Quotes about yourself
page 4

“The pursuit of success is marked by numerous characteristics; including, perseverance, commitment, education, and wisdom, to name a few. The road to failure can also be described with countless personality traits, including, unreliable, indolence, ignorance, and ineptitude.
However, during my thirty years as an administrator I have witnessed the most significant rationale for failure that cannot be described in a single word. It is a characteristic some people possess, often referred to by psychologists as the, need-to-be-liked-syndrome. Unfortunately, for some, their existence is predicated upon pleasing others, and seeking approval and recognition. They have become an inmate or prisoner to the thoughts and opinions of others.
In other words, they lack self-value, and therefore must receive it from others. When you do not value yourself, then it will be difficult to obtain joy and contentment in one’s life. Remember; you have worth and value.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1997

Life, Wisdom, People, Education

“When you look deeply into yourself you may be able to see that there is, in this moment, a quality of aliveness that is animating you that is not philosophical and is not abstract. It's independent of what you think about it, what you believe about it and what you feel about it. It's always there! it is animating your breath, It is coursing the spirit, it is what makes it possible for you to think and speak and see and hear.”

Alexis Karpouzos (1967)

Source: The self-criticism of science

“Stop trying to heal yourself; fix yourself; even awaken yourself. Stop trying to Fast-Forward the movie of your life Let go of 'letting go'. Healing is not a destination.
Your pain, your sorrow, your doubts, your longings, your fearful thoughts: they are not mistakes, and they are not asking to be 'healed'. They are asking to be held. Here, now, lightly in the loving, healing arms of present awareness.”

Jeff Foster (1980) Spiritual teacher

“What I’m learning is that growth is ugly.

It’s not bubble baths and self-help books that teach you how to love yourself.

It’s fighting, kicking and screaming against the self-doubt that weighs you down.

It’s panicking at the possibility of failure while still moving forward anyway.

It’s slowly peeling out of your skin and feeling the tenderness of a touch without armour.

The process of growth is ugly, but it’s the product that makes it worthwhile.”

Unknown author

“Never allow yourself to become comfortable for that is when fear is guiding your decisions. Confronting fear can be exciting and exhilarating. Let others believe your mad. Only you require truth.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1980

Truth, Fear, Decision, Madness

“When you capture a woman’s soul prior to a sexual encounter, consider yourself extremely fortunate.”

Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola)

1980

Soul

“You have to believe in yourself.”

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

“If you do not express your own original ideas, if you do not listen to your own being, you will have betrayed yourself.”

Rollo May (1909–1994) US psychiatrist

Idea

“Above all, do not forget your duty to love yourself.”

Sören Kierkegaard (1813–1855) Danish philosopher and theologian, founder of Existentialism

Love, Forgetting

“Reading more books will only confuse you more and you will be dreaming about success instead of becoming successful yourself.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Books, Dreams, Reading, Success

“To be great you must divorce yourself from your society and culture.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Sometimes, you just can't help yourself but to learn quickly when being taught by the opposite gender.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Learning, Help

“You are living for the sake of love and your life is not free from wanting more love or pleasure to yourself.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

Love, Life, Pleasure

“You must know yourself first instead of following blindly like sheep.”

Mwanandeke Kindembo (1996) Congolese author

“Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.”

Rumi (1207–1273) Iranian poet

https://twitter.com/wise_chimp/status/1488946174321205253?s=21

Universe

“You better lose yourself in the music, the moment
You own it, you better never let it go
You only get one shot, do not miss your chance to blow
This opportunity comes once in a lifetime, yo!”

Eminem (1972) American rapper and actor

"Lose Yourself" (from 8 Mile, 2002)
2000s

Music, Chance

“(Engr. Abah Sule favorite speech)1. Give birth to yourself. 2. Others are feeling the same. 3. As a man you got to be strong. 4. Love the one you are with, 5. Where challenges are important, 6. to live is the hardest, to die is the simplest. 7. Peace of mind, long life, 8. Can't be done without you. 9. Do what's real. 10. Live the world and live your life.”

