worker

Thinking

“Learn to pay yourself first, you'll never be broke”

Cornelius Keagon (1996) Liberian humanitarian aid worker

Learning

“Do not compare yourself to others. If you do so, you are insulting yourself.”

Adolf Hitler (1889–1945) Führer and Reich Chancellor of Germany, Leader of the Nazi Party

“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

“The minute you start caring about what other people think, is the minute you stop being yourself.”

Meryl Streep (1949) American actress

People, Thinking

“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars, and see yourself running with them.”

Marcus Aurelius book Meditations

Source: Meditations

Life, Beauty, Star, Motivational

“Before you judge someone else, judge yourself!”

Zayn Malik (1993) British singer

“I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.”

Elizabeth Barrett Browning (1806–1861) English poet, author

Love, Parting, Cute, Romantic

“All heaven's glory is within and so is hell's fierce burning.
You must yourself decide in which direction you are turning”

Angelus Silesius (1624–1677) German writer

The Cherubinic Wanderer

Hell

“Let it go, you've got to forget about revenge. Believe me, in this work I've met a lot of guys who feel the way you do. Trust me, for those who follow the path of revenge, it never ends well. You'll only tear yourself apart and even if you succeed with your revenge, what would you have then... nothing, emptiness.”

Hatake Kakashi book Naruto

To Sasuke

Way, Guy, Feeling, Revenge

“You must allow your free-will to roam as freely as you want and delve deep into your dreams. Never limit yourself nor live according to the appetite of someone else.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Dreams

“If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.”

Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English writer

"The Leaning Tower", lecture delivered to the Workers' Educational Association, Brighton (May 1940)
The Moment and Other Essays (1948)

People, Truth

“The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too”

Ernest Hemingway book Men Without Women

Disputed Source: Claimed to be from Men Without Women, but it does not appear in that work. May have originated in a 2011 blogpost by Marc Chernoff entitled 30 things to stop doing to yourself http://www.marcandangel.com/2011/12/11/30-things-to-stop-doing-to-yourself/.

Love, Pain, Forgetting, Sad

“Life is painful. It has thorns, like the stem of a rose. Culture and art are the roses that bloom on the stem. The flower is yourself, your humanity. Art is the liberation of the humanity inside yourself.”

Daisaku Ikeda (1928) Japanese writer

Life, Pain, Art, Flowers

“To love is to recognize yourself in another.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Love, love

“I didn’t grow up in a man’s man world. I grew up with my mum and my sister. But I definitely think in the last two years, I’ve become a lot more content with who I am. I think there’s so much masculinity in being vulnerable and allowing yourself to be feminine, and I’m very comfortable with that. Growing up you don’t even know what those things mean. You have this idea of what being masculine is and as you grow up and experience more of the world, you become more comfortable with who you are. Today it’s easier to embrace masculinity in so many different things. I definitely find – through music, writing, talking with friends and being open – that some of the times when I feel most confident is when I’m allowing myself to be vulnerable. It’s something that I definitely try and do.”

Harry Styles (1994) English singer, songwriter, and actor

In conversation with Timothée Chalamet for i-D Magazine (2 November 2018) https://i-d.vice.com/en_uk/article/evwwma/harry-styles-interviews-timothee-chalamet-photos

World, Music, Feeling, Confidence

“Whenever you are alone, remind yourself that God has sent everyone else away so that there is only you and Him.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

“The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore, not to find out Who You Are, seek to determine Who You Want to Be.”

Neale Donald Walsch (1943) American writer

Variant: The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek therefore, not to find out Who You Are, but seek to determine Who You Want to Be.

Life, Secret

“It isn't about "games", for me, personally, and it never really was. It was about creating something- anything- far bigger than yourself.”

