Best 257 quotes in «self knowledge quotes» category

I believe in knowing who you are but without limiting yourself to your own expectation of who you are.

I believe I’m very normal. I’m hyper-normal. I’m more normal than anyone else I know. I think my thoughts, my indulgences, my desires, my pleasures may at first appear different, but that is only because they are more normal, not because they are more esoteric. I believe I am bored when other people are bored, only faster. I am interested when others are interested, only more interested. But I also think I’m less, rather than more, intelligent than other people. By indulging my interests through my life, and perhaps because of rather than despite many failures, I have been able to design my life.

I can’t overstate how little I knew about myself at 22, or how little I’d thought about what I was doing. When I graduated from college I genuinely believed that the creative life was the apex of human existence, and that to work at an ordinary office job was a betrayal of that life, and I had to pursue that life at all costs. Management consulting, law school, med school, those were fine for other people — I didn’t judge! — but I was an artist. I was super special. I was sparkly. I would walk another path. And I would walk it alone. That was another thing I knew about being an artist: You didn’t need other people. Other people were a distraction. My little chrysalis of genius was going to seat one and one only.

Ideally a painter (and, generally, an artist) should not become conscious of his insights: without taking the detour through his conscious reflection, his progressive steps, mysterious even to himself, should enter so swiftly into the work that he is unable to recognize them in the moment of transition.

I don’t dwell on the fact that I may have ridden on planes. That which I can’t remember having needed, I simply accept. It is the most preferable kind of self-insight: one that does not require any accompanying change in behavior.

If he stays inside himself, if he is contained within his nature as he is participant in the larger force, he will be able to listen, and his hearing through himself will give him secrets objects share.

I don't know why, but people seem to be fascinated to learn how some members of society fall through the cracks. I think it's partly that feeling that... it could happen to anyone. But I think it also makes people feel better about their own lives. It makes them think, 'Well, I may think my life is bad, but it could be worse, I could be that poor sod.

I don't want to inhabit the human world under false pretenses.

If you know who you are, this knowledge will attract people in all types of situation and circumstances to support your intentions and ideas

If we know who we are and have gone through a process of self-identification in accordance with the creator’s plan, we will no longer undervalue ourselves or be afraid

If you ate nails, your stomach would hurt, and it’s a good thing that it would. Eating nails is deadly, thus the pain is helpful. Like this, sadness, anger, and anxiety are not to be feared or shamed, but listened to and decoded.

If you know whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go.

If you know where you are from, it will be harder for people to stop you where you are going.

If you know who you are, it makes you immune to criticism

If you know who you are, no one can convince you to be who you are not.

If you know where you are from, it is harder for people to stop you where you are going.

If you know who you are, you do not need to consider yourself to be worse or better than someone else

If you know who you are and know that you live to achieve goals in keeping with who you are, it does not matter if people give you compliments or not

If you were often rejected or ignored by your parents while growing up, you can end up seeking the love and attention you were denied from your romantic partner instead. If your partner is even slightly indifferent towards you, then the wound from your childhood can be ripped open, causeing a big fight with your partner. But the real cause isn’t your partner; it’s the wound you are carrying around within you. Rather than projecting this wound onto your partner and causing a fight, set aside your pride and speak from the heart: “I am terrified that you will reject me and leave me, like my mum/dad did.” If we combine painful memories, the need for attention, and pride, the relationship can easily be ruined.

Ignorance’ (absence of Self-Knowledge) creates vibrations (causes) and ‘Knowledge’ (Self-Knowledge) stops these vibrations.

I know who I am without anyone there to tell me.

I had never thought much of genealogy. A lot of wasted time collecting the names of the dead. Then stringing those names, like skulls upon a wire, into an entirely private and thus irrelevant narrative, lacking any historical significance. The narcissistic pastime of nostalgic bores.

Instead of labelling your emotions as problems to solve, you can see them as signals to interpret. Instead of judging your desires as shameful aberrations, you can learn to meet them in healthier ways. Instead of calling yourself critical names when you cannot build or break certain habits, you can explore your motivations. You can become a student of yourself rather than always seeking a wiser teacher.

In a new friend we start life anew, for we create a new edition of ourselves and so become, for the time being, a new creature.

I never really grew up until I had kids.

