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Link Quote Stars Tags Author
baf9ce2 He (Anwar Sadat) records that he was almost loathe to leave his prison cell because it was there that he realized that real success is success with self. It's not in having things, but in having mastery, having victory over self. success self victory Stephen R. Covey
a7351be Now, here is the point about the self: it is insatiable. It is always, always hankering. It is what you might call rapacious to a fault. The great flaming mouth to the thing is never in this world going to be stuff full. humanity insatiable self Donald Barthelme
f44e092 Poor Father, I see his final exploration. He arrives at the new place, his hair risen in astonishment, his mouth and eyes dumb. His toe scuffs a soft storm of sand, he kneels and his arms spread in pantomimic celebration, the immigrant, as in every moment of his life, arriving eternally on the shore of his Self. self-awareness salvation immigrant self E.L. Doctorow
ab4e2a0 When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said in a rather scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean - neither more nor less. words self Lewis Carroll
362a974 But he also knew that, as much as he wanted to aid and console the soldier, he wanted to be alone in his room with the night coming down and a book close by and pen and paper and the knowledge that the door would remain shut until the morning came and he would ne be disturbed. The gap between these two desires filled him with sadness and awe at the mystery of the self, the mystery of having a single consciousness, knowing merely its own bare feelings and experiencing singly and alone it own pain or fear or pleasure or complacency. loneliness self mystery Colm Tóibín
cf99bdf "...All who ever died, live; they are reborn and have no end, nor will there ever be an end. All, save you. For you would not have death. You lost death, you lost life, in order to save yourself. Yourself! Your immortal self! What is it? Who are you?" "I am myself. My body will not decay and die-" "A living body suffers pain, Cob; a living body grows old; it dies. Death is the price we pay for our life and for all life." "I do not pay it! I can die and in that moment live again! I cannot be killed; I am immortal. I alone am myself forever!" "Who are you, then?" "The Immortal One." "Say your name." "The King." "Say my name. I told it to you but a minute since. Say my name!" "You are not real. You have no name. Only I exist." "You exist: without name, without form. You cannot see the light of day; you cannot see the dark. You sold the green earth and the sun and stars to save yourself. But you have no self. All that which you sold, that is yourself. You have given everything for nothing. And so now you seek to draw your world to you, all that light and life you lost, to fill up your nothingness. But it cannot be filled. Not all the songs of earth, not all the stars of heaven, could fill your emptiness." heaven life earthsea the-farthest-shore self Ursula K. Le Guin
d73dedf Here in this endless and gleaming wilderness I was removed farther than ever from the world of men -- And I never saw so close and so clearly The image in the mirror of my own soul. self Hermann Hesse
5a3a69f And myself? Observe me. There is something to be gained from my surface uses, and perhaps a little more from my lower depths, but my very bottom? That's where I am alone, the observer and the observed. literature self Jeanette Winterson
631383d Children ten years old wake up and find themselves here, discover themselves to have been here all along; is this sad? They wake like sleepwalkers, in full stride; they wake like people brought back from cardiac arrest or from drowning: , surrounded by familiar people and objects, equipped with a hundred skills. They know the neighborhood, they can read and write English, they are old hands at the commonplace mysteries, and yet they feel themselves to have just stepped off the boat, just converged with their bodies, just flown down from a trance, to lodge in an eerily familiar life already well under way. I woke in bits, like all children, piecemeal over the years. I discovered myself and the world, and forgot them, and discovered them again. I woke at intervals until, by that September when Father went down the river, the intervals of waking tipped the scales, and I was more often awake than not. I noticed this process of waking, and predicted with terrifying logic that one of these years not far away I would be awake continuously and never slip back, and never be free of myself again. self consciousness childhood Annie Dillard
3ddf25a No one has ever done this before. No one has ever been you before. This exact interrelated web of people and events and places and memories and desire and love that is your life hasn't ever existed in the history of the Universe. Welcome to a truly unique phenomenon. Welcome to your life. I want you to be here. Welcome to here. self-awareness love presence present-moment self unique desire Rob Bell
