Self Discovery Quotes: The Collection
Self Discovery Quotes … Is quoting the greatest shortcut to understanding life? I think so.
The wisdom of the wise and the experience of the ages are perpetuated by quotations. — Benjamin Disraeli
Below I present Self Discovery Quotes from people I, in absentia respect, as people who put significant efforts into studying human nature and contributing to the field of self discovery, spiritual awakening, soul-searching and self-fulfillment.
However, I am aware that the list is short. There are many more people whose names should be here. I will be collecting more wisdom and Self Discovery Quotes in my blog as time goes on.
What Self Discovery Quotes do I Not Collect
1. I will try to avoid quotes from ambiguous sources or from general maxims: Bible, Bhagavat Gita, Socrates, Vedas, Buddha etc. It is not that they are not of importance. No, instead, it is I like to hear what a person says, not from an abstract source.
2. I will also avoid placing quotes from “overused” authors, such as Einstein, Gandhi, Mother Teresa etc. Not because they are useless, but rather, such quotes appeal to general concepts, and I am more about individuality.
3. And definitely, I will not place quotes or sayings of modern “gurus,” again, not because they are unwise. No, it is because it is only time that will show the wisdom of their sayings.
4. Quotes of famous people. I will stay away from it as well. Marilyn Monroe? Bieber? … – No, it seems to me that they have become famous because people had no choice at the time but to quote those who were advertised. Celebrity’s sayings, banal clichés of the same sort – I will also stay away from them for obvious reasons.
Disclaimer
If you find a self discovery quote distasteful or otherwise inappropriate, please, all complaints to quote’s author – Good luck though, if you are alive.
Why Self Discovery Quotes are Important
Quotes are a powerful tool because they are able to convey many difficult life situations in one phrase.
Self Discovery Quotes are great tools for any one on the quest for life’s happiness, spiritual awakening and self-fulfillment.
They allow you to get familiar with the complex problems of our existence. When you remember quotes and maxims conveying the depth of human knowledge and understanding self-concept. They can also function as anchoring points from where deeper research can be done (when of course, it is needed.)
Quotes also have a literary meaning, as a good quote opens up from different angles every time you dig into it. Yes, we know many quotes by heart, but there are those that are better to write down and re-read every time there is a difficulty in life. Quotes of the wise carry more spiritual growth and deliver more inner peace than any religious scripture.
There is a phrase “Standing on the shoulders of giants,” and it is a metaphor emphasizing the use and the understanding of knowledge gained by major thinkers of humanity who have put a tremendous amount of energy in order to make intellectual progress of us (for better or worse.)
Nothing I can say here anymore. I simply going to show a collection of quotes relating to self-discovery that I have accumulated over time. So, SoulCredo and I welcome you.
Psychology and Sociology Quotes
Here is the list of good quotes from the masters of philosophy:
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it.
― Karl Marx, Eleven Theses on Feuerbach
“The oppressed are allowed once every few years to decide which particular representatives of the oppressing class are to represent and repress them.”
― Karl Marx
“Surround yourself with people who make you happy. People who make you laugh, who help you when you’re in need. People who genuinely care. They are the ones worth keeping in your life. Everyone else is just passing through.”
― Karl Marx
“Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have a world to win.
Workingmen of all countries unite!”
― Karl Marx, The Communist Manifesto
“The materialist conception of history starts from the proposition that the production of the means to support human life and, next to production, the exchange of things produced, is the basis of all social structure; that in every society that has appeared in history, the manner in which wealth is distributed and society divided into classes or orders is dependent upon what is produced, how it is produced, and how the products are exchanged.”
― Friedrich Engels, Socialism: Utopian and Scientific
“Competition permits the capitalist to deduct from the price of labour-power that which the family earns from its own little garden or field; the workers are compelled to accept any piece wages offered to them because otherwise, they would get nothing at all, and they could not live from the products of their small-scale agriculture alone, and because, on the other hand, it is just this agriculture and land ownership which chains them to the spot and prevents them from looking around for other employment.”
― Friedrich Engels, The Housing Question
“The “dangerous class,” the social scum that passively rotting mass thrown off by the lowest layers of the old society may, here and there, be swept into the movement by a proletarian revolution; its conditions of life, however, prepare it far more for the part of a bribed tool of reactionary intrigue.”
― Friedrich Engels, The Communist Manifesto
William James Quotes on Self Discovery
“Action may not always bring happiness, but there is no happiness without action.”
― Wi “We are like islands in the sea, separate on the surface but connected in the deep.”
― William James
“A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices.”
― William James
“The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human can alter his life by altering his attitude.”
“Whenever two people meet, there are really six people present. There is each man as he sees himself, each man as the other person sees him, and each man as he really is.”