Engr.Abah Sule

Love, Life, World, Peace

“silence serves time, for you and yourself,
though it tells nothing, it gives everything”

Josephs Quartzy (1999) Tanzanian actor

Source: Sweetest song I know

Silence, Time

“If you are not truthful and if you are not in reality about yourself and if you are not in reality about the truth of other people, you have no chance at being happy in any of your relationships.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

Happiness, People, Truth, Reality

“Gratitude eliminates negativity, disappointment, resentment, and anger. And when those emotions disappear, room is made for the energy of love for God, for life, and for yourself to reappear—now more fully than ever.”

Neale Donald Walsch (1943) American writer

Love, Life, God, Disappointment

“The freedom to grow personally, the freedom to make mistakes and learn from them, the freedom to work hard and the freedom to be yourself - these four freedoms should be guaranteed by every leader in every organization.”

Mike Krzyzewski (1947) American basketball player and coach

Freedom, Learning, Personality

“You must really begin to harden yourself to the idea of being worth looking at.”

Jane Austen book Mansfield Park

Source: Mansfield Park

Idea

“If you follow the classical pattern, you are understanding the routine, the tradition, the shadow -- you are not understanding yourself.”

Bruce Lee book Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Source: Tao of Jeet Kune Do

Understanding

“There is only one journey. Going inside yourself.”

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian poet and writer

“Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: A New Earth: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose

People

“And as long as you are in any way ashamed before yourself, you do not yet belong with us.”

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) German philosopher, poet, composer, cultural critic, and classical philologist

Source: The Gay Science

Way

“Learn to get in touch with the silence within yourself and know that everything in this life has a purpose.”

Elisabeth Kübler-Ross (1926–2004) American psychiatrist

Life, Silence, Learning

“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

Variant: 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.
Source: City of Ashes

People, Truth

“You'll never understand the way the worlds really work until you surround yourself with people from all sorts of weird backgrounds.”

Brian K. Vaughan (1976) American screenwriter, comic book creator

Source: Saga, Vol. 6

People, World, Way, Understanding

“If you want anything done right you will have to see to it yourself every time.”

Charles Portis book True Grit

Source: True Grit (1968), Chapter 5, p. 75 : thoughts of 'Mattie Ross'

Time

“You can hold yourself back from the sufferings of the world, that is something you are free to do and it accords with your nature, but perhaps this very holding back is the one suffering you could avoid.”

Franz Kafka book The Zürau Aphorisms

Du kannst Dich zurückhalten von den Leiden der Welt, das ist Dir freigestellt und entspricht Deiner Natur, aber vielleicht ist gerade dieses Zurückhalten das einzige Leid, das Du vermeiden könntest.
104
The Zürau Aphorisms (1917 - 1918)

World, Nature, Suffering

“People were people, even if they had four legs and had called themselves names like Dangerous Beans, which is the kind of name you gave yourself if you learned to read before you understood what all the words actually meant.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

Source: The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

People, Learning, Reading

“Change your conception of yourself and you will automatically change the world in which you live. Do not try to change people; they are only messengers telling you who you are. Revalue yourself and they will confirm the change.”

Neville Goddard (1905–1972) American author and lecturer

Source: Your Faith is Your Fortune

People, World, Change

“If you trust in yourself… and believe in your dreams… and follow your star… you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”

Terry Pratchett book The Wee Free Men

Variant: Now... if you trust in yourself... and believe in your dreams... and follow your star... you'll still get beaten by people who spenttime working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy. Goodbye.
Source: The Wee Free Men

People, Dreams, Star, Learning

“If your compassion does not include yourself, it is incomplete.”

Jack Kornfield (1945) American writer

Source: Buddha's Little Instruction Book

“If you realize that you're the problem, then you can change yourself, learn something and grow wiser. Don't blame other people for your problems.”

Robert T. Kiyosaki book Rich Dad Poor Dad

Source: Rich Dad, Poor Dad

People, Problem, Learning, Change

“Drowning yourself won't help, she told herself sternly. Now, drowning Will, on the other hand…”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Angel

Source: Clockwork Angel

Help

“Never tire yourself more than necessary, even if you have to found a culture on the fatigue of your bones.”

Antonin Artaud (1896–1948) French-Occitanian poet, playwright, actor and theatre director

Ci-Gît (1947).

“… you realize that you don't understand yourself any better than you understand anyone else.”

