Quotes about yourself
page 15

“Every time you come to the limit of what is demanded of you, you are faced with the same problem-to be yourself!”

Henry Miller book Tropic of Capricorn

Source: Tropic of Capricorn

Problem, Time

“When you want something bad, you'll tell yourself a thousand lies.”

Jodi Picoult book Sing You Home

Source: Sing You Home

“Live in each season as it passes; breathe the air, drink the drink, taste the fruit, and resign yourself to the influence of the earth.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

Source: Walden

Drink, Season, Beauty, Peaceful

“You had a choice: you could either strain and look at things that appeared in front of you in the fog, painful as it might be, or you could relax and lose yourself”

Ken Kesey book One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Source: One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

Pain, Appearance

“That, dillop brain, is what getting close to the Darke does. It makes you think only of yourself. It takes you away from people you care about. And now you don't have anyone to talk to and it serves you right.”

Angie Sage book Darke

Source: Darke

People, Thinking

“There are things that you can't do - like writing letters to a part of yourself. To your feet or hair. Or heart.”

Arundhati Roy book The God of Small Things

Source: The God of Small Things

Heart, Parting

“Mr. Sagunuma: We can never escape who we are. Instead of wasting time worrying about it, why don't you cut to he chase and love yourself?”

Bisco Hatori (1975) Japanese manga artist

Source: Ouran High School Host Club, Vol. 4

Love, Time

“Give to every human being every right that you claim for yourself.”

Robert G. Ingersoll (1833–1899) Union United States Army officer

"The Limitations of Toleration" (8 May 1888), in The Works of Robert G. Ingersoll, Vol VII
Source: The Liberty of Man, Woman and Child

“You are only worthy of what you prove yourself to be.”

Alice Hoffman book The Dovekeepers

Source: The Dovekeepers

“Some people say, 'Save yourself and you save your ways.' I say, 'Be yourself and you save your soul.”

Alice Hoffman (1952) Novelist, young-adult writer, children's writer

Source: Incantation

People, Way, Soul

“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

“If you don't like yourself, you can't like other people. -- Lazarus Long.”

Robert A. Heinlein (1907–1988) American science fiction author

People

“When you face adversity, you need to remind yourself that whatever is trying to defeat you could very well be what God will use to promote you.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

God

“You can hide memories, but you can’t erase the history that produced them.” Sara looked directly into his eyes. “If nothing else, you need to remember that. You can’t erase history, or change it. It would be like destroying yourself.”

Haruki Murakami book Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

Source: Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage

History, Memory, Change

“Life’s all about the revolution, isn’t it? The one inside, I mean. You can’t change history. You can’t change the world. All you can ever change is yourself.”

Jennifer Donnelly book Revolution

Source: Revolution

Life, World, History, Change

“When life sucks, throw yourself into art.”

Monica Drake (1967) American writer

Source: Clown Girl

Life, Art

“Forgiveness is healing. Especially forgiving yourself”

Alyson Nöel book Evermore

Source: Evermore

Forgiveness

“Alec said you do that," said Jace. "Deflect questions about yourself with jokes.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Heavenly Fire

Source: City of Heavenly Fire

Question

“Funny how you dig yourself into a hole by the teaspoon.”

Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin

Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin

“Just like the old adage--what you dislike most in other people is what you dislike the most in yourself”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

People

“Have a drink Tom and then you won't feel so foolish to yourself.”

F. Scott Fitzgerald The Great Gatsby

Source: The Great Gatsby

Feeling, Drink

“If you take responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.”

Les Brown (1945) American politician

Hunger, Dreams

“You have peace," the old woman said, "when you make it with yourself.”

Mitch Albom book The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Source: The Five People You Meet in Heaven

Peace, Peaceful

“You're given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself. What you say is completely up to you.”

Madeleine L'Engle book A Wrinkle in Time

Source: A Wrinkle in Time (1962)

“if you force yourself to be the same as everyone else. It causes neuroses, psychoses, and paranoia. it's a distortion of nature, it goes against God's laws, for in all the world's woods and forests he did not create a single leaf the same as another.”

Paulo Coelho (1947) Brazilian lyricist and novelist

Source: Veronika Decides to Die

God, World, Law, Nature

“It’s vital that you accept yourself and learn to be happy with who God made you to be. If you want to truly enjoy your life, you must be at peace with yourself.”

Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author

Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential

Life, God, Happiness, Peace

“Test yourself on mankind. It is something that makes the doubter doubt, the believer believe.”

Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms

75
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)

“This is wonderful, wonderful! Be the bird. You are the bird. Sacrifice yourself to abandoned family values….”

Laurie Halse Anderson Speak

Source: Speak

Family, Bird

“At the time I thought what I had with you and your mother was better than nothing. But if you can't tell the truth to the people you care about the most, eventually you stop being able to tell the truth to yourself.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

People, Truth, Time

“You have such interesting thoughts. No wonder witches are ephemeral. You drive yourself crazy. You should simply do what you want without the soul-searching. It will be easier in the long run, Rachel Mariana Morgan.”

Kim Harrison (1966) Pseudonym

Soul, Search

“Making love without noise is like playing a muted piano-fine for practice, but you cheat yourself out of hearing the glorious results.”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares

Love, Making love, Cheating

“A home filled with nothing but yourself. It's heavy, that lightness. It's crushing, that emptiness.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Source: The Tent

Home, Light

“When you've seen beyond yourself, then you may find, peace of mind is waiting there.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Peace, Waiting, Inspirational

“Nothing can prevent your picture from coming into concrete form except the same power which gave it birth – yourself.”

Rhonda Byrne book The Secret

Source: The Secret

Birth

“Why are you always trying to get yourself killed?"
"It's my job."
"It's aof your job. At least for most Shadowhunters. For you it seems to be the purpose.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Fallen Angels

Source: City of Fallen Angels

“If you have a dog, you will most likely outlive it; to get a dog is to open yourself to profound joy and, prospectively, to equally profound sadness.”

Marjorie Garber (1944) American academic

Sadness, Dogs, Joy

“Don't sit back and wait for God to do it all. Ask for His advice, but be prepared to do the hard yards yourself.”

Morris Gleitzman (1953) Australian writer

Source: Grace

God, Waiting

“It didn't matter what you looked like. It was how you carried yourself, how you saw yourself.”

Scott Westerfeld book Specials

Source: Specials

“Thank you," she whispered, "for keeping yourself alive, soldier."
"You're welcome," he whispered back.”

Paullina Simons book Tatiana and Alexander

Source: Tatiana and Alexander

“Some memories remain close; you can shut your eyes and find yourself back in them. But there are second-person memories, too, distant you memories, and these are trickier: you watch yourself in disbelief.”

Jess Walter book Beautiful Ruins

Source: Beautiful Ruins

Distant, Memory, Personality

“Of course you can fall in love. You just have to let yourself. They don't call it falling for nothing.
-Kate”

Kristin Hannah (1960) American writer

Source: Firefly Lane

Love

“Just because you had every right to feel sorry for yourself didn't mean you ever took the opportunity to do so.”

Jodi Picoult book Handle With Care

Source: Handle with Care

Feeling

“Do not speak of your happiness to one less fortunate than yourself.”

Plutarch (46–127) ancient Greek historian and philosopher

Source: The Fall of the Roman Republic: Six Lives

Happiness

“I always thought it was the saddest and most devastating ending. How you could have these enormous dreams that never get met. How without knowing it you could just make yourself smaller over time. I don't want that to happen to me.”

Meg Wolitzer book The Interestings

Source: The Interestings

Dreams, Time

“The backside of a mountain is a fight against human nature. You have to care as much about yourself on the way down as you did on the way up.”

Mitch Albom (1958) American author

Way, Mountain, Nature, Fight

“How to defend yourself against a banana”

John Cleese (1939) actor from England

“That's the crazy thing about lies. You start to fall for them, yourself.”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Vanishing Acts

“Take my hands,” Alec said. “And take my strength too. Whatever of it you can use to— to keep yourself going.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

“Always listen to yourself… It is better to be wrong than simply to follow convention.”

Bryce Courtenay The Power of One

Source: The Power of One

“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

“If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you,
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;!”

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

Source: If: A Father's Advice to His Son

Men

“He should accept me as I am!” says the woman who is too nice.
Accept you? Oh no, sister. Slap yourself. He should want you
madly. Acceptance has nothing to do with it. He accepts a
doormat. But he desires his dreamgirl.”