74d9de4 "We need to listen carefully to the wisdom of our symptoms and to try to decode their meaning, because some of us have learned to settle, to fall silent; to deny that unfair circumstances exist or matter, and then to call our compromises "life." But our bodies, our deeper unconscious selves, remain harder to fool." life decode settle silent exist self Harriet Lerner
a9ca461 "Peace": the fruit of justice done especially to the Self." self peace justice Alice Walker
be100c5 Preachers love only their own voices. subjectivity self John Berger
0ccf306 You are accompanied through life, Emily Jesse occasionally understood, not only by the beloved and accusing departed, but by your own ghost too, also accusing, also unappeased. self A.S. Byatt
c034968 ...he allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them them over and over again to give birth to themselves. identity life self Gabriel Garcí­a Márquez
6ebda76 Then you are a poet?' she asked, fingering the flyer in her pocket. 'No not at all,' he waved his hand. 'I am merely a character in a poem. poets poems poetry identity karen-tei-yamashita tropic-of-orange self poet stories Karen Tei Yamashita
046dc8d The interior life is often stupid. Its egoism blinds it and deafens it; its imagination spins out ignorant tales, fascinated. It fancies that the western wind blows on the Self, and leaves fall at the feet of the Self for a reason, and people are watching. A mind risks real ignorance for the sometimes paltry prize of an imagination enriched. The trick of reason is to get the imagination to seize the actual world--if only from time to time. imagination interior-life self Annie Dillard
84c979d I'm not afraid of what I am. I'm afraid I will see what I am not. personality self Jeanette Winterson
908e276 "Mitch, I don't allow myself any more self-pity than that. A little each morning, a few tears, and that's all." I thought about all the people I knew who spent many of their waking hours feeling sorry for themselves. How useful it would be to put a daily limit on self-pity. Just a few minutes, then on with the day. And if Morrie could do it, with such a horrible disease . . ." -- few useful limit sorry self-pity little self tears dying Mitch Albom
9dc2c37 The same virtues, in the end, the same virtue (love), are required throughout, and fantasy (self) can prevent us from seeing a blade of grass just as it can prevent us from seeing another person. An increasing awareness of 'goods' and the attempt (usually only partially successful) to attend to them purely, without self, brings with it an increasing awareness of the unity and interdependence of the moral world. One-seeking intelligence is the image of faith. unity illusion good fantasy love self vision intellect Iris Murdoch
f6f65ba Currents of desire and excitement that she had not known or thought about for years now flooded in her. She wanted him to bring alive what she had buried, and to demean, destroy, her fabricated self. self Sebastian Faulks
49679d8 I don't believe anyone who says love, love, love. It means self, self, self. selfisness self Graham Greene
118592b We are random animals. That is who we are, and we have only ourselves, nothing more--there is no greater relationship. self Yann Martel
8470803 If you've got it, flaunt it. And if you don't got it? Flaunt it. 'Cause what are we even doing here if we're not flaunting it? self self-improvement self-esteem Mindy Kaling
7a54afa Why am I made the way I am? Why do I care about all the wrong things, and nothing at all for the right ones? Or, to tip it another way: how can I see clearly that everything I love or care about is illusion, and yet - for me, anyway - all that's worth living for lies in that charm A great sorrow, and one that I am only beginning to understand: we don't get to choose our own hearts. We can't make ourselves want what's good for us or what's good for other people. We don't get to choose the people we are. understanding people sadness life love lonliness self path questions reality-of-life Donna Tartt
60a9405 I mean we think of phenomenal change as being the very essence of time, when it's not at all. Time is something which defies spring and winter, birth and decay, the good and the bad, indifferently. Something changeless and joyous and absolutely indestructible. Duality ceases to exist; there is no ego, no 'I,' and yet it's not at all like those horrid comparisons one sometimes hears in Eastern religions, the self being a drop of water swallowed by the ocean of the universe. It's more as if the universe expands to fill the boundaries of the self. You have no idea how pallid the workday boundaries of ordinary existence seem, after such an ecstasy. time self Donna Tartt
8d31c65 Man can attempt to become one with the world by submission to a person, to a group, to an institution, to God. In this way, he transcends the separateness of his individual existence by becoming part of somebody or something bigger than himself, and experiences his identity in connection with the power to which he has submitted. submission self power Erich Fromm
457d768 Because: if our secret defines us, as opposed to the face we show the world: then the painting was the secret that raised me above the surface of life and enabled me to know who I am. And it's there: in my notebooks, every page, even though it's not. Dream and magic, magic and delirium. The Unified Field Theory. A secret about a secret. self secrets Donna Tartt
