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Self-reflection Quotes
"Courtesy is as much a mark of a gentleman as courage."
30
"Every autobiography is concerned with two characters, a Don Quixote, the Ego, and a Sancho Panza, the Self."
26
"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."
25
"Your inner light lights up your outer world."
25
"What I do is the truest mirror of who I am."
22
"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."
22
"I put myself and all the members of Congress in the same boat of things that could have been done better."
22
"Your mind is your world. Your heart is your nature. Your soul is your universe. Your life is your creation."
22
"If there was no such thing as a mirror in this world, then seeing our face 'exactly' would be considered a huge wonder."
21
"I am blind to the very things that make for our own peace."
21
"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."
21
"If you say something and reject any criticism, then your words truly meant to advise yourself."
21
"Knowing your strengths is intelligence, knowing your weakness is wisdom."
20
"We must question every inner-belief we possess without fear or attachment."
19
"Begin to think."
19
"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."
18
"One who cannot dance must not blame the song."
18
"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."
18
"I have enjoyed my company so fondly, I may not feel alone when I am lonely."
17
"Behold, behold."
17
"Be judgmental to yourself, but be kind and non-judgmental to others."
16
"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."
16
"I may be alone, but I am never lonely. I am always with my best friend, and that is me."
16
"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."
15
"Everything that goes into my mouth seems to make me fat, everything that comes out of my mouth embarrasses me."
15
"If you have never seen a masterpiece, look in the mirror."
15
"If you do not like a certain behavior in others, look within yourself to find the roots of what discomforts you."
15
"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."
15
"The truth is that most of us are not our best selves."
14
"Go look in the mirror and have a talk with your real boss."
14
"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."
13
"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']"
12
"When we constantly meditate on another's faults, it is because we are neglecting our own unhealed wounds."
12
"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."
12
"Would the child you were yesterday admire the person you are today? If not, adjust for desired results."
11
"When you truly face your pain you will only see yourself. Your fear was always you."
11
"I wanted to laugh. Or maybe get mad. Or maybe shrug at how strange everyone was, especially me."
11
"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."
9
"This has to be the most self-centered thing I've ever said, but no, I think you just wanted to vex me."
7
"I have been thinking about the idea of excuses for some time now. They are like menacing demons that creep into our lives without us knowing. They are roadblocks, white lies to ourselves, a reason to set the bar lower, and self-justification for achieving less than our full potential."
7
"I was just struggling with my inner vachette and pondering the depths of my own inhumanity."
5
"I don't think I've ever dared to write down what I see in the ruins of me, or tell in any detail the scars and all their secrets."
4
"Each of us is called upon to take a stand. So in these days ahead, as we examine ourselves and each other, our works, our fears, our differences, our sisterhood and survivals, I urge you to tackle what is most difficult for us all, self-scrutiny of our complacencies, the idea that since each of us believes she is on the side of right, she need not examine her position."
3
"No wonder I stopped keeping a journal. It was like keeping a record of my own stupidity. Why would I want to do that? Why would I want to remind myself what an asshole I was?"
2
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