Knowing Ourselves Quotes

Knowledge of self ought to be the great project of our lives. Knowing ourselves we will know others. Only by knowing ourselves can we begin to undo the madness we unleash on the world in our wars, our destruction of the environment, our divisions, our desire to dominate others, the poverty we create and exploit. Only through self-knowledge can we reverse the damage we do with all the worldly knowledge we have, which has been only a higher ignorance. ~ Ben Okri

Victory becomes, to some degree, a state of mind. Knowing ourselves superior to the anxieties, troubles, and worries which obsess us, we are superior to them. ~ Basil King

We are aspects of Divinity, in the process of knowing ourselves experientially. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

Brain ablaze. Feel like we are unearthing something and finding ourselves, knowing ourselves, stripping odd layers of our upbringing like old paint. Can't write about it fully yet. Don't understand it. I only know that when F leaves and B and I talk I feel like I am saying - and hearing - the first wholly honest words of my life. ~ Lily King

Being is desirable because it is identical with Beauty, and Beauty is loved because it is Being. We ourselves possess Beauty when we are true to our own being; ugliness is in going over to another order; knowing ourselves, we are beautiful; in self-ignorance, we are ugly. ~ Plotinus

We often end our journeys without beginning them. We learn about the world without knowing ourselves. ~ Debasish Mridha

Identification is why the reader reads and why the writer writes. We all want to identify with a character, so that we can, in turn, identify with ourselves. Do you have yourself all figured out? Is your self-knowledge so complete? Do you know yourself so well that you'll never do anyting stupid or make a fool of yourself again? When it comes to knowing ourselves, we are incomplete, lacking, deficient. Each of us is our own ongoing problem until the day we die. ~ Jerry Cleaver

Most of us don't spend any time knowing ourselves. We just keep reacting. ~ Jewel

You cannot be too gentle, too kind. Shun even to appear harsh in your treatment of each other. Joy, radiant joy, streams from the face of him who gives and kindles joy in the heart of him who receives. All condemnation is from the devil. Never condemn each other. We condemn others only because we shun knowing ourselves. When we gaze at our own failings, we see such a swamp that nothing in another can equal it. That is why we turn away, and make much of the faults of others. Instead of condemning others, strive to reach inner peace. Keep silent, refrain from judgement. This will raise you above the deadly arrows of slander, insult and outrage and will shield your glowing hearts against all evil. ~ Seraphim Of Sarov

There is no happiness without knowledge. But knowledge of happiness is unhappy; for knowing ourselves happy is knowing ourselves passing through happiness, and having to, immediatly at once, leave it behind. To know is to kill, in happiness as in everything. Not to know, though, is not to exist. ~ Fernando Pessoa

Let's shift from moralizing about and lamenting divorce to understanding that a successful marriage, no matter the length, is one that contributes to knowing ourselves better and evolving into more loving and compassionate people. ~ Deb Purdy

Cultivating self-love is an odyssey with moments of difficulty and joy. It's an excursion into knowing ourselves, learning to accept and deal with what we discover... and struggling with our fear of allowing in a little madness to set us free. ~ Bud Harris

Knowing ourselves is knowing our worth in the eyes of God. That's why the number one thought we cannot fail to think and believe is that He loves us. Always. No matter what. ~ Toni Sorenson

Humility, or poverty of spirit, is not a matter of thinking low thoughts about ourselves. It is not a matter of groveling in the dust. It is simply a matter of knowing ourselves as we really are. And when we see ourselves as we really are, we will see that we are poor. ~ John W. Miller

Emotional intelligence is knowledge of the "Self," understanding who we are, and employing this knowledge to exercise self-control in our relationships with other beings and the world. Only by knowing ourselves can we responsibly and efficiently manage our senses, thoughts, words and actions, and behave in a benevolent manner toward other beings and the world. ~ Joseph Rain

We are not born knowing how to understand and express what is inside our souls. That kind of knowing ourselves requires contemplation and reflection. We have to learn to notice and be aware of our internal experiences, to search our hearts and find words for what is inside us. Being fully known and understood requires that we say aloud to someone else what is going on within our souls. ~ Milan Yerkovich

Unless, of course, there's no such thing as chance; ... in which case, we should either-optimistically-get up and cheer, because if everything is planned in advance, then we all have a meaning and are spared the terror of knowing ourselves to be random, without a why; or else, of course, we might-as pessimists-give up right here and now, understanding the futility of thought decision action, since nothing we think makes any difference anyway, things will be as they will. Where, then, is optimism? In fate or in chaos? ~ Salman Rushdie

We can travel a long way in life and do many things, but our deepest happiness is not born from accumulating new experiences. it is born from letting go of what is unnecessary, and knowing ourselves to be always at home. ~ Sharon Salzberg

To know God begins with knowing ourselves, our true selves, whom we uncover as we make choices that help us step beyond the influence of the ego. ~ Peter Santos

