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Quotes about knowing yourself
Montaigne said that he himself was the subject of his book, and then wrote about his kidney stones, his memory and his cat. Hardly anyone had put so much of an ordinary self on paper before.
Emerson went the other way in Self-Reliance, telling readers to trust their own thought over the crowd's. Goethe doubted you could know yourself by thinking at all, and pointed towards doing your duty. They disagree, and that's the reason to read all three.
From the books
Checked word for word against public-domain editions.
To be great is to be misunderstood.
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… every thing you said to-day.—‘Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.’—Is it so bad then to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
What you are you do not see, what you see is your shadow.
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Do not seat your love upon a precipice because it is high. 16 I sit at my window this morning where the world like a passer-by stops for a moment, nods to me and goes. 17 These little thoughts are the rustle of leaves; they have their whisper of joy in my mind. 18 What you are you do not see, what you see is your shadow. 19 My wishes are fools, they shout across thy songs, my Master. Let me but listen. 20 I cannot choose the best. The best chooses me. 21 They throw their shadows before them who carry their lantern on their back. 22 That I exist is a perpetual surprise which is life.
A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
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THE aphorism, "As a man thinketh in his heart so is he," not only embraces the whole of a man's being, but is so comprehensive as to reach out to every condition and circumstance of his life. A man is literally what he thinks, his character being the complete sum of all his thoughts.
Every thought is a prison also.
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… be directed on the body for a time, it causes cold, fever, and even death. How wearisome the grammarian, the phrenologist, the political or religious fanatic, or indeed any possessed mortal whose balance is lost by the exaggeration of a single topic. It is incipient insanity. Every thought is a prison also. I cannot see what you see, because I am caught up by a strong wind and blown so far in one direction that I am out of the hoop of your horizon.
The worst state of man is that wherein he loses the knowledge and government of himself.
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The worst state of man is that wherein he loses the knowledge and government of himself. And ‘tis said amongst other things upon this subject, that, as the must fermenting in a vessel, works up to the top whatever it has in the bottom, so wine, in those who have drunk beyond measure, vents the most inward secrets:
Judgment is given to men that they may use it.
If you would improve, submit to be considered without sense and foolish with respect to externals.
Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.
One’s own life—that is the important thing.
The great epochs of our life are at the points when we gain courage to rebaptize our badness as the best in us.
The small truth has words that are clear; the great truth has great silence.
Let every one mind his own business, and endeavor to be what he was made.
Of things some are in our power, and others are not.
Say what you have to say, not what you ought.
Opportunity makes us known to others, but more to ourselves.
You are good when you are one with yourself.
Blame is safer than praise.
To recover thy life is in thy power.
All men want, not something to do with, but something to do, or rather something to be.
This above all: to thine own self be true.
In all perplexity there is a portion of fear, which predisposes the mind to anger.
Let not these thoughts afflict you, I shall live unhonored and be nobody nowhere.
Make trial of your power, and you will know how far it reaches.
We read the world wrong and say that it deceives us.
Keep by every means what is your own; do not desire what belongs to others.
Grow wild according to thy nature, like these sedges and brakes, which will never become English hay.
Wish to be considered to know nothing; and if you shall seem to some to be a person of importance, distrust yourself.
To be good is to be in harmony with oneself.
The invulnerable is not that which is never struck, but that which is never wounded.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
Self-trust is the essence of heroism.
A man cannot speak but he judges himself.
Two men who live in the same house and do the same work may not live in the same world.
Man, if you are anything, both walk alone and talk to yourself, and do not hide yourself in the chorus.
You cannot shun yourself.
Our worst enemies are not outside but inside of us.
Popular sayings
Widely repeated lines with no name attached, because nobody can honestly put one on them.
Life is what you make it.
The bamboo that bends is stronger than the oak that resists.
You can't pour from an empty cup.
Don't take yourself too seriously.
What other people think of you is none of your business.
Silence is the best answer.
Think for yourself.
Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is rest.
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