As person abandons worn-out clothes and acquires new ones, so when the body is worn out a new one is acquired by the Self, who lives within.
—The Bhagavad Gita Hindu Scripture
Have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the question themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. Don’t search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. And the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer.”
—Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926) Austrian Poet
The fortunate circumstances of our lives are generally found, at last, to be of our own producing.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
The only man we have any respect for, is he who uses all the endowment he has, and uses it until he bleeds.
—Martin H. Fischer
To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying “Amen” to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to keep your soul alive.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Man never knows what he wants; he aspires to penetrate mysteries and as soon as he has, he wants to reestablish them. Ignorance irritates him and knowledge cloys.
—Henri Frederic Amiel (1821–81) Swiss Moral Philosopher, Poet, Critic
The finest thing in the world is knowing how to belong to oneself.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
It’s not only the most difficult thing to know one’s self, but the most inconvenient.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer
A man is ever apt to contemplate himself out of all proportion to his surroundings.
—Christina Rossetti (1830–94) English Poet, Hymn Writer
A person who doubts himself is like a man who would enlist in the ranks of his enemies and bear arms against himself. He makes his failure certain by himself being the first person to be convinced of it.
—Alexandre Dumas pere (1802–1870) French Novelist, Playwright
Your soul is all that you possess. Take it in hand and make something of it.
—Martin H. Fischer
I took a deep breath and listened to the old bray of my heart: I am, I am, I am.
—Sylvia Plath (1932–63) American Poet, Novelist
A man is little the better for liking himself if nobody else likes him.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
A man without self-restraint is like a barrel without hoops, and tumbles to pieces.
—Henry Ward Beecher (1813–87) American Clergyman, Writer
Oh, wad some power the giftie gie us to see oursel’s as ithers see us.
—Robert Burns (1759–96) Scottish Poet, Songwriter
It takes courage to push yourself to places that you have never been before… to test your limits… to break through barriers. And the day came when the risk it took to remain tight inside the bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.
—Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist
Everything that I bear within me bound, is to be found somewhere else free.
—Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Poet
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
In every part and corner of our life, to lose oneself is to be the gainer; to forget oneself is to be happy.
—Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist
Look into the depths of your own soul and learn first to know yourself, then you will understand why this illness was bound to come upon you and perhaps you will thenceforth avoid falling ill.
—Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Austrian Psychiatrist, Psychoanalytic
A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
—Jean de La Fontaine (1621–95) French Poet, Short Story Writer
For souls in growth, great quarrels are great emancipators.
—Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) American-British Essayist, Bibliophile
Everyone gives himself credit for more brains than he has and less money.
—Italian Proverb
We never understand a thing so well, and make it our own, as when we have discovered it for ourselves.
—Rene Descartes (1596–1650) French Mathematician, Philosopher
And if you find everything as soon as you look for it, you find it in vain, you look for it in vain.
—Antonio Porchia (1885–1968) Italian Poet
Self-approbation, when founded in truth and a good conscience, is a source of some of the purest joys known to man.
—Charles Simmons (1924–2017) American Editor, Novelist
Nobody, but nobody, is going to tell me I’m not the most. I am. I was the most when everybody else was struggling bitterly to become a little.
—William Saroyan (1908–81) American Playwright, Novelist
Where you’re from only matters in relation to where you are.
—Malcolm S. Forbes (1919–1990) American Publisher, Businessperson
Youth! There is nothing like youth. The middle-aged are mortgaged to Life. The old are in Life’s lumber-room. But youth is the Lord of Life. Youth has a kingdom waiting for it. Every one is born a king, and most people die in exile.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient, too.
—Josh Billings (Henry Wheeler Shaw) (1818–85) American Humorist, Author, Lecturer