Shigeru Miyamoto (1952) Japanese video game designer and producer

Source: GDC 2011

Game, Personality

“First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do.”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

Book III, ch. 23.
Discourses

Peaceful, Positive

“I had a dream
I got everything I wanted
But when I wake up, I see
You with me

And you say
As long as I'm here
No one can hurt you
Don't wanna lie here
But you can learn to
If I could change the way that you see yourself
You wouldn't wonder why you hear
"They don't deserve you"”

Billie Eilish (2001) American singer-songwriter

"everything i wanted"
Singles (2017 - )

Lie, Dreams, Way, Learning

“What nearly everybody in my life had misunderstood about Satanism was that it is not about ritual sacrifices, digging up graves and worshipping the devil. The devil doesn't exist. Satanism is about worshipping yourself, because you are responsible for your own good and evil.”

Marilyn Manson (1969) American rock musician and actor

Life, Evil

“Judge not unless you judge yourself”

Bob Marley (1945–1981) Jamaican singer, songwriter, musician

“Learning to love yourself, is the greatest love all”

Whitney Houston (1963–2012) American singer, actress, model, and record producer

Source: Whitney the Greatest Hits

Love, Learning

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Beauty, Beauty, Heart Touching

“When you want to help people, you tell them the truth. When you want to help yourself, you tell them what they want to hear.”

Thomas Sowell (1930) American economist, social theorist, political philosopher and author

1980s–1990s, Barbarians inside the Gates and Other Controversial Essays (1999)

People, Truth, Help

“You must live in the present, launch yourself on every wave, find your eternity in each moment. Fools stand on their island of opportunities and look toward another land. There is no other land; there is no other life but this.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

Life, Fools

“Be true to yourself.
Make each day your masterpiece.
Help others.
Drink deeply from good books.
Make friendship a fine art.
Build a shelter against a rainy day.
Pray for guidance and give thanks for your blessings every day.”

John Wooden (1910–2010) American basketball coach

Friendship, Books, Art, Drink

“Make sure that you are next year's big success story. Don't fall into the pit of people who have given up on making something of themselves, and make sure you make everything out of yourself. I'm getting too old for this. And when I retire someday, I'm going to want to sit down at a computer and play your games, read your stories, and watch your videos. Don't fall in with the people who have already given up on themselves. You are tomorrow's next big thing.”

Scott Cawthon (1971) American independent video game designer

People, Game, Reading, Success

“To become a complete philosopher, you need to familiarize yourself with all the difficult questions.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Question

“Happiness is a perfume which you cannot pour on someone without getting some on yourself.”

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

Variant: Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting some on yourself.
Variant: Happiness is a perfume you cannot pour on others without getting a few drops on yourself.

Happiness

“Think for yourself and question authority.”

Timothy Leary (1920–1996) American psychologist

Timothy Leary's track on Sound Bites from the Counter Culture (1989)

Question, Thinking

“You will hear it for yourself, and it will surely fill you with wonder.”

Marco Polo (1254–1324) Venetian explorer and merchant noted for travel to central and eastern Asia

Source: The Travels

“It's not worth the bother of killing yourself, since you always kill yourself too late.”

Emil M. Cioran book The Trouble With Being Born

The Trouble With Being Born (1973)
Source: The Trouble with Being Born

Depressing

“I believe that everything happens for a reason. People change so that you can learn to let go, things go wrong so that you appreciate them when they're right, you believe lies so you eventually learn to trust no one but yourself, and sometimes good things fall apart so better things can fall together.”

Marilyn Monroe (1926–1962) American actress, model, and singer

People, Learning, Change

“All I want to tell young people is that you're not going to be anything in life unless you learn to commit to a goal. You have to reach deep within yourself to see if you are willing to make the sacrifices.”

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

Source: Devil at My Heels

Life, People, Learning

“Who taught you to hate yourself?”

Malcolm X (1925–1965) American human rights activist

Hate

“To handle yourself, use your head; to handle others, use your heart.”

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States

Heart, Leadership, Good Morning, Business

“Life is suffering, and suffering can make you resentful, murderous, and then genocidal, if you take it far enough. So you need an antidote to suffering. And maybe you think that you can build walls of luxury around yourself, and that that will protect you from the suffering. Good luck with that. That isn't going to work. Maybe you think that you could build a delusion and live inside that. Well, that's going to fall apart. What is there, then, that's going to help you fight against suffering? That's easy: It's the Truth. The Truth is the antidote to suffering. The reason for that is because the Truth puts reality behind you, so that you can face the reality that's coming straight at you without becoming weak and degenerating and becoming resentful and wishing for the destruction of Being, because that's the final Hell. The final Hell is your soul wishing for the destruction of everything, because it's too painful, and you're too bitter. And that happens to people all the time.”

