Quotes about yourself
page 29

“I think if you want to make art, at some point you have to suspend judgment, and you have to involve yourself with play and not worry about the outcome.”

Richard Serra (1939) American sculptor

Charlie Rose interview (2001)

Art, Thinking

“When others seem to take advantage of you, do not retaliate by trying to take advantage of them. Use your power in improving yourself, so that you can do better and better work. That is how you are going to win in the race. Later on, those who tried to take advantage of you will be left in the rear. Remember, those who are dealing unjustly with you or with anybody are misusing their mind. They are therefore losing their power, and will, in the course of time, begin to lose ground; but if you, in the mean time, are turning the full power of your mind to good account, you will not only gain more power, but you will soon begin to gain ground. You will gain and continue to gain in the long run, while others who have been misusing their minds will lose mostly everything in the long run. That is how you are going to win, and win splendidly regardless of ill treatment or opposition.”

Christian D. Larson (1874–1962) Prolific author of metaphysical and New Thought books

Source: Your Forces and How to Use Them (1912), Chapter 3, p. 50

Time

“Music allows a person to express their deepest thoughts, thoughts that cannot be expressed with just words. I am often asked how I begin a song or develop a melody from nothing. That is the spiritual aspect of creating. Finding something deep within yourself that can only be created by you.”

Bradley Joseph (1965) Composer, pianist, keyboardist, arranger, producer, recording artist

Interview with Bradley Joseph, The Spiritual Significance Of Music, World Edition http://www.xtrememusic.org/world/joseph_bradley.pdf http://www.xtrememusic.org/new.html (from extrememusic.org) http://xtrememusic.org/world.html

Music, Personality

“I think the kicks in Wing Chun are enough. It´s much easier to use your hands than to use your feet. Your hand is able to reach your opponent long before your foot. Why take the long way to attack (circle), when there is a much more direct method of attack? If you are using your hands, then your opponent can´t see a kick coming if you have to use it. When you teach Kung Fu, you can fool a lot of people, but not yourself. You can make like a movie and do many complicated movements and kicks, but you only fool yourself as to whether that would work in a real situation of life and death.”

Wong Shun Leung (1935–1997) martial artist

Wong Shun Leung: "Your hand is able to reach your opponent long before your foot." Practical Fighting Concepts Source: Interview with Wong Shun Leung, by: Erle Montaigue http://www.vingtsunupdate.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=77

Life, Death, People, Fools

“The worst thing about Beijing is that you can never trust the judicial system. Without trust, you cannot identify anything; it’s like a sandstorm. You don’t see yourself as part of the city—there are no places that you relate to, that you love to go. You have no memory of any material, texture, shape. Everything is constantly changing, according to somebody else’s will, somebody else’s power.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

2010-, The City: Beijing, 2011

Love, Memory, Change, Parting

“Speak but what may benefit others or yourself; avoid trifling conversation.”

Thomas Jackson (1824–1863) Confederate general

Misattributed, Jackson's personal book of maxims

“How would your life be different if … You approached all relationships with authenticity and honesty? Let today be the day … You dedicate yourself to building relationships on the solid foundation of truth and authenticity.”

Steve Maraboli (1975)

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 145

Life, Truth

“Propaganda is not French, it is not civilized to want other people to believe what you believe because the essence of being civilised is to possess yourself as you are, and if you possess yourself as you are you of course cannot possess any one else, it is not your business.”

Gertrude Stein book Paris France

Source: Paris France (1940), p. 56

People, Business

“It's frightening to think that you mark your children merely by being yourself… It seems unfair. You can't assume the responsibility for everything you do — or don't do.”

Simone de Beauvoir book Les Belles Images

Les Belles Images (1966), Ch. 3
General sources

Children, Thinking

“Real friends are those people who will stand for you expressing yourself fully, who will go out of their way to support you to keep your word, to go the extra mile, to get out of the box, to make your dreams come true.”

Nicholas Lore (1944) American social scientist

The Pathfinder (1998)

People, Dreams, Way, Support

“Eating a vegan diet — it’s just so much healthier — and you avoid a lot of toxins that could age your skin and your body. I really noticed a difference in my skin not too long after switching to fully vegan. … The older I’ve gotten, the more it’s occurred to me that I’m doing it in order to live longer, though the vanity component will always be there. … I just told myself one day that I’m going to do it and I’m going to give myself eight weeks. And that I’m not going to commit on this for a lifetime because it’s psychologically huge for people to wrap their minds around it. And I’m just going to see how I feel, I’m going to test my blood again and see if there’s anything. Giving it that long you sort of get over the fact of feeling how big and difficult it is at the beginning. And if you really give yourself long enough to start feeling differently and sort of see the benefits then it will be great.”

Michelle Pfeiffer (1958) American actress

"Michelle Pfeiffer’s Big Secret", interview with Urbanette (February 2016) http://urbanette.com/michelle-pfeiffer-interview/

People, Age, Feeling

“Originality is the most deadly mirage in all of art. You can chase it from now until doomsday, and you'll only find yourself lost and dying of thirst.”

