Quotes about yourself page 5
“Love yourself. Then forget it.
Then, love the world.”
Mary Oliver (1935–2019) American writer
Source: Evidence: Poems
“Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.”
Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish writer and poet
Joel Osteen (1963) American televangelist and author
Source: Your Best Life Now: 7 Steps to Living at Your Full Potential
Bertrand Russell (1872–1970) logician, one of the first analytic philosophers and political activist
Source: The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever
Masaru Emoto (1943–2014) Japanese writer
Source: Secret Life of Water
“Hell isn't other people. Hell is yourself.”
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher
“Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self.”
Cyril Connolly (1903–1974) British author
The New Statesman (1933-02-25)
Marcus Garvey (1887–1940) Jamaica-born British political activist, Pan-Africanist, orator, and entrepreneur
“… don't read anything except what destroys the insulation between yourself and your experience…”
Louise Erdrich (1954) writer from the United States
Mark Nepo (1951) American writer
Source: The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have
“Don't call yourself a secret
unless you mean to keep it.”
Leonard Cohen Selected Poems 1956–1968
Source: Selected Poems 1956-1968
Carol Shields (1935–2003) American author
Source: The Republic of Love
“The most important thing to do if you find yourself in a hole is to stop digging.”
Warren Buffett (1930) American business magnate, investor, and philanthropist
“Get books, sit yourself down anywhere, and go to reading them yourself.”
Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865) 16th President of the United States
“Ask yourself a question: Is my attitude worth catching?”
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
“If you make friends with yourself, you'll never be alone.”
Maxwell Maltz (1889–1975) Plastic surgeon, self-help author
Variant: If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone.
“But why should you care what people will say? All you have to do is please yourself.”
Ayn Rand (1905–1982) Russian-American novelist and philosopher
Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) English author
Source: Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch
“The trouble is if you don’t spend your life yourself, other people spend it for you.”
Peter Shaffer (1926–2016) English playwright and screenwriter
Source: Five Finger Exercise
Source: Masterpiece
“But you can vanquish the demons only when you yourself are convinced of your own worth.”
Adeline Yen Mah (1937) Author and physician
Source: Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
“Do not allow yourself to be misled by the surfaces of things.”
Rainer Maria Rilke book Letters to a Young Poet
Source: Letters to a Young Poet
Karl Marx (1818–1883) German philosopher, economist, sociologist, journalist and revolutionary socialist
Attributed to Karl Marx, a composer with the same name.
Misattributed
Alice Munro book Runaway
Source: Runaway (2004)
Context: This is what happens. You put it away for a little while, and now and again you look in the closet for something else and you remember, and you think, soon. Then it becomes something that is just there, in the closet, and other things get crowded in front of it and on top of it and finally you don't think about it at all.
The thing that was your bright treasure. You don't think about it. A loss you could not contemplate at one time, and now it becomes something you can barely remember.
This is what happens.
Few people, very few, have a treasure, and if you do you must hang onto it. You must not let yourself be waylaid, and have it taken from you.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American politician, diplomat, and activist, and First Lady of the United States
“But, if you have nothing at all to create, then perhaps you create yourself.”
C.G. Jung (1875–1961) Swiss psychiatrist and psychotherapist who founded analytical psychology
“To be understood is to prostitute yourself.”
Fernando Pessoa (1888–1935) Portuguese poet, writer, literary critic, translator, publisher and philosopher
Ibid., p. 136
The Book of Disquiet
Original: Ser compreendido é prostituir-se.
Source: Poems of Fernando Pessoa
Katherine Mansfield (1888–1923) New Zealand author
Source: Journal entry (14 October 1922), published in The Journal of Katherine Mansfield (1927)
“To believe yourself brave is to be brave; it is the one only essential thing.”
Mark Twain (1835–1910) American author and humorist
Source: Joan of Arc
Anne Frank (1929–1945) victim of the Holocaust and author of a diary
7 May 1944
(1942 - 1944)
Source: The Diary of a Young Girl
“Sometimes you have to lie. But to yourself you must always tell the truth.”
Louise Fitzhugh book Harriet the Spy
Source: Harriet the Spy
Emil M. Cioran book The Trouble With Being Born
And they do calm down.
The Trouble With Being Born (1973)
Source: The Trouble with Being Born
“When you can't save yourself or your heart, it helps to be able to save face.”
Sarah Dessen book What Happened to Goodbye
What Happened To Goodbye (2011)
Source: What Happened to Goodbye
E.E. Cummings (1894–1962) American poet
A Poet's Advice (1958)
Context: Almost anybody can learn to think or believe or know, but not a single human being can be taught to feel …
the moment you feel, you're nobody-but-yourself.
To be nobody-but-yourself — in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else — means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
“Chaos is rejecting all you have learned. Chaos is being yourself.”
Emil M. Cioran book A Short History of Decay
Source: A Short History of Decay (1949)
“Lord Raoul asked me to tell you that if you get yourself killed, he will never speak to you again.”
Tamora Pierce (1954) American writer of fantasy novels for children
Variant: I love you, if you get yourself killed, I will never forgive you.
Zig Ziglar (1926–2012) American motivational speaker
Source: Something to Smile about: Encouragement and Inspiration for Life's Ups and Downs
George Washington (1732–1799) first President of the United States
This is from a set of maxims which Washington copied out in his own hand as a school-boy: "Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/the-rules-of-civility/" Rule # 56 written out by Washington ca. 1744:<br>: These maxims originated in the late sixteenth century in France and were popularly circulated during Washington's time. Washington wrote out a copy of the 110 Rules in his school book when he was about sixteen-years old... During the days before mere hero worship had given place to understanding and comprehension of the fineness of Washington's character, of his powerful influence among men, and of the epoch-making nature of the issues he so largely shaped, it was assumed that Washington himself composed the maxims, or at least that he compiled them. It is a satisfaction to find that his consideration for others, his respect for and deference to those deserving such treatment, his care of his own body and tongue, and even his reverence for his Maker, all were early inculcated in him by precepts which were the common practice in decent society the world over. These very maxims had been in use in France for a century and a half, and in England for a century, before they were set as a task for the schoolboy Washington.<br>:* Charles Moore in his Introduction to George Washington's Rules of Civility and Decent Behaviour in Company and Conversation (1926) http://gwpapers.virginia.edu/documents/civility/index.html, edited by Charles Moore, xi-xv <br class="br">Misattributed
“Once a day allow yourself the freedom to dream…”
Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity
Variant: At least once a day, allow yourself the freedom to think and dream for yourself.
“The better you feel about yourself, the less you feel the need to show off.”
Robert Hand (1942) American astrologer and writer
“You can't think decently if you're not willing to hurt yourself”
Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889–1951) Austrian-British philosopher