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

Other

Life, Pain, People, Truth

“If you don't love yourself, how in the hell you gonna love somebody else?”

RuPaul (1960) Actriz de Televisa, dueña y señora de los ejidos cacaoahuateros

Source: Abiola Abrams The Sacred Bombshell Handbook of Self-Love: The 11 Secrets of Feminine Power http://books.google.co.in/books?id=ILK0AwAAQBAJ&pg=PT30, El Dorado Publishing, 25 June 2014, p. 30

Love, Hell

“Take off all the mask, manners, fancy clothes, all the devices you use and be the most honest person you can be with yourself, then whatever love you get then is real. All the false approaches, like trying to be a player, only bring false results…”

Jacque Fresco (1916–2017) American futurist and self-described social engineer

Love, Making love, Personality, Falseness

“Change is good only when you know yourself.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Change

“If you hate, then you have been defeated.
Do not allow anyone to diminish you.
Do not fall down to their level that you allow them to lower yourself enough to hate them.
It is exhausting to hate so much…not to mention toxic.
It has caused a prodigious amount of problems that negatively affect you, however it has never solved anything yet.
Do not squander a second of your time to even allow that person to occupy even a tiny part of your mind at all.
Often we hate that which we fear the most.
Let it flow out of you.
Then see how much lighter you feel in your mind, body and soul.”

Stephie Pahlavi Zan

Hate, Fear, Feeling, Soul

“Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Success, Motivational, Deep, Success

“A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself.”

Jim Morrison (1943–1971) lead singer of The Doors

Freedom, Wise, Friendship, Relationship

“Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.”

Judy Garland (1922–1969) actress, singer and vaudevillian from the United States

As quoted in Business Etiquette for the Nineties : Your Ticket to Career Success (1992) by Lou Kennedy, p. 8
Variant: Always be a first rate version of yourself and not a second rate version of someone else.

Motivational, For women, Positive, Back To Work

“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Heartbreaking, Attitude, Hurtful

“When you are inspired by some great purpose, some extraordinary project, all your thoughts break their bonds: Your mind transcends limitations, your consciousness expands in every direction, and you find yourself in a new, great, and wonderful world. Dormant forces, faculties and talents become alive, and your discover yourself to be a greater person by far than you ever dreamed yourself to be.”

Patañjali (-200–-150 BC) ancient Indian scholar(s) of grammar and linguistics, of yoga, of medical treatises

As quoted by Wayne Dyer http://n-spire.com/archives/011802.html The Mahābhāṣya

World, Dreams, Personality

“All the loving acts that two human beings are capable of, the simple act of holding hands can often become the most intimate. Why is this so? Basically, because the nature of the hands and feet is such that the energy system finds expression in these two parts of the body in a very singular way. Two palms coming together have far more intimacy than the contact between any other parts of the body. You can try this with yourself. You don’t even need a partner. When you put your hands together, the two energy dimensions within you (right-left, masculine-feminine, solar-lunar, yin-yang, etc.) are linked in a certain way, and you begin to experience a sense of unity within yourself. This is the logic of the traditional Indian namaskar. It is a means of harmonizing the system. So, the simplest way to experience a state of union is to try this simple namaskar yoga. Put your hands together, and pay loving attention to any object you use or consume, or any form of life that you encounter. When you bring this sense of awareness into every simple act, your experience of life will never be the same again. There is even a possibility that if you put your hands together, you could unite the world!”

Sadhguru book Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Source: Inner Engineering: A Yogi's Guide to Joy

Love, Life, World, Way

“The best way to not feel hopeless is to get up and do something. Don’t wait for good things to happen to you. If you go out and make some good things happen, you will fill the world with hope, you will fill yourself with hope.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

World, Hope, Way, Feeling

“Love you will find only where you may show yourself weak without provoking strength.”

