There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
No one remains quite what he was when he recognizes himself.
—Thomas Mann (1875–1955) German Novelist, Critic, Philanthropist, 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
I think knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can do. In fact, that’s good taste.
—Lucille Ball (1911–89) American Actor, Comedian, Model
It is doubtless a vice to turn one’s eyes inward too much, but I am my own comedy and tragedy.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
No man ever made an ill figure who understood his own talents, nor a good one, who mistook them.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
He who seeks to approach his own buried past must conduct himself like a man digging. He must not be afraid to return again and again to the same matter; to scatter it as one scatters earth, to turn it over as one turns over soil. For the matter itself is only a deposit, a stratum, which yields only to the most meticulous examination what constitutes the real treasure hidden within the earth: the images, severed from all earlier associations, that stand—like precious fragments or torsos in a collector’s gallery—in the prosaic rooms of our later understanding.
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940) German Literary and Marxist Critic
Become aware of internal, subjective, sub-verbal experiences, so that these experiences can be brought into the world of abstraction, of conversation, of naming, etc. with the consequence that it immediately becomes possible for a certain amount of control to be exerted over these hitherto unconscious and uncontrollable processes.
—Abraham Maslow (1908–70) American Psychologist, Academic, Humanist
Only as you do know yourself can your brain serve you as a sharp and efficient tool. Know your failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see. Know also when you actually have thought through to the nature of the thing with which you are dealing and when you are not thinking at all.
—Bernard M. Baruch (1870–1965) American Financier, Economic Consultant
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
Learn what you are and be such.
—Pindar (c.518–c.438 BCE) Greek Lyric Poet
If you want to be truly successful invest in yourself to get the knowledge you need to find your unique factor. When you find it and focus on it and persevere your success will blossom.
—Sidney Madwed (1926–2013) American Poet, Author
We succeed in enterprises which demand the positive qualities we possess, but we excel in those which can also make use of our defects.
—Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–59) French Historian, Political Scientist
Learn God, and thou shalt know thyself.
—Martin Farquhar Tupper (1810–89) English Poet, Writer
Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can.
—Lin Yutang (1895–1976) Chinese Author, Philologist
The one self-knowledge worth having is to know one’s own mind.
—F. H. Bradley (1846–1924 ) British Idealist Philosopher
One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star.
—G. K. Chesterton (1874–1936) English Journalist, Novelist, Essayist, Poet
Self knowers always dwell in El Dorado; they drink from the fountain of youth, and at all times owners of all they wish to enjoy.
—Claude M. Bristol (1891–1951) American Journalist, Self-Help Author
Self-knowledge comes from knowing other men.
—Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) German Poet
Other men’s sins are before our eyes; our own are behind our backs.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
I know myself, but that is all.
—Unknown
Analysis and synthesis ordinarily clarify matters for us about as much as taking a Swiss watch apart and dumping its wheels, springs, hands, threads, pivots, screws and gears into a layman’s hands for reassembling, clarifies a watch to a layman.
—Unknown
A human being has so many skins inside, covering the depths of the heart. We know so many things, but we don’t know ourselves! Why, thirty or forty skins or hides, as thick and hard as an ox’s or bear’s, cover the soul. Go into your own ground and learn to know yourself there.
—Meister Eckhart (c.1260–1327) German Christian Mystic
Each heart is a world.—You find all within yourself that you find without.—To know yourself you have only to set down a true statement of those that ever loved or hated you.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
He that knows himself, knows others; and he that is ignorant of himself, could not write a very profound lecture on other men’s heads.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
Know one, know all.
—The Upanishads Sacred Books of Hinduism
Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
No man ever understands quite his own artful dodges to escape from the grim shadow of self-knowledge.
—Joseph Conrad (1857–1924) Polish-born British Novelist
You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself.
—Beryl Markham (1902–86) English-African Aviator, Author
Know yourself, master yourself, conquest of self is most gratifying.
—Unknown
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