The Self Quotes

That most risky and volatile of all things a self-pitying majority.

Creative life is always based on the values of the self, not on the values of the system.

Painting self-portraits without clothes on has also given me some publicity.

The "passion for incredulity" can produce as much self-deception as the uncritical will to believe.

Sanctimony and self-regard are as American as smallpox blankets and supersize meals.

People want to psychoanalyze me, but the fact is, I'm not that complicated. I'm pretty straightforward. And I'm not all that self-reflective, because I tend to be a doer.

Sincerity is that whereby self-completion is effected, and its way is that by which man must direct himself.

The rewards are profound. Shadow-work enables us to alter our self-sabotaging behavior so that we can achieve a more self-directed life.

No god save self, that is the way to live.

Remember that work is not a place for self-fulfillment. If it were, you would know it.

The most dangerous thing in American society is a self-respecting and self-loving black person, because they're on the road to freedom and that means they're gonna run up against the powers that be.

I grew up as a reader as well as a movie-lover, so many of the novelists I admired - and so many of the great filmmakers I loved - were self-taught.

I am only half there when I am ill, and so there is only half a man to suffer. To suffer in one's whole self is so great a violation, that it is not to be endured.

To reach perfection, we must all pass, one by one, through the death of self-effacement.

To be extremely self-centred, only interested in your own satisfaction, always brings negative consequences in the long run.

Establish in the mind of a young person the powerful idea that he or she is a child of God, and you have given self-respect and motivation to move against the problems of life.

The intellectual takes as a starting point his self and relates the world to his own sensibilities; the scientist accepts an existing field of knowledge and seeks to map out the unexplored terrain.

As every scuba diver knows, panic is your worst enemy: when it hits, your mind starts to thrash and you are likely to do something really stupid and self-destructive.

I think self-discipline is something, it's like a muscle. The more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

Overloading attention shrinks mental control. Life immersed in digital distractions creates a near constant cognitive overload. And that overload wears out self-control.

Being self-critical is good; being self-hating is destructive. There's a very fine line there somewhere, and I walk it carefully.

I'm not too worried about humanity in the future. I think we've got an innate ability as a species to self-correct.

It's a real smug self-righteous punk kid saying nobody has the right to tell him what to do and how dare you put a sign up saying that I can't go on your property?

Jim Stavridis is the former NATO commander who is sometimes on people's lists, also very plausible, self-possessed, someone with sobriety.

If you're going to maintain any kind of self-respect, you're going to have to keep secrets from yourself.

When we rise above our temptations and resist them, we exercise self-control. And that's when we experience true freedom and emotional health.

Freedom is the crux of self-respect. It is difficult to feel good about ourselves when we are unnaturally dependent on someone or something.

In all honesty, we all want our fantasy selves to be the best people. We all think in a time of crisis, we will react heroically and with humanity.

I have managed to establish an identity that is based on my internal self, and for that I feel tremendously lucky.

Fear of self is the greatest of all terrors, the deepest of all dread, the commonest of all mistakes. From it grows failure. Because of it, life is a mockery. Out of it comes despair.

The experience of love and the experience of death destroy the illusion of our self-sufficiency. The two are closely connected, and to become fully human we must experience both of them.

I have a pathological fear of being on my own. When I'm with my own thoughts, I start to unravel myself, and I start to think really dark thoughts, self-destructive thoughts.

If you just go out there and run 100 miles, it breaks down a lot of barriers in terms of self-imposed limitations.

From time to time, I do consider that I might be mad. Like any self-respecting lunatic, however, I am always quick to dismiss any doubts about my sanity.

Being good enough never is.

It is not making better people of others that management is about. It's about making a better person of self. Income, power, and titles have nothing to do with that.

To bring yourself love and happiness, do what you can to bring them to others.

Anger is remembered pain, fear is anticipated pain, guilt is self directed pain, depression is depletion of energy. Cure-return to love& joy

Destiny stands by sarcastic with our dramatis personae folded in her hand.

People are never able to outperform their self-image.

Your thoughts, vividly imagined and repeated, charged with emotion, become your reality.

Perhaps we shall learn, as we pass through this age, that the 'other self" is more powerful than the physical self we see when we look into a mirror.

My wealth is in my knowledge of self, love, and spirituality.

All I have learned, I learned from books.

Confidence is like a dragon where, for every head cut off, two more heads grow back.

You must learn to control your dreams or your dreams will forever control you.

Money will make you more of what you already are. If you're not a nice person, money's going to make you a despicable individual. If you're a good person, money's going to make you a better person.

Role models are only of limited use. For no-one is as important, potentially powerful and as key in your life and world as you.

The goal is to learn to be nurturing with yourself so you can feel free.

One of the best ways of repressing emotions is artificial certainty.