df9c10e In one way, what I saw in those mirrors was the self trapped inside the self, forever. But in another way, the self in the mirror was opening out, in an infinite unfurling. I am the one whose drive is being thwarted. And I am the one who is thwarting it. self Alison Bechdel
f6e6a18 My younger self had come back to shock my older self with what that self had been, or was, or was sometimes capable of being. And only recently I'd been going on about how the witnesses to our lives decrease, and with them our essential corroboration. Now I had some all too unwelcome corroboration of what I was, or had been. identity former-self the-sense-of-an-ending julian-barnes the-past self Julian Barnes
0955253 He remembered hearing Karl tell James once that it was hard for people to ever know what they really looked like. Reflections in mirrors weren't accurate, Karl said, because when you stared at yourself in a mirror, you subconsciously composed your face in a way that wasn't your natural expression. Marvin wondered it that was true when you were with strangers too. Maybe you only looked like your true self with the people you loved. And maybe that was a face you yourself hardly ever got to see... love reflective true-self reflections self mirror Elise Broach
6ed5b79 You're doing your thing, why can't I do my thing? I must be me even if I suffer for it. identity henry-and-cato iris-murdoch self-expression self suffer Iris Murdoch
6cdf27b But you possess one quality that no one else does. Oh? Your identity. Your history, deeds and situation. Use those to shape your creation and you will produce something unique. Whatever you make, base it upon that which is most important to you. Only then will it have depth and meaning, and only then will it resonate with others. meaning history-of-oneself resonance self uniqueness Christopher Paolini
9218fc9 "Hypocrisy--in other words, the practice of lying about lying--shields us from seeing ourselves as we are: a collocation of fragments that fit together as a biological unit but not as anything else, not as that ghost which has been called a self, a phantasm whose ecotoplasmic unreality we can never see through. By staying true to the lie of the self, the ego, we can hold onto the illusion that we will be who we are all our lives and not see our selves die a thousand times before our death. While some have dedicated themselves to getting to the bottom of how these parts create the illusion of a whole, this is not how pyramids are built. To get a pyramid off the ground takes a lot of ego--the base material of those stacks of stones that tourists visit while on vacation. Of course, a pyramid is actually a polyhedron, that is, a mathematical conception which pyramids in the physical world resemble . . . at least from a distance. The nearer one gets to a pyramid, the more it reveals itself to be what it is: a roughly pyramidal conglomeration of bricks, a composition of fragments that is not what it seems to be. This is also how it works with humans. The world around us encourages the build up of our egos--those pyramids of self-esteem--as if we needed such encouragement. Although everyone is affected by this pyramid scheme, some participate in it more than others: they are observably more full of themselves and tend to their egos as they would exotic plants in a hothouse. It helps if they can wear down the self-esteem of others, or simply witness this erosion. As the American novelist and essayist Gore Vidal said famously and often: "It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail." None of this could work without the distance we put between what we are and what we think we are. Then we may appear to exist apart from our constituent elements. Self-esteem would evaporate without a self to esteem. As with pyramids, it is only at a distance that this illusion can be pulled off. Hypocrisy is that distance." illusion hipocrisy self Thomas Ligotti
08af27f I want you to be able to me, and as my love for you is so much of me (all of me, making me more than myself) then you must see that too. identity love the-beloved henry-and-cato iris-murdoch seen self Iris Murdoch
25117d2 A vida de todo ser humano e um caminho em direcao a si mesmo, a tentativa de um caminho, o seguir de um simples rastro. Homem algum chegou a ser completamente ele mesmo; mas todos aspiram a se-lo, obscuramente alguns, outros mais claramente, cada qual como pode. autodescoberta espontaneidade individuação si-mesmo self Hermann Hesse
dcbb5ed She thought back to what he had said. /I could make you very happy./ It was something men said then, when they were trying to persuade you, and that was what they meant. It seemed rash and sweeping to her, dazzling but *presumptuous*. She had to try to see herself, then, as somebody who could be /made happy/. The whole worrying, striving, complicated bundle of her -- was that something that could just be picked up and /made happy/? self Alice Munro
