By learning to discover and value our ordinariness, we nurture a friendliness toward ourselves and the world that is the essence of a healthy soul. –Thomas Moore
A measure of honest introspection is worth more than an immeasurable pile of pontification. — Bill Purdin
Take your life in your own hands and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame. — Erica Jong
Peace visits not the guilty mind. — Juvenal
Learning to live with what you’re born with is the process, the involvement, the making of a life. — Diane Wakoski
When I’m trusting and being myself … everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously. — Shakti Gawain
Discouragement is simply the despair of wounded self-love. — Francois de Fenelon
If you want peace, stop fighting. If you want peace of mind, stop fighting with your thoughts. — Peter McWilliams
We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other peoples’ models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open. — Shakti Gawain
I am who I choose to be. I always have been what I chose — though not always what I pleased.
— Lois McMaster Bujold
First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do. — Epictetus
I myself am made entirely of flaws, stitched together with good intentions. — Augusten Burroughs
I don’t want to be a passenger in my own life. — Diane Ackerman
Intimacy is being seen and known as the person you truly are. — Amy Bloom
If I have lost confidence in myself, I have the universe against me. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
One of the secrets of life is to be honestly who you are. Who others want you to be, who you used to be, and who you may some day become … these are fantasies. To be honestly who you are is to give up your illusions and face today with courage. — Bill Purdin
If one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours. — Henry David Thoreau
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind.
— Dr. Seuss
When you have given nothing, ask for nothing. — Albanian Proverb
To be pleased with one’s limits is a wretched state. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
To know your limits is a state of self-delusion. — Bill Purdin
The body is a sacred garment. — Martha Graham
Until you’ve lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was. — Margaret Mitchell
You have to know how to accept rejection and reject acceptance. — Ray Bradbury
Actions have consequences … first rule of life. And the second rule is this: You are the only one responsible for your own actions. — Holly Lisle
It is as hard to see one’s self as to look backwards without turning around. — Henry David Thoreau
Running from your problems is not “moving forward.” — Bill Purdin
Be a first rate version of yourself, not a second rate version of someone else. — Judy Garland
The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning to work on becoming yourself. — Anna Quindlen
… the mouth speaks what the heart is full of. –Jim Beggs
The real power behind whatever success I have now was something I found within myself — something that’s in all of us, I think — a little piece of God just waiting to be discovered. — Tina Turner
Reputation is what other people know about you. Honor is what you know about yourself. — Lois McMaster Bujold
Maybe it’s easier to like someone else’s life, and live vicariously through it, than take some responsibility to change our lives into lives we might like. — Tish Grier
Self-pity in its early stages is as snug as a feather mattress. Only when it hardens does it become uncomfortable. — Maya Angelou
We should every night call ourselves to an account; What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abort of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift. — Seneca
It is easy in the world to live after the world’s opinion; it is easy in solitude to live after our own; but the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson
I was brought up to believe that how I saw myself was more important than how others saw me. — Anwar el-Sadat
Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power. — Seneca
Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices. — Benjamin Franklin
Our greatest pretenses are built up not to hide the evil and the ugly in us, but our emptiness. The hardest thing to hide is something that is not there. — Eric Hoffer
So long as you are praised think only that you are not yet on your own path but on that of another.
— Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
I define comfort as self-acceptance. When we finally learn that self-care begins and ends with ourselves, we no longer demand sustenance and happiness from others. — Jennifer Louden
Look in the mirror. The face that pins you with its double gaze reveals a chastening secret. — Diane Ackerman
Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power a sense of spiritual deadness. — Shakti Gawain
The most important thing is to be whatever you are without shame. — Rod Steiger
You may be disappointed if you fail, but you are doomed if you don’t try. — Beverly Sills
Blessed are they who heal you of self-despisings. Of all services which can be done to man, I know of none more precious. — William Hale White
The first principle is that you must not fool yourself — and you are the easiest person to fool. — Richard Feynman
You are in control of your life. Don’t ever forget that. You are what you are because of the conscious and subconscious choices you have made. — Barbara Hall
Cherish your own emotions and never undervalue them. — Robert Henri
Each person’s only hope for improving his or her lot rests on recognizing the true nature of his or her basic personality, surrendering to it, and becoming who he or she really is. — Sheldon Kopp
What I am is good enough, if I would only be it openly. — Carl Rogers
No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. — Eleanor Roosevelt
Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be. — Fannie Brice
Men and women are not prisoners of fate, but only prisoners of their own minds. — Franklin D. Roosevelt
It is the habitual thought that frames itself into our life. It affects us even more than our intimate social relations do. Our confidential friends have not so much to do in shaping our lives as the thoughts which we harbor.