Caitlín R. Kiernan (1964) writer

24 July 2005
Unfit for Mass Consumption (blog entries), 2005

Art

“You may keep your ten thousand talents; I am not in want of money, I have taken enough. Why only the half of your kingdom to the Euphrates? You offer me the part in exchange for the whole. Your daughter whom you speak of, I shall marry if I choose, whether given by you or not. Your family is safe; no ransom is required of you; come here yourself and make your suit to me, you shall have them free. If you desire our friendship, you have only to ask.”

Mary Renault book The Persian Boy

Alexander's answer to the peace treaty offered by Darius III, p. 38
The Persian Boy (1972)

Money, Friendship, Family, Parting

“Interviewer: I read a post on the Internet from a young girl who had been victimized by someone and her position was like, "I can talk about this now because Fiona Apple can talk about what happened to her." Do you look at yourself as a role model for women and girls who've had this experience?
Fiona: That's the only reason I ever brought the whole rape thing up. It's a terrible thing, but it happens to so many people. I mean, 80 percent of the people I've told have said right back to me, "That happened to me too." It's so common, and so ridiculous that it's a hard thing to talk about. It angers me so much because something like that happens to you and you carry it around for the rest of your life. No matter how much therapy you go through, no matter how much healing you go through, it's part of you. I just feel that it's such a tragedy that so many people have to bear the extra burden of having to keep it secret from everyone else. As if it's too icky a subject to burden other people with and everyone's going to think you're a victim forever. Then you've labeled yourself a victim, and you've been taken advantage of, and you're ruined, and you're soiled, and you're not pure, you know.If I'm in a position where people are looking up to me in any way, then it's absolutely my responsibility to be open and honest about this, because if I'm not, what does that say to people? It doesn't change a person -- well, it does change a person but it doesn't take anything away from you. It can only strengthen you. It has made me so angry in the past. Like I wanted to say it to somebody. I really wanted somebody to connect with, somebody to understand me, somebody to comfort me. But I felt like I couldn't say anything about because it was taboo to talk about.”

Fiona Apple (1977) singer-songwriter, musician

Nuvo, "Fiona Apple: The NUVO Interview" April [1997]

Life, Women, People, Secret

“Our life evokes our character and you find out more about yourself as you go on.”

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth

Episode 1, Chapter 12
The Power of Myth (1988)

Life

“When you consider socialism, do not fool yourself about its nature. Remember that there is no such dichotomy as “human rights” versus “property rights.” No human rights can exist without property rights.”

Ayn Rand book The Virtue of Selfishness

The Virtue of Selfishness (1964)

Fools, Nature

“The idea that you write to express yourself seems to me revolting. The idea that you write to glorify or to make glorious the art of expressiveness seems to me spot on.”

Geoffrey Hill (1932–2016) English poet and professor

Interview, Telegraph Review, 2013

Art, Idea

“For any picture, ask yourself what question or questions it might be answering. Since the picture could answer many, questions, we can decide what question we are interested in. The picture will, of course, suggest that some questions are likely to find answers in it. For instance, Owens's pictures of pantries and refrigerators clearly suggest that they will answer questions about what kinds of food the inhabitants of the houses store and presumably eat, while other pictures in Suburbia suggest that they will answer other questions about the housekeeping arrangements of these people.”

Howard S. Becker (1928) American sociologist

Howard Becker (1974). "Art as Collective Action." American Sociological Review 39:767-76.

People, Food, Question, Housing

“Girls: Please do not offer yourself to Yahtzee. He found that this got old very fast.”

Ben Croshaw (1983) English video game journalist

Contact page http://www.fullyramblomatic.com/contact.htm Fully Ramblomatic

Girl

“Kurtz: So you don't, you're not confusing yourself with a quote, "real journalist"?
Stewart: No. You guys are—
Kurtz: You're just making fun—
Stewart: You guys are confusing yourselves with real journalists.”

Jon Stewart (1962) American political satirist, writer, television host, actor, media critic and stand-up comedian

2002-11-02
Reliable Sources
CNN
Television
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0211/02/rs.00.html

Guy, Quotes

“The fact is that unless you experience something for yourself it does not exist for you. If God exists you must have the experience of God in the moment; otherwise you are absent and God cannot exist for you.”

Barry Long (1926–2003) Australian spiritual teacher and writer

Knowing Yourself: The True in the False (1996)

God

“When reading, writing and translating, it is important to have a way of keeping track of what you have absorbed and learned, so that you can build on it and acquire richer resources for the future. When reading, read actively and critically. Jot down interesting expressions, forceful adjectives, little turns of phrase, that strike you as effective, as things you might one day be able to use yourself—in both languages.”

John Minford (1946) New Zealand sinologist

Public Lecture (2018)

Way, Learning, Reading, Future

“About shocking. You know I feel comfortable in my skin. I think it's an okay thing to express yourself.”

Britney Spears (1981) American singer, dancer and actress

Diane Sawyer interview http://sixtyminutes.ninemsn.com.au/sixtyminutes/stories/2003_11_23/story_1024.asp, 60 Minutes (23 November 2003)

Feeling, Thinking

“Insofar as I may be heard by anything, which may or may not care what I say, I ask, if it matters, that you be forgiven for anything you may have done or failed to do which requires forgiveness. Conversely, if not forgiveness but something else may be required to insure any possible benefit for which you may be eligible after the destruction of your body, I ask that this, whatever it may be, be granted or withheld, as the case may be, in such a manner as to insure your receiving said benefit. I ask this in my capacity as your elected intermediary between yourself and that which may not be yourself, but which may have an interest in the matter of your receiving as much as it is possible for you to receive of this thing, and which may in some way be influenced by this ceremony. Amen.”