― William James
B.F. Skinner Quotes
“A failure is not always a mistake; it may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”
― B.F. Skinner
“A failure is not always a mistake. It may simply be the best one can do under the circumstances. The real mistake is to stop trying.”
― B.F. Skinner
“A person who has been punished is not thereby simply less inclined to behave in a given way; at best, he learns how to avoid punishment.”
― B.F Skinner, Beyond Freedom and Dignity
“If freedom is a requisite for human happiness, then all that’s necessary is to provide the illusion of freedom.”
― B.F. Skinner
Carl Gustav Jung’s Quotes on Self Discovery
Are you embarking soul-searching journey? Jung is where you start.
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
― C.G. Jung
“I am not what happened to me. I am what I choose to become.”
― Carl Gustav Jung
“You are what you do, not what you say you’ll do.”
― Carl Gustav Jung
“Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people.”
― Carl Gustav Jung
Alfred Adler Quotes
Oh, Adler. For anyone who is on the self-fulfillment quest, he is the teacher.
“It is easier to fight for one’s principles than to live up to them.”
― Alfred Adler
“It is the individual who is not interested in his fellow men who has the greatest difficulties in life and provides the greatest injury to others. It is from among such individuals that all human failures spring.”
― Alfred Adler, What Life Could Mean to You
“To be a human being means to possess a feeling of inferiority which constantly presses towards its own conquest. The greater the feeling of inferiority that has been experienced, the more powerful is the urge for conquest and the more violent the emotional agitation.”
“To be human means to feel inferior.”
― Alfred Adler
Humanistic Quotes on Self Discovery
Bertrand Russell’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“The fundamental cause of the trouble is that in the modern world, the stupid are cocksure while the intelligent are full of doubt.”
― Bertrand Russell
“I would never die for my beliefs because I might be wrong.”
― Bertrand Russell
“A stupid man’s report of what a clever man says can never be accurate because he unconsciously translates what he hears into something he can understand.”
― Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy
“Our great democracies still tend to think that a stupid man is more likely, to be honest than a clever man, and our politicians take advantage of this prejudice by pretending to be even more stupid than nature made them.”
― Bertrand Russell, New Hopes for a Changing World
Ludwig Wittgenstein’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“Hell isn’t other people. Hell is yourself.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein
“Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein, Culture and Value
“If people never did silly things, nothing intelligent would ever get done.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein
“I don’t know why we are here, but I’m pretty sure that it is not in order to enjoy ourselves.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein
Karl Popper’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“No rational argument will have a rational effect on a man who does not want to adopt a rational attitude.”
― Karl Popper
“Science may be described as the art of systematic oversimplification.”
― Karl Popper
“All life is problem-solving.”
― Karl Popper
“Those who promise us paradise on earth never produced anything but a hell.”
― Karl R. Popper
“I remained a socialist for several years, even after my rejection of Marxism, and if there could be such a thing as socialism combined with individual liberty, I would be a socialist still. For nothing could be better than living a modest, simple, and free life in an egalitarian society. It took some time before I recognized this as no more than a beautiful dream, that freedom is more important than equality; that the attempt to realize equality endangers freedom; and that, if freedom is lost, there will not even be equality among the unfree.”
― Karl R. Popper, Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography
“It can’t happen here” is always wrong: a dictatorship can happen anywhere.”
― Karl Popper, Unended Quest: An Intellectual Autobiography
Jean-Paul Sartre’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“If you’re lonely when you’re alone, you’re in bad company.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
“Freedom is what we do with what is done to us.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre
“When the rich wage war, it’s the poor who die.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, Le diable et le bon dieu
“You are – your life, and nothing else.”
― Jean-Paul Sartre, No Exit
Albert Camus’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“Don’t walk in front of me… I may not follow
Don’t walk behind me… I may not lead
Walk beside me… just be my friend.”
― Albert Camus
“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”
― Albert Camus
“Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is.”
― Albert Camus
“Nobody realizes that some people expend tremendous energy merely to be normal.”
― Albert Camus
“Should I kill myself or have a cup of coffee?”
― Albert Camus
“But in the end, one needs more courage to live than to kill himself.”
― Albert Camus
“Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.”
― Albert Camus
Richard Dawkins’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
“There is something infantile in the presumption that somebody else has a responsibility to give your life meaning and point… The truly adult view, by contrast, is that our life is as meaningful, as full and as wonderful as we choose to make it.”
― Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion
Age of Philosophical Enlightenment Quotes
Some good philosophical quotes:
David Hume’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.”
― David Hume
“Generally speaking, the errors in religion are dangerous; those in philosophy only ridiculous.”
― David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
“No man ever threw away life while it was worth keeping.”