Jonathan Tropper (1970) American writer

Source: This is Where I Leave You

Understanding

“But you ain't part of it, are you?" said Granny conversationally. "You try, but you always find yourself watchin' yourself watchin' people, eh? Never quite believin' anything? Thinkin' the wrong thoughts?”

Terry Pratchett book Maskerade

Source: Maskerade

People, Parting

“When you are a child you are yourself and you know and see everything prophetically. And then suddenly something happens and you stop being yourself; you become what others force you to be. You lose your wisdom and your soul.”

Jean Rhys (1890–1979) novelist from Dominica

Source: After Leaving Mr. Mackenzie

Wisdom, Soul

“Be Yourself. Everyone Else Is Already Taken.”

Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet

Anonymous advertising copywriter for Menards chain of hardware stores (2000), according to Quote Investigator http://quoteinvestigator.com/2014/01/20/be-yourself <br class="br">Misattributed

Deep, Inspirational, Attitude, Positive

“Seeing the world with all the unspoiled simplicity of a young child, you are free from concepts of beauty and ugliness, good and evil, and no longer fall prey to conflicting tendencies driven by desire or repulsion. Why trouble yourself about all the ups and downs of daily life, like a child who delights in building a sand castle but cries when it collapses? To get what they want and be rid of what they dislike, look how people throw themselves into torments, like moths plunging into the flame of a lamp! Would it not be better to put down your heavy burden of dreamlike obsessions once and for all?”

Dilgo Khyentse (1910–1991) Bhutanese Buddhist Lama

Source: The Hundred Verses of Advice: Tibetan Buddhist Teachings on What Matters Most

Life, People, World, Beauty

“It starts with this: put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down there to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room. Life isn't a support system for art. It's the other way around.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

Source: On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Life, Art, Way, Support

“Try for once to justify the meaning of your existence as it were a posteriori by setting yourself an aim, a goal… an exalted and noble 'to this end.' Perish in pursuit of this and only this”

Friedrich Nietzsche Untimely Meditations

Source: Untimely Meditations

“If you try to view yourself through the lenses that others offer you, all you will see are distortions; your own light and beauty will become blurred, awkward, and ugly. Your sense of inner beauty has to remain a very private thing.”

John O'Donohue (1956–2008) Irish writer, priest and philosopher

Source: Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Beauty, Sense, Light

“To write well, express yourself like the common people, but think like a wise man.”

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

People, Thinking

“How can you spend hours every day trying in small ways to figure out who you are, then have a near-stranger give you a sentence of yourself that says it better than you ever could?”

David Levithan (1972) American author and editor

Source: Naomi and Ely's No Kiss List

Way

“Focusing your life solely on making a buck shows a certain poverty of ambition. It asks too little of yourself. … Because it’s only when you hitch your wagon to something larger than yourself that you realize your true potential.”

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

Knox College Commencement Address (4 June 2005)
2005

Life

“We live but for a short time, we see but very little, and we know almost nothing; so, at least, let's do some dreaming. Have yourself a very good Sunday, my dear readers.”

Orhan Pamuk book The Black Book

Source: The Black Book

Dreams, Time

“Destiny doesn't do home visits… you have to go for it yourself.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Prisoner of Heaven

Source: The Prisoner of Heaven

Home

“What is the thing you want most from me? What can I do to make you love me?'

Be yourself,' said Ipek.”

Orhan Pamuk book Snow

Source: Snow

Love

“Love, joy, and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Love, Peace, Joy

“It's very hard to stop doing things you're used to doing. You almost have to dismantle yourself and scatter it all around and then put a blindfold on and put it back together so that you avoid old habits.”

Tom Waits (1949) American singer-songwriter and actor

“Where is Polonius?
HAMLET
In heaven. Send hither to see. If your messenger find him not there, seek him i' th' other place yourself. But if indeed you find him not within this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby.”

William Shakespeare Hamlet

Source: Hamlet

“All you realy need to do is accept this moment fully. You are then at ease in the here and now and at ease with yourself.”

Eckhart Tolle (1948) German writer

Source: Practicing the Power of Now: Essential Teachings, Meditations, and Exercises from the Power of Now

“Once you have surrendered yourself, you make yourself receptive. In receiving from God, you are perfected and completed.”