Roger Zelazny (1937–1995) American speculative fiction writer

The Agnostic's Prayer from the novel Creatures of Light and Darkness (1969)

Way, Forgiveness

“I read a couple of good books and realized the ethical implications of eating meat and the countless other ways of abusing animals and nature. It made me cry. There simply is no need for us to consume animal products and we cause a lot of harm by doing so; that is the definition of crime. I couldn't be anything else but vegan after understanding that. … Those two things, bodybuilding and being vegan, are the two best things in my life. They define who I am, in body and spirit. That doesn't mean my life is all about my workout and eating, but I find my strength in life in those two aspects. Veganism is about love and respect to your environment, and bodybuilding is about love and respect to yourself.”

Alexander Dargatz (1977) German bodybuilder

“Alexander Dargatz,” interview with Vegan Bodybuilding & Fitness (2005) http://www.veganbodybuilding.com/?page=bio_alex.

Love, Life, Books, Way

“We've associated that word philosophy with academic study that in its own way has gotten so far beyond the layman that if you read contemporary philosophy you've no clue, because it's almost become math. And it's odd that if you don't do that and you call yourself a philosopher that you always get 'homespun' attached to it.”

Robert Fulghum (1937) American writer

Robert Fulghum : Philosopher King

Way, Study, Reading

“The test of an adventure is that when you're in the middle of it, you say to yourself, "Oh, now I've got myself into an awful mess; I wish I were sitting quietly at home." And the sign that something's wrong with you is when you sit quietly at home wishing you were out having lots of adventure.”

Thornton Wilder The Matchmaker

Barnaby, in Act 4
The Matchmaker (1954)

Home

“Accept yourself, your strengths, your weaknesses, your truths, and know what tools you have to fulfill your purpose.”

Steve Maraboli (1975)

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 46

Truth

“There's a reason that we don't go into people's homes and tell them how to live. We may not know their problem, and what it's like, so how can we know the solution? We don't say to someone who is hurting 'I know what's wrong, and it's nothing, so you shouldn't complain or be bitter.'…
And finally, for those who are angry at people who are sad from suffering, and racism, and stereotypes and prejudices — this is their pain. It is ok that they have pain, and that they are dealing with it the way they need to, and the way we need to. If you are thinking of yourself, it won't make much sense, because it doesn't have anything to do with you. Think of them instead. And if you really want to see someone smile, and not suffer, think of a way that you can bring them joy.”

Ysabella Brave (1979) American singer

"Re: The NAACP is Insane!" (21 February 2008) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6FX8IMw-uM

Pain, People, Sadness, Smile

“You don't have to like your life to get it off your mind. You DO have to renegotiate your agreements w/yourself about it.”

David Allen (1945) American productivity consultant and author

15 August 2010 https://twitter.com/gtdguy/status/21206170236 Official Twitter profile (@gtdguy) https://twitter.com/gtdguy

Life

“Retreat often into your sphere, rest yourself in your center, plunge yourself into your element: good advice, which must be remembered.”

Joseph Joubert (1754–1824) French moralist and essayist

“This process of self-discovery is scientific and the invariable rule of science has to be applied - experiment and observe. The experiment is to ask the question; the observation is to look at yourself and see what happens. Being a science the law cannot vary. Any apparent variation is in you: you will have stepped off the way of facts into conclusions. The sun is either shining or it is not. You do not have to conclude; you just look.”

Barry Long (1926–2003) Australian spiritual teacher and writer

Knowing Yourself: The True in the False (1996)

Law, Way, Question, Science

“How sad, ye gods, how sad the world is at evening, how mysterious the mists over the swamps. You will know it when you have suffered greatly before dying, when you have walked through the world carrying an unbearable burden. You know it too when you are weary and ready to leave this earth without regret; it's mists, it's swamps and it's rivers; ready to give yourself into the arms of death with a light heart, knowing that death alone can comfort you.”

Mikhail Bulgakov book The Master and Margarita

Book Two in 'Absolution and Eternal Refuge', MG. (Note: Alternate translation of above passage ('Gods, my gods...'))
The Master and Margarita (1967)

Death, God, World, Sadness

“Be fully aware of your own being and you will be in bliss consciously. Because you take your mind off yourself and make it dwell on what you are not, you lose your sense of well-being, of being well. (…) True happiness is spontaneous and effortless. (..)”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

Bliss and happiness
Source: "I am That." P.96.

Happiness, Sense

“They detained me for 81 days, but they never killed me. They clearly told me: 'If we were in the Cultural Revolution, you would have been killed 100 times.' They said: 'We have already improved.' I said: 'I thank you very much. Yes, you have improved. Not because you are really willing to improve yourself, but only because improvement is a matter of surviving.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

2010-, Ai Weiwei: ‘Shame on Me.’, 2011

Time

“"We have a president right now who doesn't consider himself a socialist but people call him a socialist as an insult. Are you concerned at all about framing yourself as this?"…
"Not if we have the opportunity to describe what democratic socialism means…. You have countries like Denmark, Sweden, Norway… which have had social democratic governments…. In those countries, healthcare is a right for all people…. Tuition is free…. In those countries, governments are working for the middle class, rather than the billionaire class."”