— J.W. Teal
Kwitchyerbellyakin. — Irish saying
Take pride in how far you have come, have faith in how far you can go. — Anonymous
We know what we are, but know not what we may become. — William Shakespeare
You grow up the day you have your first real laugh – at yourself. — Ethel Barrymore
If you are all wrapped up in yourself, you are overdressed. — Kate Halverson
At some point your heart will tell itself what to do. — Achaan Chah
Be honorable with yourself if you wish to associate with honorable people. — Welsh Proverb
Enlarge your consciousness. If your consciousness is small, you will experience smallness in every department of your life. — Robert Pante
We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are. — Anais Nin
The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. — William Shakespeare
We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit. — Aristotle
The shortest and surest way to live with honor in the world, is to be in reality what we would appear to be.
— Socrates
To thine own-self be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day.
Thou can’st not then be false to any man.
— Hamlet. Act I. Sc. 3
Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look there.
— Marcus Aurelius
It may be all right to be content with what you have; never with what you are. — B.C. Forbes
Some say that my teaching is nonsense.
Others call it lofty but impractical.
But to those who have looked inside themselves,
This nonsense makes perfect sense.
And to those who put it into practice,
This loftiness has roots that go deep.
I have just three things to teach:
Simplicity, patience, compassion.
These three are your greatest treasures.
Simple in actions and in thoughts,
You return to the source of being.
Patient with both friends and enemies,
You accord with the way things are.
Compassionate toward yourself,
You reconcile all beings in the world.
— Tao Te Ching
He that respects himself is safe from others;
He wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.
— Henry Wordsworth Longfellow
Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.
— William James
Man is what he believes. — Anton Chekhov
Never think you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. People will take you very much at your own reckoning. — Anthony Trollope
I thank God for my handicaps, for through them, I have found myself, my work and my God. — Helen Keller
Everyone should carefully observe which way his heart draws him, and then choose that way with all his strength. — Hasidic Saying
Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves. — Carl Jung
The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within. — Mahatma Gandhi
When we see men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves. — Confucius
No bird soars too high, if he soars on his own wings. — William Blake
The more things a man is ashamed of, the more respectable he is. — George Bernard Shaw
No one can give you better advice than yourself. — Cicero
The most common sort of lie is the one uttered to one’s self. — Nietzsche
An old man sat outside the walls of a great city.
When travelers approached, they would ask the old man, “What kind of people live in this city?”
And the old man would answer, “What kind of people live in the place where you came from?”
If the travelers answered, “Only bad people live in the place where we came from,” the old man would reply, “Continue on; you will find only bad people here.”
But if the travelers answered, “Good people live in the place where we came from,” then the old man would say, “Enter, for here, too, you will find only good people.”
— Yiddish folk tale
Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.
Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
— Tao Te Ching
If you have a skeleton in your closet, take it out and dance with it. — Carolyn MacKenzie
People often say that this or that person has not yet found him or herself. But the self is not something that one finds. It is something one creates. — Thomas Szasz
There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.