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

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

God, Perfection

“I think you judge yourself too severely, a quality that always distinguishes people of true worth.”

Carlos Ruiz Zafón book The Angel's Game

Source: The Angel's Game

People, Thinking

“When you are guilty, it is not your sins you hate but yourself.”

Anthony de Mello (1931–1987) Indian writer

Violence
Source: One Minute Wisdom (1989)

Hate

“Watch out for each other. Love everyone and forgive everyone, including yourself. Forgive your anger. Forgive your guilt. Your shame. Your sadness. Embrace and open up your love, your joy, your truth, and most especially your heart.”

Jim Henson (1936–1990) American puppeteer

Love, Truth, Sadness, Forgiveness

“Be yourself. Be true to that, to your heart. Patience. See what happens if you step back instead of bounding forward.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

Heart, Patience

“Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.”

Mitch Albom Tuesdays with Morrie

Source: Tuesdays with Morrie (1997)
Context: So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning.

Love, Communication

“Emancipate yourself from mental slavery,
None but ourselves can free our minds.
Have no fear for atomic energy,
'Cause none of them can stop the time.”

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

Redemption Song; the song was inspired by a speech by Marcus Garvey in Nova Scotia in October 1937, published in his Black Man magazine, Vol. 3, no. 10 (July 1938), pp. 7-11:
We are going to emancipate ourselves from mental slavery because whilst others might free the body, none but ourselves can free the mind. Mind is your only ruler, sovereign. The man who is not able to develop and use his mind is bound to be the slave of the other man who uses his mind.
Uprising (1979)

Fear, Time

“Don't compromise yourself - you're all you have.”

John Grisham book The Rainmaker

The Rainmaker

“For it is easy to criticize and break down the spirit of others, but to know yourself takes a lifetime.”

Bruce Lee (1940–1973) Hong Kong-American actor, martial artist, philosopher and filmmaker

Source: Striking Thoughts: Bruce Lee's Wisdom for Daily Living

“Be miserable. Or motivate yourself. Whatever has to be done, it's always your choice.”

Wayne W. Dyer (1940–2015) American writer

Motivation, Motivational, Deep, Success

“There was so much in you that charmed me that I felt I must tell you something about yourself. I thought how tragic it would be if you were wasted.”

Oscar Wilde book The Picture of Dorian Gray

Source: The Picture of Dorian Gray

“If you develop an ear for sounds that are musical it is like developing an ego. You begin to refuse sounds that are not musical and that way cut yourself off from a good deal of experience.”

John Cage (1912–1992) American avant-garde composer

Music, Way

“I'll give you the whole secret to short story writing. Here it is. Rule 1: Write stories that please yourself. There is no Rule 2.”

O. Henry (1862–1910) American short story writer

Secret

“The highest, most decisive experience is to be alone with one's own self. You must be alone to find out what supports you, when you find that you can not support yourself. Only this experience can give you an indestructible foundation.”

C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology

Support, Decision

“Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others.”

Morrie Schwartz (1916–1995) American sociologist

Forgiveness, Learning

“Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Paris Review interview (1958)
Context: Always dream and shoot higher than you know you can do. Don't bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself. An artist is a creature driven by demons. He don’t know why they choose him and he’s usually too busy to wonder why. He is completely amoral in that he will rob, borrow, beg, or steal from anybody and everybody to get the work done.

Dreams

“Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less. Humility is thinking more of others.”

Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader

Day 19: Cultivating Community
The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth Am I Here For? (2002)
Variant: Humility is not thinking less of yourself, it’s thinking of yourself less.
Source: The Purpose Driven Life: What on Earth am I Here for?

Thinking

“Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe remember you can achieve.”

Mary Kay Ash (1918–2001) Entrepreneur

People, Thinking, For women

“When you judge others, you do not define them, you define yourself”

Earl Nightingale (1921–1989) American motivational speaker

“Forgive yourself for your faults and your mistakes and move on.”

Les Brown (1945) American politician

Forgiveness, Moving On

“Best be yourself, imperial, plain, and true.”

Robert Browning (1812–1889) English poet and playwright of the Victorian Era

“Do you know, darling? When you became involved with others you quite possibly stepped down a level or two, but If you become involved with me, you will be throwing yourself into the abyss.”