Bernie Sanders (1941) American politician, senator for Vermont

Late Night with Seth Meyers (2 June 2015) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BFAq-4Vv5c0 2010s, 2015

People, Country

“Generosity makes us happiest. We'll be happier people when we share, not when we impose, but when we learn from one another. Because when I'm connected to everyone I disappear … in being excellent you lose yourself. And when you're connected to everyone, that's the best thing that can happen.”

Raj Patel (1972) British academic

Speech at 21 minuti http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hsDG-0WQM20

People, Learning

“Against Nature's silence I use action
In the vast indifference I invent a meaning
I don't watch unmoved I intervene
and say that this and this are wrong
and I work to alter them and improve them
The important thing
is to pull yourself up by your own hair
to turn yourself inside out
and see the whole world with fresh eyes”

Peter Weiss Marat/Sade

Marat, act 1, scene 12 (pp. 24-25) frameless QOTD 2007·11·08 Sound file
Marat/Sade (1963)

World, Nature, Silence, Indifference

“From this inhuman pressure doping is born because the athlete feels the imperative of having to be No. 1. I believe instead that sport should be a private pressure, a challenge for yourself.”

Bode Miller (1977) American alpine ski racer

Interview with Gazzetta dello Sport, 16 Feb. 2006 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/11385083/

Feeling, Sport

“I emerged from the womb, right, I was wearing a top hat and I had a cane and said: 'Mother, that was an awkward and embarrassing birth. You should be ashamed of yourself dear. Now pull your nightie down; that doctor looks salacious.' Then I trotted off outside, met up with Kenneth Williams and we both had tea, and we looked down at our dinkles with disgust.”

Russell Brand (1975) British comedian, actor, and author

Radio One Interview, July 5th 2007

Birth, Tea

“I guess that's why I developed the form 'intermedia'. You are always focussing on all kinds of media to express yourself.”

Dick Higgins (1938–1998) English composer and poet

The Ruud Jansson Mail Interview 1995

“Black: Belief aint like unbelief. If you a believer then you got to come finally to a well of belief itself and then you dont have to look no further. There aint no further. But the unbeliever has got a problem. He has set out to unravel the world, but everthing he can point to that aint true leaves two new things layin there. If God walked the earth when he got done makin it then when you get up in the mornin' you get to put your feet on a real floor and you dont have to worry about where it come from. But if he didnt then you got to come up with a whole other description of what you even mean by real. And you got to judge everything by that same light. If light is is. Includin yourself. One question fits all.”

Cormac McCarthy The Sunset Limited

The Sunset Limited (2006)

God, World, Question, Problem

“No one can learn to love by following a manual, and no one can learn to write by following a course. I’m not telling you to seek out other writers but to find people with different skills from yourself, because writing is no different from any other activity done with joy and enthusiasm.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Love, People, Learning, Joy

“You are doing an excellent thing, one which will be wholesome for you, if, as you write me, you are persisting in your effort to attain sound understanding; it is foolish to pray for this when you can acquire it from yourself. We do not need to uplift our hands towards heaven, or to beg the keeper of a temple to let us approach his idol's ear, as if in this way our prayers were more likely to be heard. A god is near you, with you, and in you. This is what I mean, Lucilius: there sits a holy spirit within us, one who marks our good and bad deeds, and is our a guardian.”
Facis rem optimam et tibi salutarem, si, ut scribis, perseveras ire ad bonam mentem, quam stultum est optare, cum possis a te impetrare. Non sunt ad caelum elevandae inarms nee exorandus aedituus, ut nos ad aurem simulacri, quasi magis exaudiri possimus, admittat; Prope est a te deus, tecum est, intus est. Ita dico, Lucili: sacer intra nos spiritus sedet, malorum bonorumque nostrorum observator et custos...

Seneca the Younger (-4–65 BC) Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, and dramatist

Epistulae Morales ad Lucilium (Moral Letters to Lucilius), Letter XLI: On the god within us

God, Way, Understanding, Effort

“When Laman bats, you just watch him and tell yourself not to carried away.”

V. V. S. Laxman (1974) former Indian cricketer

Sachin Tendulkar http://www.scrolldroll.com/quotes-about-vvs-laxman-that-show-he-is-truly-very-very-special/

“Remember you come here having already understood the necessity of struggling with yourself — only with yourself. Therefore thank everyone who gives you the opportunity.”

G. I. Gurdjieff (1866–1949) influential spiritual teacher, Armenian philosopher, composer and writer

Aphorisms

“Relax, enjoy yourself. Have another drink. It’s patriotic to overconsume.”

Brian W. Aldiss book Greybeard

Source: Greybeard (1964), Chapter 4 (p. 121)

Drink

“What to do now? How to detach yourself?
With every work that’s born you die a little.”