In the perspective of our species, life has favored humanity as a whole by promoting as much wealth of variety and options as possible, and has distributed everything using the four winds. Life has given mankind everything it has, without segregation and without consideration of which characteristic or quality best suits the situations or the periods. Only by having the totality of human characteristics and options can we hope to deal with all periods to come. Our collective is our key to survival and well-being.

[I]t doesn’t matter whom you love or where you move from or to, you always take yourself with you. If you don’t know who you are, or if you’ve forgotten or misplaced her, then you’ll always feel as if you don’t belong. Anywhere. (xiii)

In this world, it is a great Self-effort to deliberately remain ignorant despite knowing, right? I deliberately remain ignorant in spite of having the Knowledge.

Irrational expectations are at the root of most human suffering.

I seek spirituality and self-knowledge.

I think the need to believe in religion is and always was a need to know. Satisfying the NEED TO KNOW, be it by really knowing, by thinking we know or by believing we know, is very comforting for man. Be it by “direct” knowledge, Be it by “emotional” knowledge, Be it by “gut-felt” knowledge, Be it by “spiritual” knowledge, Be it by “transcendental” knowledge, Be it by “meditative” knowledge, Be it by “inspiration”, Be it by “revelation”, Be it knowing by faith or Be it by understanding, We definitely are one humanity under “need to know”.

It has always been my contention that an individual who can be relied upon to be himself and to be honest unto himself can be relied upon in every other way.

It is not until you learn to look at yourself, through the truth of who you are, that you can look at someone else.

It is better to find yourself than to find a thousand pots of gold.

It is only the mind which does not belong that can be alone. And aloneness is not something to be cultivated. You see this? When you see all this, you are out, and no governor or president is going to invite you to dinner. Out of that aloneness there is humility. It is this aloneness that knows love—not power. The ambitious man, religious or ordinary, will never know what love is. So, if one sees all this, then one has this quality of total living and therefore total action. This comes through self-knowledge.

It seems like such an amazing predicament to me, how one does not become a better person by seeking out in the world those who are lesser than himself and then saying, "I will be better than you because you're not as good as me." You don't become better by looking at others and trying to be better than them. You become a better person by looking at yourself in the mirror, and, seeking to overcome and to overthrow all the flaws within yourself, you overcome the weaker you, the lesser you; you become the better You, the stronger You, the higher You. That's how it goes.

It is only the mind which does not belong that can be alone. And aloneness is not something to be cultivated. You see this? When you see all this, you are out, and no governor or president is going to invite you to dinner. Out of that aloneness there is humility. It is this aloneness that knows love—not power. The ambitious man, religious or ordinary, will never know what love is. So, if one sees all this, then one has this quality of total living and therefore total action. This comes through self-knowledge. Krishnamurti, Jiddu. The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti (Kindle Locations 933-936). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

It is only through self-knowledge that we can understand reality 'as it is'—a living force which is dynamic and changing with time. Bookish knowledge is like a photograph. It helps to identify the person amid many other human beings but does not have the quality of the ‘real’ person—because a living person has feelings and flexibility.

It is wisdom to know who you are, but not to the point of excluding who you might become.

It's okay for someone to tell me who they think I am, but it's not okay when they try to impose that idea on me.

I will feel no guilt on shutting my door to those who didn't listen.

Liberty is no less a blessing because oppression has so long darkened the mind that it can not appreciate it.

Je sais qu'on ne peut jamais se connaître, mais seulement se raconter.

Know yourself fearlessly (even quietly) for all the things you are.

Know yourself? Why not forget yourself instead?

Let us each take up our flaming torches and mount as the blazing fireballs of light that we are and let's burn the skies and leave it with deep scars and let them be our signatures upon eternity as we go forth!

Lies don't make you happy. They just make you lie about being happy.

Life is a conversation with yourself. And who are you if not the eternal presence behind everything that is, was, and will be? Like this, the blow of each breeze and the beauty of each sunset can teach you about yourself, if you listen. If you hear.

Life so far seemed like a kind of dance to him, and he was pleased to discover that he was pretty good at it. Lf there was something hollow underneath it all, a well of fear that sometimes seemed to pull everything else into it and leave him clutching the stone rim for fear of falling into himself, well, that was part of being human, he supposed. That's what the booze was for.

Mariel shook her head. “No, it’s just . . . Every time I think I’ve figured you out, you do something unexpected.” Eris laughed. “Good luck with that,” she said. “Even I haven’t figured me out, and I’ve been trying for eighteen years.