Sherry Argov (1977) American writer

Source: Why Men Love Bitches: From Doormat to Dreamgirl—A Woman's Guide to Holding Her Own in a Relationship

Sister

“Finally, you had to measure yourself by other people - there really was nothing else. every now and then, quite unintentionally, someone taught you something about yourself.”

Ian McEwan (1948) British author

People

“Keeping busy and making optimism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself.”

Lucille Ball (1911–1989) American actress and businesswoman

Variant: It doesn't pay to get discouraged. Keeping busy and making optismism a way of life can restore your faith in yourself

Life, Faith, Way, Optimism

“[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

“I done learned my mistake and learned to do what's right by it. You still trying to get something for nothing. Life don't owe you nothing. You owe it to yourself.
- Troy”

August Wilson Fences

Source: Fences

Life, Learning

“The more clearly you understand yourself and your emotions, the more you become a lover of what is.”

Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) Dutch philosopher

Lovers, Understanding

“Livin' is like pourin' water out of a tumbler into a dang Coca-Cola bottle. If'n you skeered you can't do it, you cain't. If'n you say to yourself, "By dang, I can do it!" then, by dang, you won't slosh a drop.”

Olive Ann Burns book Cold Sassy Tree

Source: Cold Sassy Tree

Water

“Whoever loves you now—and you must also love yourself—will love the truth of you.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Love, Truth

“The next time you face a room full of strangers… you might tell yourself that some of them are just friends waiting to be found.”

Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer

Source: It Happened One Autumn

Time, Waiting

“To take that risk, to offer life and remain alive, open yourself like this and become whole.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Life

“How do you make yourself not like someone?”

Louise Rennison book Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

Source: Angus, Thongs and Full-Frontal Snogging

“Give yourself permission to allow this moment to be exactly as it is, and allow yourself to be exactly as you are.”

Jon Kabat-Zinn (1944) American academic

Source: Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life

“We're constantly being told what other people think we are, and that's why it is so important to know yourself.”

Sarah McLachlan (1968) Canadian musician, singer, and songwriter

People, Thinking

“How do you explain to yourself the casual manner in which you threw your life away?”

James Lee Burke (1936) Novelist, short story writer

Source: Swan Peak

Life

“Happy Valentines Day to those who have found love, in whatever shape or form, and to those who are still hunting, don’t give up. If you feel bad, send yourself a card. You must be worth it…”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Love, Happiness, Feeling

“The main effort of arranging your life should be to progressively reduce the amount of time required to decently maintain yourself so that you can have all the time you want for reading.”

Norman Rush (1933) American writer

Life, Effort, Time, Reading

“Just be yourself and you'll be fine”

Natsuki Takaya (1973) Manga artist

Source: Fruits Basket, Vol. 1

“I came to think that maybe God was what you believed in because you needed to feel you weren’t alone. Maybe God was simply that part of yourself that was always there and always strong, even when you were not.”

Augusten Burroughs book A Wolf at the Table

Source: A Wolf at the Table

God, Feeling, Thinking, Strong

“Remain true to yourself, but move ever upward toward greater consciousness and greater love! At the summit you will find yourselves united with all those who, from every direction, have made the same ascent. For everything that rises must converge.”

Pierre Teilhard De Chardin (1881–1955) French philosopher and Jesuit priest

Love

“Forget all the rules. Forget about being published. Write for yourself and celebrate writing.”

Melinda Haynes (1955) American writer

Forgetting

“Love doesn't demand perfection, but it does ask you to give yourself with less reserve than you'd prefer.”

Thomas Moore (1779–1852) Irish poet, singer and songwriter

Source: A Life At Work: The Joy Of Discovering What You Were Born To Do

Love, Perfection

“Don't give up. There are too many nay-sayers out there who will try to discourage you. Don't listen to them. The only one who can make you give up is yourself.”

Sidney Sheldon (1917–2007) American writer

“If you become involved with me, you will be throwing yourself into the abyss.”

Franz Kafka (1883–1924) author

“Oh, I'll enjoy myself. I want to make sure you enjoy yourself."
"Why?" I said.
"If you enjoy yourself, then there's a better chance you'll want to be with me again.”

Laurell K. Hamilton book Hit List

Source: Hit List

Chance

“Remind yourself that you cannot fail at being yourself.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

“Idiot. Which road do you take when you're running from something weaker than yourself? Or maybe you're the one looking for an excuse to back out.”