ee330ba Hoje sei muito bem que nada na vida repugna tanto ao homem do que seguir pelo caminho que o conduz a si mesmo. autodescoberta espontaneidade individuação si-mesmo self Hermann Hesse
d7420e4 When an individual appreciates that he alone is responsible for the content and coherence of his person, an influx like eros becomes a concrete personal threat. So in the lyric poets, love is something that assaults or invades the body of the lover to wrest control of it from him, a personal struggle of will and physique between the god and his victim. The poets describe this struggle from within a consciousness - perhaps new in the world - of the body as a unity of limbs, senses and self, amazed at its own vulnerability. love self eros Anne Carson
cbced9a I give myself a good cry if I need it. But then I concentrate on all the good things still in my life. On the people who are coming to see me. On the stories I'm going to hear. On you - if it's Tuesday. Because we're Tuesday people. story good people life tuesday cry self need dying Mitch Albom
681cf11 I seemed to slip in a time warp when I visited Morrie, and I liked myself better when I was there. time-warp visit self like Mitch Albom
9d3cac5 The essential self is fixed well before the thirteenth birthday. It may be influenced by experience but it is seldom changed. self P.D. James
98a5c7b If you're hoping for salvation or whatever, it has very little merit in it. I was referring to the final battle on the threshold of eternal darkness, with oneself the only witness. self Arturo Pérez-Reverte
89ca8f1 "I asked Morrie if he felt sorry for himself. "Sometimes, in the mornings," he said. "That's when I mourn. I feel around my body, I move my fingers and my hands - whatever I can still move - and I mourn what I've lost. I mourn the slow, insidious way in which I'm dying. But then I stop mourning." insidious ill sorry slow mourn self lost Mitch Albom
aa50507 O verdadeiro oficio de cada um era apenas chegar ate si mesmo. autodescoberta espontaneidade individuação si-mesmo self Hermann Hesse
a403d33 I've often felt that my library explained who I was, gave me a shifting self that transformed itself constantly throughout the years. libraries library self Alberto Manguel
ef729d0 It is not simply that suppression of self is required before accurate vision can be obtained. The great artist sees his objects (and this is true whether they are sad, absurd, repulsive or even evil) in a light of justice and mercy. The direction of attention is, contrary to nature, outward, away from self which reduces all to a false unity, towards the great surprising variety of the world, and the ability so to direct attention is love. good love attention learning-to-see self evil Iris Murdoch
232745c Para o homem consciente so havia um dever: procurar-se a si mesmo, afirmar-se em si mesmo e seguir sempre adiante o seu proprio caminho, sem se preocupar com o fim a que possa conduzi-lo. autodescoberta espontaneidade individuação si-mesmo destino self Hermann Hesse
136c42e Mas cada um de nos e um ser total do mundo, e da mesma forma como o corpo integra toda a trajetoria da evolucao, remontando ao peixe e mesmo a antes, levamos em nossa alma tudo o quanto desde o principio esta vivendo na alma dos homens. autodescoberta espontaneidade individuação si-mesmo mundo self vida Hermann Hesse
0f5f65e If you go to Jesus to get a new personality, Lewis says, you still haven't really gone to Jesus. Your real self will not come out as long as you are looking for it; it will only emerge when you're looking for Him. jesus faith self self-improvement Timothy J. Keller
94208a1 The truth is he spends thirty minutes of every hour suspecting he has missed some essential clue about himself. And not only himself--he has a recurring fantasy that one night, while he was asleep, the entire world was transformed into an alien planet, but no one bothered to tell him, and he didn't have the instinct to figure it out, and here he is now on a wild new Earth, walking around like an imbecile, as if everything he knows hasn't fallen away behind him like a river plummeting over a precipice. understanding self-knowledge life self Kevin Brockmeier
5ac4574 Was I like honey thinking it's a small bear, not realizing the bear is just the shape of its bottle? -Cheryl self-awareness identity cheryl the-first-bad-man perspective self perception Miranda July
15ad813 E sempre e bom termos consciencia de que dentro de nos ha alguem que tudo sabe, tudo quer e age melhor do que nos mesmos self Hermann Hesse
e160bd2 Mas cada homem nao e apenas ele mesmo; e tambem um ponto unico, singularissimo, sempre importante e peculiar, no qual os fenomenos do mundo se cruzam daquela forma uma so vez e nunca mais. Assim, a historia de cada homem e essencial, eterna e divina, e cada homem, ao viver em alguma parte e cumprir os ditames da Natureza, e algo maravilhoso e digno de toda a atencao ser-humano singularidade si-mesmo self Hermann Hesse
ca613ba Ich war ein Suchender und bin es noch, aber ich suche nicht mehr auf den Sternen und in den Buchern, ich beginne die Lehren zu horen, die mein Blut in mir rauscht life teachings self Hermann Hesse
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