— Aldous Huxley
I am always ready to learn, although I do not always like being taught. — Winston Churchill
People travel to wonder at the height of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars; and they pass by themselves without wondering. — St. Augustine
No one can be caught in places he doesn’t visit. —Danish Proverb
People seem not to see that their opinion of the world is also a confession of character. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
He knew that insofar as one denies what is, one is possessed by what is not, the compulsions, the fantasies, the terrors that flock to fill the void. — Ursula K. LeGuin, The Lathe of Heaven
I would rather be the man who bought the Brooklyn Bridge than the one who sold it. Don’t compromise yourself. You’re all you’ve got. — Betty Ford
Do you see the world as it is, or do you see the world as you are? — anonymous
Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him — Bible, Proverbs 26:12
The temptation to moralize is strong; it is emotionally more satisfying to have enemies rather than problems, to seek out culprits rather than the flaws in the system. God knows it is emotionally satisfying to be righteous with that righteousness that nourishes itself on the blood of sinners. But God also knows that what is emotionally satisfying can be spiritually devastating. — William Sloane Coffin, The Courage to Love
Work like you don’t need the money.
Love like you’ve never been hurt.
Dance like nobody’s watching.
–Anonymous
The graveyards are full of indispensable men. — Charles De Gaulle
Love not what you are, but what you may become. — Cervantes
Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are sure of yourself; but do not relinquish it simply because someone else is not sure of you. — Stewart E. White
The way life treats you is a merciless mirror image of your attitude toward life. — Anonymous
They all laughed. I drew their pictures and they asked for copies and I handed them out as if they were my tickets to the show. In the Navy Yard, I could drink with men because I worked with men; in the Parkview, I could drink with men because I drew their pictures. The world was a grand confusion. Finally, when I was bleary, when my hand wouldn’t do what I wanted it to do, I went home. I would lie alone in the dark, feeling that I was a character in a story that had lost its plot. — Pete Hamill, A Drinking Life
They are as stubble before the wind, and as chaff that the storm carrieth away. — Job 21:18
Maturity begins to grow when you can sense your concern for others outweighing your concern for yourself.
— John MacNaughton
If you want to test your memory try to remember what you were worrying about a year ago today.
— E. Joseph Cossman
A man’s greatest strength develops at the point where he overcomes his greatest weakness.
— Elmer G. Letterman
Be not merely good; be good for something. — Henry David Thoreau
We can never be certain of our courage till we have faced danger. — Duc Francois de La Rouchefoucauld
Freedom from desire leads to inner peace. — Lao-Tzu
As long as you think you’re green, you’ll grow. As soon as you think you’re ripe, you’ll rot.
— Scott Horton (courtesy of Nicole Smith.)
Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide. — James Russell Lowell
The largest room in the world is the room for improvement.–Anonymous
More people would learn from their mistakes if they weren’t so busy denying them. — Anonymous
Signs of Emotional Security
1. Ability to deal constructively with reality.
2. Capacity to adapt to change.
3. Few symptoms of tension and anxiety.
4. Ability to find more satisfaction in giving than receiving.
5. Capacity to consistently relate to others with mutual satisfaction and helpfulness.
6. Ability to direct hostile energy into constructive outlets.
7. Capacity to love.
— Dr. William Menninger
HOW TO BE PERFECTLY MISERABLE
1. Think about yourself.
2. Talk about yourself.
3. Use “I” as often as possible.
4. Mirror yourself continually in the opinion of others.
5. Listen greedily to what people say about you.
6. Expect to be appreciated.
7. Be suspicious.
8. Be jealous and envious.
9. Be sensitive to slights.
10. Never forgive a criticism
11. Trust no one but yourself.
12. Insist on consideration and respect.
13. Demand agreement with your own views on everything.
14. Sulk if people are not grateful to you for favors shown them.
15. Never forget a service you may have rendered.
16. Be on the lookout for a good time for yourself.
17. Shirk your duties if you can.
18. Do as little as possible for others.
19. Love yourself supremely.
20. Be selfish.
This recipe is guaranteed to be infallible.
— Gospel Herald
And a hymn for Easter, a celebration of mankind’s redemption from selfishness.
Eternal Mind the Potter is,
And thought the’ eternal clay;
The hand the fashions is divine,
His works pass not away.