Primo Levi book Collected Poems

"The Work" (1983)
Collected Poems (1984)

“Picture yourself when you were five. In fact, dig out a photo of little you at that time and tape it to your mirror. How would you treat her, love her, feed her? How would you nurture her if you were the mother of little you? I bet you would protect her fiercely while giving her space to spread her itty-bitty wings. She'd get naps, healthy food, imagination time, and adventures into the wild. If playground bullies hurt her feelings, you'd hug her tears away and give her perspective. When tantrums or meltdowns turned her into a poltergeist, you'd demand a loving time-out in the naughty chair. From this day forward I want you to extend the same compassion to your adult self.”

Kris Carr (1971) American actress and filmmaker

Source: Crazy Sexy Diet (2011), Ch. 7

Love, Food, Feeling, Imagination

“In dreams you are so 'dumb' that you believe there is a commerce between the living and the dead. You are so 'irrational' as to imagine that you sometimes speak to parents who are dead. You are so 'unrealistic' that it seems to you that you visit old houses, long ago torn down, or that you travel in exotic foreign cities that you have actually never visited. In dreams you are so 'insane' you do not feel yourself locked in a closet of time and space, but feel instead as if all infinity but waited your beckoning.”

Jane Roberts (1929–1984) American Writer

Session 758, Page 25
The Nature of the Psyche: Its Human Expression (1979)

Dreams, Travel, Feeling, Imagination

“It's simple. Both the U. S. and England advance today with a victory. Win, and you're in. Our quarrel is not with them, for now. Though they did come here looking well beyond us, and we played them dead even. Now, ask yourself? Whose boots would you rather be in? Our goalkeeper got kicked in the ribs; theirs gave up something they call 'a howler'. Next, we buried ourselves. I know. But then, we made three shots heard around the world. Though the last one was drowned out by a lone, ludicrous whistle. So, who would you rather have leading by example? Who would you rather have, as your last line of defense? Who would you rather have, calling the shots? For us, it's been about a common goal. Not an automatic pass for a pack of superstars, and while our team is the U. S.? Today, you can call them 'us'. Because they've truly taken America along for the ride. While it appears England has turned on their team and vice-versa, we're winning our game. May their country forgive them if they don't win theirs. Ah, what the heck? Good luck today, we might just see you in the final. The South African journey continues. This is the World Cup.”

Martin Sheen (1940) American actor

United States v. Algeria https://www.listenonrepeat.com/watch/?v=g2PZ5OWE8Rw (23 June 2010), 2010 FIFA World Cup. 2010s

World, Game, Forgiveness, Appearance

“Sexiness is a state of mind -- a comfortable state of being. It's about loving yourself in your most unlovable moments.”

Halle Berry (1966) American actress

Suzanne Condie Lambert (October 9, 2008) "'Esquire' crowns Berry the sexiest woman alive", The Arizona Republic, p. E6.

Love

“I often say that sociology is a martial art, a means of self-defense. Basically, you use it to defend yourself, without having the right to use it for unfair attacks.”

Pierre Bourdieu (1930–2002) French sociologist, anthropologist, and philosopher

(2000), La Sociologie est un sport de combat; cited in: John Horne, Wolfram Manzenreiter (2004), Football Goes East. p. xii

Art

“If you obtain provision for yourself of spiritual abundance, don’t throw the surplus at people’s heads; feed it back into your own industry as capital for the production of more abundance.”

Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957)

Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 37

People

“Living in a system under the Communist ideology, an artist cannot avoid fighting for freedom of expression. You always have to be aware that art is not only a self-expression but a demonstration of human rights and dignity. To express yourself freely, a right as personal as it is, has always been difficult, given the political situation.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

2000-09, Ai Weiwei: A Rebel of Poet Roots, 2008

Art, Freedom, Fight, Personality

“The greatness comes not when things go always good for you, but the greatness comes when you are really tested, when you take some knocks, some disappointments, when sadness comes; because only if you've been in the deepest valley can you ever know how magnificent it is to be on the highest mountain. Always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember: Others may hate you. But those who hate you don't win, unless you hate them. And then, you destroy yourself.”

Richard Nixon (1913–1994) 37th President of the United States of America

Speech to the assembled White House staff before his final departure (9 August 1974)
1970s

Hate, Sadness, Disappointment, Mountain

“Remember that the style of music that is popular right now might not be popular by the time you have learned to master that music style. So always stay true to yourself and the kind of music you enjoy listening to and working on.”

Jesper Kyd (1972) musician

citation needed

Music, Learning, Time

“I found a book on how to be invisible
You take a pinch of keyhole,
And fold yourself up,
You cut along the dotted lines.
You think inside out.
You're invisible.”

Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer

Song lyrics, Aerial (2005), A Sea of Honey (Disc 1)

Books, Thinking

“If you behave like a regular guy, you get treated like a regular guy. You can't cut yourself off from the world. You ultimately would go crazy, wouldn't you?”

Timothy Dalton (1944) British actor of stage, film and television

On fame. [Several Interviews with Timothy Dalton on his 007 portrayal, including ‘Timothy Dalton Won’t Let Bond Role Change His Career by Susan King of the ‘Los Angeles Herald Examiner’, http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Film/7518/Bond_Eng/Bond_Eng.htm, http://web.archive.org/20000304095759/www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Film/7518/Bond_Eng/Bond_Eng.htm, 2000-03-04].
Attributed

World, Guy

“Tips on surviving the regime: Respect yourself and speak for others. Do one small thing every day to prove the existence of justice.”