Franz Kafka book Letters to Milena

Source: Letters to Milena

“In marriage you are not sacrificing yourself to the other person. You are sacrificing yourself to the relationship.”

Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) American mythologist, writer and lecturer

Source: A Joseph Campbell Companion: Reflections on the Art of Living

Marriage, Personality

“You are your own teacher. Looking for teachers can’t solve your own doubts. Investigate yourself to find the truth - inside, not outside. Knowing yourself is most important.”

Ajahn Chah (1918–1992) thai Buddhist monk

Truth, Teachers

“You cannot consistently perform in a manner which is inconsistent with the way you see yourself.”

Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker

Way

“Writing is the most fun you can have by yourself.”

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author

“Falling hard for somebody makes you do things you never thought you'd do before. Like pulling off an A in History or finally facing the truth about yourself”

Steve Kluger book Almost Like Being in Love

Source: Almost Like Being in Love

Truth, History

“If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

Variant: If you can't explain it to a six year old, you don't understand it yourself.

Understanding

“Give yourself five minutes to consider how you can turn a miserable situation to your benefit and that light bulb is going to click on.”

Haruki Murakami book Dance Dance Dance

Source: Dance Dance Dance

Light

“If you love someone but rarely make yourself available to him or her, that is not true love.”

Thich Nhat Hanh (1926) Religious leader and peace activist

Source: Living Buddha, Living Christ

Love

“Keep reminding yourself that literature is one of the saddest roads that leads to everything.”

André Breton (1896–1966) French writer

Le Manifeste du Surréalisme, Andre Breton (Manifesto of Surrealism; 1924)
Context: After you have settled yourself in a place as favorable as possible to the concentration of your mind upon itself, have writing materials brought to you. Put yourself in as passive, or receptive, a state of mind as you can. Forget about your genius, your talents, and the talents of everyone else. Keep reminding yourself that literature is one of the saddest roads that lead to everything. Write quickly, without any preconceived subject, fast enough so that you will not remember what you're writing and be tempted to reread what you have written. The first sentence will come spontaneously, so compelling is the truth that with every passing second there is a sentence unknown to our consciousness which is only crying out to be heard.

Literature

“Keep on being yourself.”

Hugh Laurie (1959) British actor, comedian, writer, musician and director

“You are old beyond your years Zoeybird. Believe in yourself and you will find a way. But remember darkness does not always equate to evil just like light does not always bring good.”

P. C. Cast book Marked

Source: Marked

Way, Light, Evil

“There are moments in life that you wish with all your heart you could take back. Like, just erase from existence. Like, if you could, you'd erase yourself right out of existence too, just to make that moment not exist.”

Jenny Han (1980) American writer

Source: It's Not Summer Without You

Life, Heart

“Romance takes place in the middle distance. Romance is looking in at yourself through a window clouded with dew. Romance means leaving things out: where life grunts and shuffles, romance only sighs.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

Life

“And you should not let yourself be confused in your solitude by the fact that there is something in you that wants to move out of it.”

Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet

Source: Letters to a Young Poet

Solitude

“There comes a point when you either embrace who and what you are, or condemn yourself to be miserable all your days. Other people will try to make you miserable; don't help them by doing the job yourself.”

Laurell K. Hamilton (1963) Novelist

People, Help

“There's nothing wrong with not understanding yourself.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Source: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close

Understanding

“Very few people do this any more. It's too risky. First of all, it's a hell of a responsibility to be yourself. It's much easier to be somebody else or nobody at all.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

Source: The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

People, Hell

“Throwing yourself into a job you enjoy is one of the life's greatest pleasures!”

Richard Branson (1950) English business magnate, investor and philanthropist

Source: Business Stripped Bare: Adventures of a Global Entrepreneur

Life, Pleasure

“Ask yourself these three questions, Tatiana Metanova, and you will know who you are. Ask: What do believe in? What do you hope for? What do you love?”

Paullina Simons book The Bronze Horseman

Variant: Ask yourself three questions and you will know who you are. Ask 'What do you believe in? What do you hope for? But most important - ask what do you love?
Source: The Bronze Horseman (2001)

Love, Hope, Question