One of the most wonderful things in nature is a glance of the eye; it transcends speech; it is the bodily symbol of identity.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
One mustn’t allow acting to be like stockbroker—you must not take it just as a means of earning a living, to go down every day to do a job of work. The big thing is to combine punctuality, efficiency, good nature, obedience, intelligence, and concentration with an unawareness of what is going to happen next, thus keeping yourself available for excitement.
—Gustave Flaubert (1821–80) French Novelist, Playwright, Short Story Writer
Partake of some of life’s sweet pleasures. And yes, get comfortable with yourself.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
We forge gradually our greatest instrument for understanding the world—introspection. We discover that humanity may resemble us very considerably—that the best way of knowing the inwardness of our neighbors is to know ourselves.
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974) American Journalist, Political Commentator
I may not be better than other people, but at least I’m different.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
The better you understand yourself the less cause you will find to love yourself.
—Thomas a Kempis (1379–1471) German Religious Priest, Writer
In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
Miss: A title with which we brand unmarried women to indicate that they are in the market. Miss, Misses (Mrs.) and Mister (Mr.) are the three most distinctly disagreeable words in the language, in sound and sense. Two are corruptions of Mistress, the other of Master. If we must have them, let us be consistent and give one to the unmarried man. I venture to suggest Mush, abbreviated to MH.
—Ambrose Bierce (1842–1913) American Short-story Writer, Journalist
We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.
—Milan Kundera (b.1929) Czech Novelist
Titles are but nicknames, and every nickname is a title.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
I know myself, but that is all.
—Unknown
The most excellent and divine counsel, the best and most profitable advertisement of all others, but the least practised, is to study and learn how to know ourselves. This is the foundation of wisdom and the highway to whatever is good… . God, Nature, the wise, the world, preach man, exhort him both by word and deed to the study of himself.
—Pierre Charron (1541–1603) French Preacher, Philosopher
Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can present every moment with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation; but of the adopted talent of another you have only an extemporaneous half possession… Do that which is assigned to you, and you cannot hope too much or dare too much.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Integrity simply means a willingness not to violate one’s identity.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
A man may be so much of every thing, that he is nothing of any thing.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
The one self-knowledge worth having is to know one’s own mind.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
Beware of no man more than of yourself; we carry our worst enemies within us.
—Charles Spurgeon (1834–92) English Baptist Preacher
A man may be outwardly successful all his life long, and die hollow and worthless as a puff-ball; and he may be externally defeated all his life long, and die in the royalty of a kingdom established within him.—A man’s true estate of power and riches, is to be in himself; not in his dwelling, or position, or external relations, but in his own essential character.—That is the realm, in which he is to live, if he is to live as a Christian man.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
The “self-image” is the key to human personality and human behavior. Change the self image and you change the personality and the behavior.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
Realizing that our actions, feelings and behavior are the result of our own images and beliefs gives us the level that psychology has always needed for changing personality.
—Maxwell Maltz (1899–1975) American Surgeon, Motivational Writer
Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
In real life, unlike in Shakespeare, the sweetness of the rose depends upon the name it bears. Things are not only what they are. They are, in very important respects, what they seem to be.
—Hubert Humphrey (1911–78) American Head of State, Politician
What we’re all striving for is authenticity, a spirit-to-spirit connection.
—Oprah Winfrey (b.1954) American TV Personality
A nickname is the heaviest stone that the devil can throw at a man. It is a bugbear to the imagination, and, though we do not believe in it, it still haunts our apprehensions.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
I know myself, but that is all.
—F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American Novelist
If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.
—Aldous Huxley (1894–1963) English Humanist, Pacifist, Essayist, Short Story Writer, Satirist
Few men are of one plain, decided color; most are mixed, shaded or blended; and vary as much from different situations, as changeable silks do from different lights.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Once you label me you negate me.
—Soren Kierkegaard (1813–55) Danish Philosopher, Theologian
How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.
—Sarah Ban Breathnach (b.1947) American Self-help Author
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