Ai Weiwei (1957) Chinese concept artist

Ai Weiwei Twitter feed: @AiWW (12:39 p.m. August 6, 2009)
2000-09, Twitter feeds, 2009

Justice

“Why do you work so hard to make yourself disliked? I should think you'd find it happens enough on its own without putting yourself to any extra trouble.”

Steven Brust book Tiassa

Tiassa ( 2011) (goodreads) http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/13578278

Thinking

“So be sweet and kind to mother
Now and then, have a chat!
Buy her candy or some flowers or a brand-new hat
But maybe you best let it go at that!
Or you may find yourself with a quite complex
…Com-plex!
…and…
You may end up like Oedipus
I'd rather marry a duck-billed platypus!
Than end up like poor Oedipus Rex!”

Tom Lehrer (1928) American singer-songwriter and mathematician

"Oedipus Rex", final stanza
An Evening (Wasted) With Tom Lehrer (1959)

Flowers

“To me, feeling good about yourself as you get older is all about your attitude - if you think you're old, you'll feel old.”

Lulu (singer) (1948) Scottish singer, actress, and television personality

I'm through with having Botox, says pop diva Lulu, 2008-03-31, 2008-03-31, Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/femail/article.html?in_article_id=550849&in_page_id=1879,

Feeling, Thinking

“I came to office with one deliberate intent: to change Britain from a dependent to a self-reliant society – from a give-it-to-me, to a do-it-yourself nation. A get-up-and-go, instead of a sit-back-and-wait-for-it Britain.”

Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British stateswoman and politician

Speech to Small Business Bureau Conference (8 February 1984) http://www.margaretthatcher.org/speeches/displaydocument.asp?docid=105617 Second term as Prime Minister

Change, Waiting, Dependency

“Here you are, you're a liberal, probably define peace as the absence of conflict. I define peace as the ability to defend yourself and blow your enemies into smithereens.”

Sean Hannity (1961) American television host, conservative political commentator

Hannity
Fox News
Television
http://mediamatters.org/mmtv/200910130066
2009-10-13

Peace

“Don't be yourself-be someone a little nicer.”

Mignon McLaughlin (1913–1983) American journalist

The Complete Neurotic's Notebook (1981), Unclassified

“The thing I love about acting is, whatever character you play, it gives you the chance to expose another side of yourself that maybe you’ve never felt comfortable with, or never knew about. Not that every character is you, but there are underlying emotions that everybody has. I feel that movies are gifts that come to you, and there are no accidents in what you end up doing. I study Jung, who talks a lot about the shadow side, the repressed side.”

Laura Dern (1967) American actress, director, producer

Regarding the correlation between acting and one's personality
Interview Magazines interview (September 1990)

Love, Feeling, Study, Chance

“They just want to get a handle on you and the idea, and that's enough. Some people sense more but they don't really get into it because it's going one step too far. But the whole idea of making art is to be open, to be generous, and absorb the viewer and absorb yourself, to let them go into it. I have to go into all those places in order to make it work.”

Frank Stella (1936) American artist

Source: Quotes, 1971 - 2000, Bomb: X Motion Picture and Center for New Art Activities, 2000, p. 29.

People, Art, Idea, Sense

“Free yourself from the complexities of your life! A life of simplicity and happiness awaits you.”

Steve Maraboli (1975)

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 38

Life, Happiness

“How would your life be different if … You didn't allow yourself to be defined by your past? Let today be the day … You stop letting your history interfere with your destiny and awaken to the opportunity to release your greatest self.”

Steve Maraboli (1975)

Source: Life, the Truth, and Being Free (2010), p. 125

Life, History, Past

“If only you could sense how important you are to the lives of those you meet; how important you can be to people you may never even dream of. There is something of yourself that you leave at every meeting with another person.”

Fred Rogers (1928–2003) American television personality

Mister Rogers' Neighborhood: Thoughts For All Ages http://pbskids.org/rogers/all_ages/thoughts1.htm

People, Dreams, Sense, Personality

“Step n' move your hips
With a feelin' from side to side
Sit yourself down in your car
And take a ride.And while you're movin'
Rock steady
Rock steady baby.
Let's call this song exactly what it is”

Aretha Franklin (1942–2018) American musician, singer, songwriter, and pianist

What it is -what it is - what it is
"Rock Steady", from Young (1972)
Song lyrics

Cars, Baby

“Think how much better it is to criticize conventional customs if you yourself live up to them, scrupulously. Then people can't say you're attacking them to excuse your own infractions. Yes, I've heard that plea…. To word it differently, 'You must live up to the popular code if you believe in it; but if you don't believe in it, then you must live up to it!”

Sinclair Lewis book Main Street

Main Street (1920)

People, Thinking

“But it’s not so hard, learning to picture yourself as part of a great chain. One that began long before you, and will go on long after.”

David Brin book Glory Season

Source: Glory Season (1993), Chapter 21 (p. 387)

Learning, Parting

“Don’t let yourself be destroyed by a force that was placed in our hearts in order to make everything better.”