Theodor W. Adorno (1903–1969) German sociologist, philosopher and musicologist known for his critical theory of society

Love

“The best way to cheer yourself is to try to cheer someone else up.”

Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist

Variant of this quote "The best way to cheer yourself is to cheer somebody else up." is misattributed to Albert Einstein.
Source: According Quote Investigator Mark Twain did write a version of this saying in a personal notebook in 1896, and it was published by 1935 in “Mark Twain’s Notebook”. https://quoteinvestigator.com/2012/12/21/cheer-somebody/

Way, Happy, Life, Positive

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”

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

Wisdom, Wise

“It is dreadful when something weighs on your mind, not to have a soul to unburden yourself to. You know what I mean. I tell my piano the things I used to tell you.”

Frédéric Chopin (1810–1849) Polish composer

Soul

“Look down at me and you see a fool; look up at me and you see a god; look straight at me and you see yourself.”

Charles Manson (1934–2017) American criminal and musician

As quoted in 101 People You Won't Meet in Heaven: The Twisted Achievements of the Most Brutal and Sadistic Individuals the World Has Ever Known (2007) by Michael Powell, p. 148

God, Fools

“Accustom yourself to look first to the dreadful consequences of failure; then fix your eye on the glorious prize which is before you; and when your strength begins to fail, and your spirits are well nigh exhausted, let the animating view rekindle your resolution, and call forth in renewed vigour the fainting energies of your soul.”

William Wilberforce (1759–1833) English politician

Soul, Failure, Animals

“Boy Scout is not merely to give you fun and adventure but that, like the backwoodsmen, explorers, and frontiersmen whom you are following, you will be fitting yourself to help your country and to be of service to other people who may be in need of help. That is what the best men are out to do.”

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

Source: Robert Baden-Powell: Scouting for Boys, The Original

Men, People, Boy, Help

“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you’ll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”

Rudyard Kipling (1865–1936) English short-story writer, poet, and novelist

Often misattributed to Friedrich Nietzsche. Source: As quoted from “Interview with an Immoral,” Arthur Gordon, Reader’s Digest (July 1959). Reprinted in the Kipling Society journal, “Six Hours with Rudyard Kipling”, Vol. XXXIV. No. 162 (June, 1967) pp. 5-8. Interview took place in June, 1935 https://www.kiplingsociety.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/pdf/KJ162.pdf Context: Looking back, I think he knew that in my innocence I was eager to love everything and please everybody, and he was trying to warn me not to lose my own identity in the process. Time after time he came back to this theme. " The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself."

Business

“To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real interest in the world.”

Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925) Austrian esotericist

Verses and Meditations

World

“Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think.”

John Wesley (1703–1791) Christian theologian

Sermon 37 "The Nature of Enthusiasm"
Sermons on Several Occasions (1771)
Context: Beware you are not a fiery, persecuting enthusiast. Do not imagine that God has called you (just contrary to the spirit of Him you style your Master) to destroy men’s lives, and not to save them. Never dream of forcing men into the ways of God. Think yourself, and let think. Use no constraint in matters of religion. Even those who are farthest out of the way never compel to come in by any other means than reason, truth, and love.

Men, God, Dreams, Way

“You say that you are my judge. I do not know if you are! But I tell you that you must take good care not to judge me wrongly, because you will put yourself in great danger.”

Joan of Arc (1412–1431) French folk heroine and Roman Catholic saint

Jeanne's warning to Bishop Cauchon (15 March 1431)
Trial records (1431)
Context: You say that you are my judge. I do not know if you are! But I tell you that you must take good care not to judge me wrongly, because you will put yourself in great danger. I warn you, so that if God punishes you for it, I would have done my duty by telling you!

“Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering its a feather bed. ”

Terence McKenna (1946–2000) American ethnobotanist

Love, World, Dreams, Courage

“You become what you surround yourself with. Energies are contagious. Choose carefully. Your environment will become you.”