Look at the earth crowded with growth, new and old bursting from their strong roots hidden in the silent, live ground, each seed according to its own kind ... each one knowing what to do, each one demanding its own rights on the earth. So artist, you too from the depths of your soul ... let your roots creep forth, gaining strength. ~ Emily Carr

For many people, loneliness was an experience of time. 'Not knowing what to do with yourself' was the way it was usually put. ~ Louise Bernikow

We went into that knowing that we were never going to sell a major record 'cause we didn't sound like these bands, so I just thought this was an opportunity for us to make the kind of records that we wanted and make some money at the same time. ~ Buzz Osborne

All husbands are unfaithful in one way or another."
Lillian and Daisy glanced at each other with raised brows.
"Father isn't," Lillian replied smartly.
Mercedes responded with a laugh that sounded like crackling leaves being crushed underfoot. "Isn't he, dear? Perhaps he has stayed true to me physically - one can never be certain about these things. But his work has proved a more jealous and demanding mistress than a flesh-and-blood woman could ever be. All his dreams are invested in that collection of buildings and employees and legalities that absorb him to the exclusion of all else. If my competition had been a mortal woman, I could have borne it easily, knowing that passion fades and beauty lasts but an instant. But his company will never fade or sicken - it will outlast us all. If you have a year of your husband's interest and affection, it will be more than I have ever had. ~ Lisa Kleypas

Creation is filled with soul-sick folks, colored and white, never knowing where they belong. They tangle everybody else up in their grief. ~ Jonathan Odell

Knowing how the environment is pulling your strings and playing you is critical to making responsive rather than reactive moves. ~ Ronald A. Heifetz

You guys hitting that party tonight?"

"Which one?" Becca said drily. "We try to make the circuit."

He smiled in a way that said he saw right through her. "Well - and I want to make sure I get this straight - Monica said Claire said her boyfriend's best friend's brother was home from college with that skank Melissa - "

"No," said Becca sharply. "We're not."

His eyebrows went up.

"Jesus," said Quinn. "You followed that?"

Becca faltered, knowing she sounded like a freak. But Claire's boyfriend was Matt Carpenter. The goalie of the soccer team.

And Drew McKay's best friend.

"I might have to work," she said lamely. Her heart was kicking.

"I hear you," he said.

"You said you weren't working tonight," said Quinn. "Free and clear, you said."

Becca slapped her water bottle on the table. "Damn it, Quinn."

"Free and clear, huh?" Hunter said. ~ Brigid Kemmerer

Ordinary life was laced with miracles, I knew that, had read enough poetry to understand that we are elevated with the knowing, and yet it was difficult to notice and be grateful when one was continually fatigued and irritated. I suppose that unquenchable sense of wonder is what separates us dolts from the saints and the poets. ~ Jane Hamilton

Comparing what we're looking for misses the point. It's wanting to know that makes us matter. Otherwise we're going out the way we came in. That's why you can't believe in the afterlife, Valentine. Believe in the after, by all means, but not the life. Believe in God, the soul, the spirit, the infinite, believe in angels if you like, but not in the great celestial get-together for an exchange of views. If the answers are in the back of the book I can wait, but what a drag. Better to struggle on knowing that failure is final. ~ Tom Stoppard

The human life is all one thing, like a blade tracing loops on the ice: a little kid, a twenty-three-year-old infantry sergeant, a middle-aged writer knowing guilt and sorrow. ~ Tim O'Brien

By 1996 Nora Ephron was telling a graduating class at Wellesley, Don't underestimate how much antagonism there is toward women and how many people wish we could turn the clock back. ... Understand: every attack on Hillary Clinton for not knowing her place is an attack on you. ~ Rebecca Traister

The witch doctor succeeds for the same reason all the rest of us succeed. Each patient carries his or her own doctor inside him or her. They come to us not knowing that truth. We are at our best when we give the doctor who resides within each patient a chance to go to work. ~ Albert Schweitzer

That you don't make war without knowing why. ~ Tim O'Brien

Good music comes out of people playing together, knowing what they want to do and going for it. You have to sweat over it and bug it to death. You can't do it by pushing buttons and watching a TV screen. ~ Keith Richards

Comprehending and knowing better and deeper are the best guarantees we can have to attain ideas and criteria of our own; i.e. to stop depending on what other people say. In summary, to be freer to choose our own path in life. ~ Manuel Toharia-Cortes

Your deeper sense isn't a springboard; it's a landing place. If you draw conclusions too quickly or too slowly, you'll establish your self where it doesn't belong. The fine line between the two is in your own deeper sense. It is in your actual knowing within that deeper sense. ~ John De Ruiter

-loving someone meant knowing that your life would be worse without them in it.
-Caleb (Benny) ~ Anna Carey

We must allow people the space and time of discovery, and trust in all that is to come. ~ Bryant McGill

Not knowing whom to fall in love with is like not knowing which film to make next. Life is pretty chaotic; it's just an illusion that one has control over one's life. ~ Shekhar Kapur