Paulo Coelho book Aleph

Aleph (2011)

Heart

“Naturally, you know how you would feel on setting out to see a performance of Aucassin and Nicolette done by a company of little ones; you would strive to hurl yourself beneath the wheels of a friendly truck, on your way to the theatre. p. 233”

Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American poet, short story writer, critic and satirist

Dorothy Parker: Complete Broadway, 1918–1923 (2014) https://openlibrary.org/books/OL25758762M/Dorothy_Parker_Complete_Broadway_1918-1923, Chapter 4: 1921

Way, Feeling, Nature

“You may ask — you are bound to ask me now: What, then, is in your opinion the value of natural science? I answer: Its scope, aim and value is the same as that of any other branch of human knowledge. Nay, none of them alone, only the union of all of them, has any scope or value at all, and that is simply enough described: it is to obey the command of the Delphic deity: gnothi seauton… get to know yourself!”

Erwin Schrödinger (1887–1961) Austrian physicist

Science and Humanism (1951)

Nature, Knowledge, Science

“Consider your state of mind—your consciousness—before going to sleep. This is extremely important. Make a commitment to spend at least fifteen minutes spiritualizing your consciousness before going to bed. Read something spiritual, listen to spiritual discourse or music, or engage in discussion on a spiritual topic. Push aside the chaos and confusion that were a part of your day, and focus on spiritual reality. In this way, you will prepare yourself for the next six to eight hours of sleep. If you allow yourself to focus spiritually, you will provide less of an opportunity for negative elements to enter your dreams. You can then benefit most from your sleeping state.”

Bhakti Tirtha Swami (1950–2005) American Hindu writer

Source: Books, Spiritual Warrior, Volume I: Uncovering Spiritual Truths in Psychic Phenomena (Hari-Nama Press, 1996), Chapter 1: Dreams: A State of Reality, p. 24

Dreams, Music, Way, Reality

“If you deny any affinity with another person or kind of person, if you declare it to be wholly different from yourself—as men have done to women, and class has done to class, and nation has done to nation—you may hate it, or deify it, but in either case you have denied its spiritual equality, and its human reality. You have made it into a thing, to which the only possible relationship is a power relationship. And thus you have fatally impoverished your own reality.”

Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) American writer

"American SF and The Other" in Science-Fiction Studies 7, 1975. Reprinted in The Language of the Night, 1979.

Women, Men, Hate, Reality

“If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is, too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.”

Timothy Ferriss book The 4-Hour Workweek

The 4-Hour Workweek (2007)

World, Thinking

“All one's life as a young woman one is on show, a focus of attention, people notice you. You set yourself up to be noticed and admired. And then, not expecting it, you become middle-aged and anonymous. No one notices you. You achieve a wonderful freedom. It's a positive thing. You can move about unnoticed and invisible.”

Doris Lessing (1919–2013) British novelist, poet, playwright, librettist, biographer and short story writer

As quoted in An Uncommon Scold (1989) by Abby Adams, p. 18

Life, People, Age, Freedom

“To repeat to yourself a thousand times a day: 'Nothing on Earth has any worth,' to keep finding yourself at the same point, to circle stupidly as a top, eternally…”

Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay

A Short History of Decay (1949)

Time

“Detachment from the world as an attachment to the ego… Who can realize the detachment in which you are as far away from yourself as you are from the world?”

Emil M. Cioran (1911–1995) Romanian philosopher and essayist

The Book of Delusions (1936)

World

“Just keep coming home to yourself. You are the one you’ve been waiting for.”

Byron Katie (1942) American spiritual writer

Loving What Is: Four Questions That Can Change Your Life (2002)

Home, Waiting

“Purify yourself by a well-ordered and useful life. Watch over your thoughts, feelings, words and actions. This will clear your vision.”

Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897–1981) Indian guru

Purification
Source: "I am That." P.27.

Life, Feeling

“No need to feel pleas'd with yourself. What you found was not their sacred Well, but only a Representation of it.”

Thomas Pynchon Mason & Dixon

Source: Mason & Dixon (1997), Chapter 74

Feeling

“Jack: You'll have to compromise, smile, concern yourself with your public image, measure your words as carefully as possible… and turn yourself into a dutiful party hack! [chuckles] Never mind, Nigel, never mind.”

Dennis Potter (1935–1994) English television dramatist, screenwriter and journalist

Jack Hay was based on Ron Brewer, who had been Potter's agent when he was Labour candidate for East Hertfordshire in the 1964 general election.
Vote, vote, vote for Nigel Barton (1965)

Smile

“[Experimental Physicist] Phys. I cannot imagine myself perceiving non-Euclidean space!
Math. Look at the reflection of the room in a polished doorknob, and imagine yourself one of the actors in what you see going on there.”

Arthur Stanley Eddington (1882–1944) British astrophysicist

p, 125
Space, Time and Gravitation (1920)

Imagination

“You know, if you hurt people enough, eventually they’ll all call you whatever you want. Maker. King. Captain. Boss. Master. Holy One. Pick your title, you can beat people into calling you that. But you don’t change yourself a bit. All you do is change the meanings of those words, so they all mean the same thing: Bully.”