Ralph Smart

“It is simply this: do not tire, never lose interest, never grow indifferent—lose your invaluable curiosity and you let yourself die. It's as simple as that.”

Tove Jansson book Fair Play

Source: Fair Play

Indifference

“Responsibility to yourself means refusing to let others do your thinking, talking, and naming for you; it means learning to respect and use your own brains and instincts; hence, grappling with hard work.”

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

Thinking, Learning, For women

“No matter what happens, always be yourself.”

Dale Carnegie book How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

Source: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

“Train yourself to let go of the things you fear to lose.”

George Lucas (1944) American film producer

Fear, Training

“Be yourself. The world worships the original.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

World

“I think you can love a person too much.

You put someone up on a pedestal, and all of a sudden, from that perspective, you notice what's wrong - a hair out of place, a run in a stocking, a broken bone. You spend all your time and energy making it right, and all the while, you are falling apart yourself. You don't even realize what you look like, how far you've deteriorated, because you only have eyes for someone else.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Love, Thinking, Time, Personality

“Once you figure out who you are and what you love about yourself, I think it all kind of falls into place.”

Jennifer Aniston (1969) television and film actress from the United States

Love, Thinking

“It hurts to love. It's like giving yourself to be flayed and knowing that at any moment the other person may just walk off with your skin.”

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

Source: Reborn: Journals and Notebooks, 1947-1963

Love, Hurt, Personality

“It may be that you are not yourself luminous, but that you are a conductor of light. Some people without possessing genius have a remarkable power of stimulating it.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

People, Light

“Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is suicide.”

Marva Collins (1936–2015) American schoolteacher

Thinking, Suicide

“You should never ask anyone for anything. Never- and especially from those who are more powerful than yourself.”

Mikhail Bulgakov book The Master and Margarita

Source: The Master and Margarita

“With any part you play, there is a certain amount of yourself in it. There has to be, otherwise it's just not acting. It's lying.”

Johnny Depp (1963) American actor, film producer, and musician

Variant: With every part you act, there must be a little of yourself in it. If there isn't, it's not acting. It's lying.

Lying, Parting

“To express yourself needs a reason, but expressing yourself is the reason.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

2010-, Ai Weiwei: The Dissident, 2011

“I'm constantly embarrassed at the level of attention actors get and the level of money that we get. It's completely disproportionate. I think you have to feel guilty about it. I think it makes you a better person to keep reminding yourself.”

Bill Skarsgård (1990) Swedish actor

Interview: Bill Skarsgård http://www.interviewmagazine.com/film/bill-skarsgard-1#_ (June 5, 2017)

Money, Feeling, Thinking, Personality

“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

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”

Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French fashion designer

As quoted in Believing in Ourselves (1992) by Armand Eisen, p. 39

Courage, Thinking, For women, Courageous

“When you oppose the shaykh, it's like the slave who kills himself over a quarrel with his master. Hey, why are you killing yourself over a quarrel?
He says, So my master will suffer loss.”

Shams-i Tabrizi (1185–1248) 1185-1248, spiritual instructor of Mewlānā Jalāl ad-Dīn Muhammad Balkhi.

Me & Rumi (2004)

Suffering, Loss

“Never enter a business deal with anyone who has less than yourself.”

Anton LaVey book The Devil's Notebook

The Devil's Notebook (1992)

Business

“It is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know your enemies but do know yourself, you will win one and lose one; if you do not know your enemies nor yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.”

Sun Tzu (-543–-495 BC) ancient Chinese military general, strategist and philosopher from the Zhou Dynasty

Variant translations
If you know others and know yourself, you will not be imperiled in a hundred battles; if you do not know others but know yourself, you win one and lose one; if you do not know others and do not know yourself, you will be imperiled in every single battle.
Know your enemy and know yourself, find naught in fear for 100 battles. Know yourself but not your enemy, find level of loss and victory. Know not thy enemy nor yourself, wallow in defeat every time.
Literal translation: Know [the] other, know [the] self, hundred battles without danger; not knowing [the] other but know [the] self, one win one loss; not knowing [the] other, not knowing [the] self, every battle must [be] lost.
Source: The Art of War, Chapter III · Strategic Attack

“Basketball isn't easy. All my life I've been striving to make myself better. It's a full time commitment. To be the best, you have to work the hardest. You have to chase what seems impossible over and over and over again, because giving up is not an option, and when you feel like you've reached your limit, it's only the beginning, that's when the time to dig deep, to find the courage to push some more, because if you've got the drive, the discipline, and the resolve to do what it takes to make yourself great, then the rewards are endless.”

