Self Knowing Quotes:

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.

- Henry David Thoreau

topic: Wisdom, Travel, Character, Discovering Yourself, Inner Journey

If you don't know yourself, you don't know your nature. If you don't know your nature, you don't know where to exist. By knowing your nature, knowing yourself, you know what to be and how to live. And that only comes from knowledge of self, knowing yourself.

- RZA

source: Source: www.avclub.com

topic: Knowing, Self, Know Yourself, Self Knowing

Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

- Carl Jung

source: Carl Gustav Jung (1973). “Letters”

topic: Life, Beautiful, Dream, Soul Life, Source Of Life

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

- Anna Quindlen

source: Anna Quindlen (2009). “Being Perfect”, p.15, Random House

topic: Confidence, Letting Go, Being Yourself, Discovering Yourself, Amazing Woman

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

- Aristotle

topic: Inspirational, Business, Self Esteem, Discovering Yourself, Inner Growth

There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that's your own self.

- Aldous Huxley

source: Time Must Have a Stop (1945) ch. 7

topic: Inspirational, Motivational, Positive, Improving Yourself, Discovering Self

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

- Laozi

topic: Inspirational, Knowing, Know Yourself, Personal Power, Spiritual Wisdom

One's own self is well hidden from one's own self; of all mines of treasure, one's own is the last to be dug up.

- Friedrich Nietzsche

topic: Self, Treasure, Lasts, Discovering Yourself, Discovering Self

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.

- Carl Jung

topic: Inspirational, Wise, Dream, Discovering Yourself, Self Discovery

All men should strive to learn before they die, what they are running from, and to, and why.

- James Thurber

source: James Thurber (1978). “Further fables for our time”, Simon & Schuster

topic: Running, Humor, Learning, Discovering Yourself, Learning About Yourself

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.

- Oscar Wilde

topic: Funny, Being Yourself, Witty, Discovering Yourself, Just Being You

Know the enemy and know yourself; in a hundred battles you will never peril.

- Sun Tzu

topic: Inspirational, Art, Fear, Knowing Others, Military History

Let your heart guide you...it whispers so listen closely.

- Walt Disney

topic: Spiritual, Heart, Guides, Discovery And Travel, Close To My Heart

Man never knows what he wants; he aspires to penetrate mysteries and as soon as he has, wants to re-establish them. Ignorance irritates him and knowledge cloys.

- Henri Frederic Amiel

topic: Ignorance, Knowledge, Men, Discovering Yourself, Discovering Self

Know thy self, know thy enemy. A thousand battles, a thousand victories.

- Sun Tzu

topic: Strength, Peace, Self, War Strategy, Wars And Battles

Like an old gold-panning prospector, you must resign yourself to digging up a lot of sand from which you will later patiently wash out a few minute particles of gold ore.

- Dorothy Bryant

topic: Gold, Digging, Sand, Discovering Yourself, Old Self

Becoming conscious is of course a sacrilege against nature; it is as though you had robbed the unconscious of something.

- Carl Jung

topic: Becoming, Conscious, True Self, Discovering Yourself, Sacrilege

For most men, life is a search for the proper Manila envelope in which to get themselves filed.

- Clifton Fadiman

topic: Funny Life, Men, Envelopes, Manila, Discovering Yourself

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms.

- Henry David Thoreau

source: Walden ch. 2 (1854)

topic: Life, Cutting, Wish, Marrow, Discovering Yourself

The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart.

- Julien Green

topic: Heart, Men, Discovery, Discovering Yourself, Realisation

Resolve to be thyself: and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery.

- Matthew Arnold

source: 'Self-Dependence' (1852) l. 31

topic: Inspirational, Inspiring, Sadness, Discovering Yourself, Old Self

You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.

- James Anthony Froude

source: James Anthony Froude (1849). “The nemesis of faith”, p.4

topic: Inspirational, Life, Motivational, Good Character, Forged

The unexamined life is not worth living.

- Socrates

topic: Inspirational Life, Life Is, Unexamined Life, Inner Life, Journey Of Self Discovery

Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

topic: Running, Discovery, Self, Knowing Myself, Finding Myself

I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.

- Michel de Montaigne

topic: Finding Yourself, Fleeing, Finding Oneself, Discovering Self, Discovering Your True Self

Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes.

- Hugh Prather

source: Hugh Prather (2009). “Notes to Myself: My Struggle to Become a Person”, p.41, Bantam

topic: Change, Life Changing, Live Life, Just Living Life, Learning About Yourself

People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.