Orson Scott Card (1951) American science fiction novelist

Source: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Alvin Journeyman (1995), Chapter 2.

People, Change, Hurt

“When you start to indulge yourself, remember it is what they do with invalids and children.”

Henry S. Haskins (1875–1957)

Source: Meditations in Wall Street (1940), p. 81

Children

“I really do believe that if you don't challenge yourself and risk failing, that it's not interesting.”

Julie Taymor (1952) American film and theatre director

Academy of Achievement interview (2006)

“If A is A, a philosopher should equal a philosopher. But that's not the way the cosmos works. Similar things set themselves apart from one another. …What's more, opposites are joined at the hip. Einstein says that most creative acts come from opposition. They come from pitting yourself against someone with another point of view. They come from the law of differentiation. And that was true of Aristotle and his law of identity, his law of noncontradiction, his construction for the base for A is A. Aristotle came up with his idea… to fling a finger in the face of another philosopher [Heraclitus]…”

Howard Bloom (1943) American publicist and author

When a Frog is a River? Aristotle Wrestles Heraclitus
The God Problem: How a Godless Cosmos Creates (2012)

Law, Way, Idea

“You must not believe me. You must realize it in yourself know it, for it is beyond words and thinking. And it has to be experienced without recourse to drugs or insanity.”

Barry Long (1926–2003) Australian spiritual teacher and writer

Knowing Yourself: The True in the False (1996)

Thinking

“"Mulla, Mulla, my son has written from the Abode of Learning to say that he has completely finished his studies!"
"Console yourself, madam, with the thought that God will no doubt send him more."”

Nasreddin (1208–1284) philosopher, Sufi and wise man from Turkey, remembered for his funny stories and anecdotes

Idries Shah, The Subtleties of the Inimitable Mulla Nasrudin (1973), , p. 134

God, Study, Learning

“Not believing others implies that you yourself are deceitful. The liar suffers twice: he neither believes nor is believed.”

Baltasar Gracián book The Art of Worldly Wisdom

Quanto que el no creer es indicio del mentir; porque el mentiroso tiene dos males, que ni cree ni es creído.
Maxim 154 (p. 87)
The Art of Worldly Wisdom (1647)

Suffering

“If people have personal conversations about very emotional matters in public, and people reveal parts of their body that were originally kept covered, and pornography is becoming semi-respectable, it makes you think the push for greater freedom and divesting yourself of inhibitions is a real human need. I'm 54, so I'm further back upon the road. We certainly did a fair amount of divesting ourselves of inhibitions, but there seems to have been a quantum leap in the last half a generation. Maybe we're destined to be freer, but it's taking odd forms, like showing your big gut to all the world and discussing the future of your marriage at a bus stop with 30 people listening in.”

Martin Amis (1949) Welsh novelist

Playboy interview (2003)

Marriage, People, World, Thinking

“I had a dream where the car is reduced to a fossil
I had a dream where the car is reduced to a fossil
Take a packet of seeds, take yourself out to play
I want to see a river of orchids where we had a motorway”

Andy Partridge (1953) British musician

"River of Orchids.
Apple Venus Volume 1 (1999)

Dreams, Cars

“Rona Barrett: Would you like to be the President of the United States?
Donald Trump: I really don't believe I would, Rona. But I would like to see somebody as the president who could do the job, and there are very capable people in this country.
Barrett: Why wouldn't you dedicate yourself to public service?
Trump: Because I think it's a very mean life. I would love, and I would dedicate my life to this country but I see it as being a mean life, and I also see it in somebody with strong views, and somebody with the kind of views that are maybe a little bit unpopular, which may be right, but may be unpopular, wouldn't necessarily have a chance of getting elected against somebody with no great brain but a big smile.”

Donald J. Trump (1946) 45th President of the United States of America

An interview https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-stat/graphics/politics/trump-archive/docs/rona-barrett-1980-interview-of-donald-trump.pdf with Rona Barrett (1980) 1980s

Love, Life, People, Smile

“You talk a great deal about building a better world for your children, but when you are young you can no more envision a world inherited by your children than you can conceive of dying. The society you mold, you mold for yourself.
It was this way with my generation. We were unhappy with what we inherited and we tried to reshape it in ways that would make it more tolerable to us. You were not uppermost in our thoughts.
Now, in middle age, some of us are trying to rewrite history. Some of us tell you, "We labored and dared and sacrificed — all for you — yet we hear no thanks."
You will not be unduly moved, I hope, by these laments. They are sentimental cries from persons so attached to the society they have rebuilt that they cannot bear the thought of seeing it overhauled by new proprietors.”

Russell Baker (1925–2019) writer and satirst from the United States

"The Becoming Looseness of Doom" (p.79)
There's a Country in My Cellar (1990)

Children, Age, World, Hope

“External success has to do with people who may see me as a model, or an example, or a representative. As much as I may dislike or want to reject that responsibility, this is something that comes with public success. It's important to give others a sense of hope that it is possible and you can come from really different places in the world and find your own place in the world that's unique for yourself.”

Amy Tan (1952) American novelist

American Acheivement interview (1996)

People, World, Hope, Sense

Quotes about yourself page 29

Quotes about yourself
page 29