I was trying to explain my situation to myself. My situation was that I was in pain and nobody knew it, even I had trouble knowing it. So I told myself, over and over, You are in pain. It was the only way I could get through to myself. I was demonstrating externally and irrefutably an inward condition. ~ Susanna Kaysen

A rose will wilt in short time, but my garden is more vivacious for having one in it. Love is even more fragrant, but often just as fragile and fleeting, but I eagerly accept the joy of it now, knowing the cost is the pain of loss later. ~ Jarod Kintz

I had to do this very aggressive, big score in a very short time, and knowing that in the beginning, middle, and end would be this very, very famous theme, but I still had to weave a score around it and make it work as a score was really challenging. ~ Danny Elfman

It's not about winning or losing a competition, it's about beating the doubt from within yourself and knowing at the end of each day you are one step closer to your goals. ~ Jonathan Horton

It's not unfortunate that people aren't genuine; what's unfortunate is that insincere people try to act sincere and in doing so, mislead and deceive the other. I would rather meet a person who is not amiable and who does not feel any burden to act amiable towards me, than to have the misfortune of knowing people who feel like they need to be gracious and compassionate so they will appear to be good people, whilst possessing none of those qualities within themselves! It's the latter that causes the pain in life. And that's another reason why I don't believe in religion; I have observed that religion tells people that it is highly prized a quality to act kind and compassionate and so on and so forth, but some people just do not have these innate qualities within them! We get deceived, and I'd rather not be deceived! I'd rather be able to see a person for who he/she is and not judge a brute for being a brute, but avoid the brute who carries the burden of acting like a wonderful one! ~ C. JoyBell C.

You try to get the feel of any role, but it's much more difficult in the case of Christ because everyone has their own personal image of Him. It's a role you take on, knowing that no matter how you play it, you are going to disappoint many. ~ Jeffrey Hunter

I open doors, I close doors," he wrote. He loved no one, he loved everyone. He loved sex, he hated sex. Life is a lie, truth is a lie. His thoughts ended with a healing wound. "I stand naked when I draw. God holds my hand and we sing together." His manifesto as an artist. I let the confessional aspects fall away, and I accepted those words as a communion wafer. He had cast the line that would seduce me, ultimately bind us together. I folded the letter and put it back in the envelope, not knowing what would happen next. ~ Patti Smith

Any genuine teaching will result, if successful, in someone's knowing how to bring about a better condition of things than existed earlier. ~ John Dewey

It comes out of my mouth like water: the things he said at the beginning, what it's like to know a person's smell, the anxious catch that now has dulled to normal when I hold the pay phone and it rings and rings. How underneath I don't believe he's coming anymore, and I wish I could turn the air beside me into something solid to fill the hole he leaves. How sometimes when he'd touch me I'd go out onto the very edges of myself, far like on a tightrope or a plank, and balance knowing there was only air to catch me; how he'd hold me there till it got scary, sometimes longer, and it was realer and more raw than any thing I'd ever felt. How he would always close his eyes and seem so comfortable, casual even, and I was always amazed at that: how brave he must be for it not to scare him at all. How sometimes it broke me into two pieces, and I'd lie there under him naked and stretched out past my skin, and another me would watch from the ceiling. Even if it was too much I had to grow to hold it, because it belonged to me now, and I belonged to him, and if I let any of the pressure of it spill like water from my faucet mouth, it would all leak out and be gone from me forever. That's what he always said. ~ Jessica Blank

falling in love
with you

was
like that

knowing,
heart-stopping,
airless,
upside-down

moment
right before

a fatal
collision.

-brace for impact. ~ Amanda Lovelace

I had to learn the hard way. There was a blindness, without any education or will or drive. Everything I started in the beginning from skate shops to record labels to a million and one side hustles that I went in without knowing how I was going to do it, a lot of those ventures just went out of business. ~ Rob Dyrdek

The rewards of integrity are immeasurable. One is the indescribable inner peace and serenity that come from knowing we are doing what is right; another is an absence of the guilt and anxiety that accompany sin. Another reward of integrity is the confidence it can give us in approaching God. When virtue garnishes our thoughts unceasingly, our confidence is strong in the presence of God. ~ Joseph B. Wirthlin

The self-realized spirit is merely a spirit emancipated from fear, judgement and knowing. ~ Bryant McGill

For God to reveal His Son in us is not the result of research or searching; it is entirely a matter of mercy and revelation. It is an inward seeing, an inner knowing. ~ Watchman Nee

When I got here, I did get bored ... I got more and more nervous here too, not knowing anybody. And I kept waiting for that loneliness and nervousness to make me want to go back. But it never did. It's the one thing I can't do. ~ John Green

Vision is knowing who you are, where you're going, and what will guide your journey. ~ Ken Blanchard

You are unnerving the hell out of me, Valkyrie."
"oh" she frowned, petting her bat fitfully " I must have misread the future for the past." she shrugged. "It happens. ~ Kresley Cole