- Thomas Szasz

source: Thomas Stephen Szasz (2004). “Words to the Wise: A Medical-Philosophical Dictionary”, p.139, Transaction Publishers

topic: Life, Wisdom, Self, Discovering Yourself, Lost Yourself

A man's growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

topic: Friendship, Real Friends, Greatness, Discovering Self, Discovering Your True Self

People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering... Now, let us acknowledge the wonder of our physical incarnation- that we are here, in these particular bodies, at this particular time, in these particular circumstances. May we never take for granted the gift of our individuality.

- Saint Augustine

topic: Gratitude, Stars, Ocean, Discovering Your True Self, Discovery In Life

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

- Carl Jung

source: Carl Gustav Jung (1973). “Memories, dreams, reflections”, Random House Inc

topic: Relationship, Leadership, Spiritual, Social Interaction, Inner Darkness

Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice.

- Steve Jobs

source: Commencement Address at Stanford University, delivered 12 June 2005, Palo Alto, CA

topic: Love, Inspirational, Life, Inner Voice, Job Growth

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.

- Jean de La Fontaine

source: "The Fables of La Fontaine: Book VIII". Book by Jean de La Fontaine, 1678 - 1679.

topic: Journey, Destiny, Finding Yourself, Pandas, Discovering Yourself

Do you know how powerful you are?

- Puff Daddy

source: "10 Quotes From Diddy’s Howard Commencement Speech" by Iyana Robertson, www.vibe.com. May 11, 2014.

topic: Powerful, Inspiring Self Esteem, Is It Worth It, My Self Worth, Love My Self

Know thyself means this, that you get acquainted with what you know, and what you can do.

- Menander

topic: Inspirational, Mean, Development And Growth, Personal Growth And Development, Personal Influence

It's a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.

- Lucille Ball

topic: Happiness, Spring, Insperational, Always Happy, Joy Happiness

There are things which a man is afraid to tell even to himself, and every decent man has a number of such things stored away in his mind.

- Fyodor Dostoevsky

topic: Men, Numbers, Finding Yourself, Discovering Yourself, Self Discovery

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one's self.

- Benjamin Franklin

topic: Acceptance, Self, Three, Self Discovery, Discovering Self

Know yourself. Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.

- Ann Landers

topic: Dog, Finding Yourself, Admiration, Man And Dog, Inspirational Dog

Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.

- William Butler Yeats

topic: Men, History, Finding Yourself, Self Realization, Discovering Your True Self

I can teach anybody how to get, what they want out of life. The problem is that I can't find anybody who can tell me what they want. Once you are crystal clear about the intended end result that you seek to produce, all the ways that it can become a done deal start to reveal themselves to you. There are many who have accomplished exactly what you want to achieve and could show you the way. You are not ready to ask them because you are not clear and you have not determined which questions need answers.

- Mark Twain

topic: Inspirational Life, Needs, Done, Discovering Yourself, Mission And Vision

You are very powerful, provided you know how powerful you are.

- Harbhajan Singh Yogi

topic: Inspirational, Powerful, Very Powerful, Inspiring Self Esteem, Is It Worth It

Something will be there when the flood recedes. We know that. It will be those people now standing in the water, and on those rooftops - many black, many poor. Homeless. Overlooked. And it will be New Orleans - though its memory may be shortened, its self-gaze and eccentricity scoured out so that what's left is a city more like other cities, less insular, less self-regarding, but possibly more self-knowing after today. A city on firmer ground.

- Richard Ford

topic: Memories, Self, Cities, Self Knowing

Drama criticism ... is a self-knowing account of the way in which one's consciousness has been modified during an evening at the theatre.

- Kenneth Tynan

topic: Drama, Self, Knowing, Self Knowing

Belief is self-knowing. Even Yoda out of Star Wars said, do or do not. There is no 'try'

- Gene Simmons

source: "Biography/ Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

topic: Stars, War, Self, Self Knowing

My hero is me. Why? Because I was a poor little kid who was told, `Hey stupid, can`t you speak English?` Now all those people work for me. Despite whatever circumstances I came across, I was always able to rise to the top and there`s only one way to do that - by being selfish, but also by believing in yourself. Belief is self-knowing. Even Yoda out of Star Wars said, `Do or do not. There is no try.

- Gene Simmons

source: "This much I know" by Luke Bainbridge, www.theguardian.com. May 15, 2004.

topic: Stars, War, Stupid, Self Knowing