LeBron James (1984) American basketball player

Life, Making love, Feeling, Courage

“Always be yourself, unless you can be Batman, always be Batman.”

Andrew Biersack (1990) American singer-songwriter

“Everybody feels these moments of sadness and moments of loss and sometimes I think everybody can relate to sitting alone and feeling like crap and a friend of yours comes up and starts like, you know, 'Come on, feel happy,' and you don't want that. Sometimes its alright to let yourself be upset about something and so that you can show yourself that regardless of how low you feel, you can always rise out of it, but not at the moment. And so the song ends with the lyric, 'I believe we all fall down' but I don't say 'but we we get back up'. It's just, sometimes you fall down and sometimes you fell low, and that's okay.”

Andrew Biersack (1990) American singer-songwriter

Happiness, Sadness, Feeling, Thinking

“If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change.”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

Source: Song Man in the Mirror
Context: I'm starting with the man in the mirror
I'm asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you want to make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change

World, Making love, Change

“Even if you're sweeping floors or painting ceilings, do it better than anybody in the world, no matter what it is that you do. Be the best at it, and have a respect for others, and be proud of yourself.”

Michael Jackson (1958–2009) American singer, songwriter and dancer

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don't compare or compete, everybody will respect you.”

Laozi (-604) semi-legendary Chinese figure, attributed to the 6th century, regarded as the author of the Tao Te Ching and fou…

“You just can't get distracted easily. If you're having a bad day you just gotta keep going and you just can't be too hard on yourself.”

Sunisa Lee (2003) American artistic gymnast; first Hmong American Olympic gold medalist

"Sunisa Lee reflects on recent success, while looking ahead to possible Olympic run" in MPR News (14 August 2021) https://www.mprnews.org/story/2019/08/14/sunisa-lee-reflects-on-recent-success-while-looking-ahead-to-possible-olympic-run

“Awakening is realizing that you are the citizen of the universe, rather than identifying yourself as the citizen of your own country or that of the world.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

World, Universe, Country

“There's no need to lower or raise yourself above the things that you are not. Live according to your ability. Be true to yourself and your own nature.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Nature

“I wanted no part of politics. And I wasn't in Berlin to compete against any one athlete. The purpose of the Olympics, anyway, was to do your best. As I'd learned long ago… the only victory that counts is the one over yourself.”

Jesse Owens (1913–1980) American track and field athlete

Jesse Owens, Champion Athlete (1990)

Learning, Victory, Parting

“You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them.”

Michael Jordan (1963) American retired professional basketball player and businessman

Variant: You must expect great things of yourself before you can do them.

Motivational, Success, Powerful

“Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences; all events are blessings given to us to learn from.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

As quoted in " Elisabeth Kübler-Ross: Messenger of Love https://books.google.com/books?id=3esDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA2&lpg=PA2&dq=%22Yoga+Journal%22+Kronisch&source=bl&ots=B895e3lzeI&sig=7V4uALc6CTiPrF02-cV8AAzsgbw&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjM1enasPLSAhWs6oMKHbpyAbQQ6AEIJjAA#v=onepage&q=%22Elisabeth%20Kubler-Ross%22&f=false" by Lennie Kronisch in Yoga Journal, Issue 11, November-December 1976, pp. 18-20 Context: Learn to get in touch with silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose. There are no mistakes, no coincidences; all events are blessings given to us to learn from. There is no need to go to India or anywhere else to find peace. You will find that deep place of silence right in your room, your garden or even your bathtub.

Life, Silence, Learning