Nobuhiro Watsuki (1970) Japanese manga artist

“Sometimes it seems safer to hold it all in, where the only person who can judge is yourself.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Variant: It seemed safer to hold it in, where the only one who could judge was me.
Source: Just Listen

Personality

“You shall not, for the sake of one individual, change the meaning of principle and integrity, nor endeavour to persuade yourself or me, that selfishness is prudence, and insensibility of danger security for happiness.”

Jane Austen book Pride and Prejudice

Source: Pride and Prejudice

Happiness, Change, Selfishness

“I'd always thought telling the truth to other people was hard, but maybe that was a snap compared to telling the truth to yourself. Sometimes we just refused to know what we knew.”

Deb Caletti (1963) American writer

Source: The Six Rules of Maybe

People, Truth

“I tell you what's really ridiculous--going into a bookstore and there's all these books about yourself. In a way, it feels like you're already dead.”

Thom Yorke (1968) English musician, philanthropist and singer-songwriter

Books, Way, Feeling, Dead

“Once you're truly happy with yourself alone, that's when you are safe to find the right person to spend the rest of your life with.”

Tyler Perry (1966) American actor, director, screenwriter, playwright, producer, author, and songwriter

Life, Happiness, Personality

“We (men) would rather lose an arm out a city bus window than tell you simply, “You’re not the
one.” We are quite sure you will kill us or yourself or both—or even worse, cry and yell at us.”

Greg Behrendt (1963) American comedian

Source: He's Just Not That Into You: The No-Excuses Truth to Understanding Guys

Men, Cry

“Doctor, you don't know what it is to doubt everything, even yourself. No, you don't; you couldn't with eyebrows like yours.”

Bram Stoker book Dracula

Source: Dracula

“And maybe it is only by finding yourself that you can feel the true intensity of becoming close to another person.”

David Levithan The Realm of Possibility

Source: The Realm of Possibility

Feeling, Personality

“Letting go doesn't mean that you don't care about someone anymore. It's just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.”

Deborah Reber American writer

Source: Chicken Soup for the Teenage Soul: 101 Stories of Life, Love and Learning

Personality, Moving On

“The world is bigger than you know, and scarier than you might imagine. The only currency worth anything is being true to yourself, and the only goal worth seeking is finding out who you truly are.”

Derek Landy Skulduggery Pleasant

Source: Skulduggery Pleasant

World, Imagination

“What you're blaming yourself for is being who you are. And that's no one's fault and nothing you can change.”

Cassandra Clare book City of Ashes

Source: City of Ashes

Change

“I believe the choice to be excellent begins with aligning your thoughts and words with the intention to require more from yourself.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

“He pushed his glasses up on his nose and gave me a sidelong look, the one that meant he was so sure you were wrong that he could just wait and let you find out for yourself the hard way.”

Patricia C. Wrede (1953) author

Source: Thirteenth Child

Way, Waiting

“I didn’t want to tell the story of myself, but someone I called myself. If you read yourself as fiction, it’s rather more liberating than reading yourself as fact.”

Jeanette Winterson book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Source: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Reading

“When you reach for the stars, you are reaching for the farthest thing out there. When you reach deep into yourself, it is the same thing, but in the opposite direction. If you reach in both directions, you will have spanned the universe.”

Vera Nazarian (1966) American writer

Source: The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration

Star, Universe

“He loved her, as you can only love someone who is an echo of yourself at your time of deepest sorrow.”

Orson Scott Card book Speaker for the Dead

Source: Speaker for the Dead

Love, Time

“If killing yourself is not an option anymore,
you have to sink into the darkness instead,
and make something out of it.”

Emma Forrest (1976) British journalist, novelist and screenwriter

Source: Your Voice in My Head

“To be yourself requires extraordinary intelligence. You are blessed with that intelligence; nobody need give it to you; nobody can take it away from you. He who lets that express itself in its own way is a "Natural Man."”

U.G. Krishnamurti (1918–2007) Indian philosopher

Part 2: The Mystique of Enlightenment
The Mystique of Enlightenment (1982)
Source: The Mystique of Enlightenment: The Radical Ideas of U.G. Krishnamurti

Way, Intelligence, Nature