Man is the noblest work of God,
His beauty, power and grace,
Immortal; perfect as his Mind
Reflected face to face.
God could not make imperfect man
His model infinite;
Unhallowed thought He could not plan,
Love’s work and Love must fit.
Life, Truth and Love the pattern make,
He is the perfect heir;
The clouds of sense roll back, and show
The form divinely fair.
God’s will is done; His kingdom come;
The Potter’s work is plain.
The longing to good and true
Has brought the light again.
And man does stand as God’s own child,
The image of His love.
Let gladness ring from every tongue,
And heaven and earth approve.
— Mary Alice Dayton
Every great mistake has a halfway moment, a split second when it can be recalled and, perhaps, remedied.
— Pearl Buck
There is no satisfaction that can compare with looking back across the years and finding you’ve grown in self-control, judgment, generosity, and unselfishness. — Ella Wheeler Wilcox
I prefer tongue-tied knowledge to ignorant loquacity. — Cicero, De Oratore
The goal in life is to die young — as late as possible. — Ashley Montagu, Anthropologist
Research is what I’m doing when I don’t know what I’m doing. — Werner von Braun
You will find poetry nowhere unless you bring some with you. — Joseph Joubert
When you are looking in the mirror, you are looking at the problem. But, remember, you are also looking at the solution. — Anonymous
God holds each of us by a string. When we sin, we cut the string. But God ties it up again, making a knot. Each time our wrongdoing cuts the string, God ties another knot drawing us up closer to Him. — Meister Eckhart
Think. Believe. Dream. Dare. — Walt Disney’s “Four Most Important Words.”
Still I am learning. — Michelangelo, on his death bed
I am obliged to exercise unlimited forgiveness because, if I did not forgive, I should thus act as if I were not guilty in the same way as the other has been guilty with regard to me. I must forgive the lovelessness, the hatred, the slander, the fraud, the arrogance which I encounter, since I myself have so often lacked love, hated, slandered, defrauded, and been arrogant. I must forgive without noise or fuss. — Albert Schweitzer
He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else. — Benjamin Franklin
Love work.
Turn a deaf ear to slander.
Be considerate in correcting others.
Do not be taken up by trifles.
Do not resent plain speaking.
Meet offenders half-way.
Be thorough in thought.
Have an open mind.
Do your duty without grumbling.
— Cicero
The accusations really say more about the condition of the accusers than that of the accused.
— Roderick MacLeish
Take time to laugh.
It is the music of the soul.
Take time to think.
It is the source of power.
Take time to play.
It is the source of perpetual youth.
Take time to read.
It is the fountain of wisdom.
Take time to pray.
It is the greatest power on Earth.
Take time to love and be loved.
It is a God-given privilege.
Take time to be friendly.
It is the road to happiness.
Take time to give.
It is too short a day to be selfish.
Take time to work.
It is the price of success.
— Anonymous
Those who can’t laugh at themselves leave the job to others. — Anonymous
No conflict is so severe as his who labors to subdue himself. — Thomas A. Kempis
It is what it is. — Tony Sasso, Marblehead Town Administrator
You grieve you learn
You choke you learn
You laugh you learn
You choose you learn
You pray you learn
You ask you learn
You live you learn
— Alanis Morissette, from her album “Jagged Little Pill”
The remarkable thing is that we really do love our neighbors as ourselves; we do unto others as we do unto ourselves. We hate others when we hate ourselves. We are tolerant toward others when we tolerate ourselves. We forgive others when we forgive ourselves. It is not love of self but hatred of self which is at the root of the troubles that afflict our world. — Eric Hoffer: U.S. Writer
Most of the shadows of life are caused by standing in our own sunshine. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you live only for yourself you are always in immediate danger of being bored to death with the repetition of your own views and interests. — Walter Beran Wolfe
He who believes in nobody knows that he himself is not to be trusted. — Berthold Auerbach
The mind may wander, but let not the senses wander with it. If the senses wander where the mind takes them, one is done for. — Mohandas Karamchand (Mahatma) Gandhi
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