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Self-reflection Quotes


"Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage."



"If there is wrong [ill] on the inside, the outside will appear wrong. Therefore, you should inquire within 'why am I bothered, when others are not? So there must be wrong within me only."


"Your inner light lights up your outer world."


"Perhaps I am a man of exceptional moods. I do not know how far my experience is common. At times I suffer from the strangest sense of detachment from myself and the world about me; I seem to watch it all from the outside, from somewhere inconceivably remote, out of time, out of space, out of the stress and tragedy of it all. This feeling was very strong upon me that night. Here was another side to my dream."


"I put myself and all the members of Congress in the same boat of things that could have been done better."



"If there was no such thing as a mirror in this world, then seeing our face 'exactly' would be considered a huge wonder."


"Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, the Self."


"If you say something and reject any criticism, then your words truly meant to advise yourself."


"Begin to think."


"Your mind is your world. Your heart is your nature. Your soul is your universe. Your life is your creation."



"I grab the pillows off the bed and chuck them at the reflection in the mirror of the girl I no longer know. I watch as the girl in the mirror stares back at me, sobbing pathetically. The weakness in her tears infuriates me."


"It was one of those moments-which sometimes occur only at the interval of years-when a man's moral aspect is faithfully revealed to his mind's eye. Not improbably, he had never before viewed himself as he did now."



"Sex is something I really don't understand too hot. You never know where the hell you are... Sex is something I just don't understand. I swear to God."


"We must question every inner-belief we possess without fear or attachment."


"There is an illusion about America, a myth about America to which we are clinging which has nothing to do with the lives we lead and I don't believe that anybody in this country who has really thought about it or really almost anybody who has been brought up against it--and almost all of us have one way or another--this collision between one's image of oneself and what one actually is is always very painful and there are two things you can do about it, you can meet the collision head-on and try and become what you really are or you can retreat and try to remain what you thought you were, which is a fantasy, in which you will certainly perish."


"Oh, how clearly I see your faults! Such distinctly highlighted flaws; it's as if the sun and moon mean to keep them illuminated in my eyes. My mind is quick to spell out a simple remedy for those defects. But alas, poor me! My own faults-which I only assume to have because all do-are blurred and obscured by a mental fog. I've no eyes with which to gaze back at myself. The sun and moon refuse their illumination, and my mind offers no sure elixir but a complex recipe scribbled in foreign words I scarcely comprehend."


"Be judgmental to yourself, but be kind and non-judgmental to others."


"What I do is the truest mirror of who I am."


"If you have never seen a masterpiece, look in the mirror."


"I am blind to the very things that make for our own peace."


"I have enjoyed my company so fondly, I may not feel alone when I am lonely."



"When our thoughts are unsettled and our inner world is in a muddle, we may sharpen our wits and try to recognize the invisible edges of our fractured stance. If we seek to figure out, what our life story is all about, we may be able to put the missing pieces in place and identify what is driving us, what we are actually up to and why we are running like mad dogs, sometimes. ['On a doggy day']"


"If you do not like a certain behavior in others, look within yourself to find the roots of what discomforts you."


"I may be alone, but I am never lonely. I am always with my best friend, and that is me."


"Knowing your strengths is intelligence, knowing your weakness is wisdom."


"The truth is that most of us are not our best selves."


"Just beyond the ticket booth Father had painted on a wall in bright red letters the question: DO YOU KNOW WHICH IS THE MOST DANGEROUS ANIMAL IN THE ZOO? An arrow pointed to a small curtain. There were so many eager, curious hands that pulled at the curtain that we had to replace it regularly. Behind it was a mirror."


"Oh yes, I am frequently driven to an enraged frenzy by the blatantly crass actions of others. But to be painfully honest, that anger is much less driven by the reality of their actions and far more fueled by the realization that everything I am is everything that I hate in them."


"One who cannot dance must not blame the song."


"Behold, behold."


"Would the child you were yesterday admire the person you are today? If not, adjust for desired results."


"When you truly face your pain you will only see yourself. Your fear was always you."


"When we constantly meditate on another's faults, it is because we are neglecting our own unhealed wounds."


"Everything that goes into my mouth seems to make me fat, everything that comes out of my mouth embarrasses me."


"Go look in the mirror and have a talk with your real boss."



"But she finally had the good sense to see that a long, dull and predictable future was an expensive price to pay for the satisfaction of a passing sexual attraction."


"I wanted to laugh. Or maybe get mad. Or maybe shrug at how strange everyone was, especially me."


"For the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: 'If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?' And whenever the answer has been 'No' for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."
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