― David Hume, Essays on Suicide and the Immortality of the Soul
“Epicurus’s old questions are still unanswered: Is he (God) willing to prevent evil, but not able? then he is impotent. Is he able, but not willing? then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? then whence evil?”
― David Hume
René Descartes’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“Doubt is the origin of wisdom.”
― Rene Descartes
Dubito, ergo cogito, ergo sum (“I doubt, therefore I think, therefore I am”) – Antoine Léonard Thomas, in a 1765 essay in honour of Descartes
“Common sense is the most widely shared commodity in the world, for every man is convinced that he is well supplied with it.”
― Rene Descartes
“Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power.”
― René Descartes
Baruch Spinoza Quotes on Self Discovery
“I do not know how to teach philosophy without becoming a disturber of the peace.”
― Baruch Spinoza
“No matter how thin you slice it, there will always be two sides.”
― Spinoza
“I have made a ceaseless effort not to ridicule, not to bewail, not to scorn human actions, but to understand them.”
― Baruch Spinoza
“The highest activity a human being can attain is learning for understanding because to understand is to be free.”
― Baruch Spinoza
Immanuel Kant Quotes on Self Discovery
“Rules for happiness: something to do, someone to love, something to hope for.”
― Immanuel Kant
“Out of the crooked timber of humanity, no straight thing was ever made.”
― Immanuel Kant, Idea for a Universal History with a Cosmopolitan Purpose
“Look closely. The beautiful may be small.”
― Immanuel Kant
“I had to deny knowledge in order to make room for faith.”
― Immanuel Kant, Critique of Pure Reason
“Dare to think!”
― Immanuel Kant, What is Enlightenment?
“For peace to reign on Earth, humans must evolve into new beings who have learned to see the whole first.”
― Immanuel Kant
Idealism and Existentialism Quotes on Self Discovery
Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel Quotes on Self Discovery
“Nothing great in the world was accomplished without passion.”
― Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
“Evil resides in the very gaze which perceives Evil all around itself.”
― Hegel
“Truth is found neither in the thesis nor the antithesis, but in an emergent synthesis which reconciles the two.”
― Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
“The valour that struggles is better than the weakness that endures.”
― Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel
Jean-Jacques Rousseau Quotes on Self Discovery
“I prefer liberty with danger than peace with slavery.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“People who know little are usually great talkers, while men who know much say little.”
― Jean Jacques Rousseau
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau
“I would rather be a man of paradoxes than a man of prejudices.”
― Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Emile, or On Education
“What wisdom can you find greater than kindness.”
― Jean Jacques Rousseau
Søren Kierkegaard Quotes on Self Discovery
“The most common form of despair is not being who you are.”
“Life can only be understood backwards, but it must be lived forwards.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
“People demand freedom of speech as a compensation for the freedom of thought which they seldom use.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
“Anxiety is the dizziness of freedom.”
― Søren Kierkegaard
“People understand me so poorly that they don’t even understand my complaint about them not understanding me.”
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Journals of Kierkegaard
“Life is not a problem to be solved, but a reality to be experienced.”
― Soren Kierkegaard
Existential Writer’s Quotes on Self Discovery
Mark Twain Quotes Quotes on Self Discovery
“If you tell the truth, you don’t have to remember anything.”
― Mark Twain
“Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect).”
― Mark Twain
“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.”
― Mark Twain
“I have never let my schooling interfere with my education.”
― Mark Twain
“The fear of death follows from the fear of life. A man who lives fully is prepared to die at any time.”
― Mark Twain
“Never tell the truth to people who are not worthy of it.”
― Mark Twain
Edgar Allan Poe Quotes on Self Discovery
“I became insane, with long intervals of horrible sanity.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
“All that we see or seen is but a dream within a dream.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
“I have great faith in fools – self-confidence my friends will call it.”
― Edgar Allan Poe, Marginalia
“Believe nothing you hear and only one half that you see.”
― Edgar Allan Poe
Aldous Leonard Huxley Quotes on Self Discovery
About him. I am not the fan of him as a philosopher, however some of his insights, do blow my mind.
There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.
Aldous Huxley
“I wanted to change the world. But I have found that the only thing one can be sure of changing is oneself.”
― Aldous Huxley, Point Counter Point
“Words can be like X-rays if you use them properly — they’ll go through anything. You read, and you’re pierced.”
― Aldous Huxley, Brave New World
“Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.”
― Aldous Huxley
“You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you mad.”
― Aldous Huxley
“Maybe this world is another planet’s hell.”
― Aldous Huxley
“The more powerful and original a mind, the more it will incline towards the religion of solitude.”
― Aldous Huxley
“Happiness is not achieved by the conscious pursuit of happiness; it is generally the by-product of other activities.”
― Aldous Huxley
“There will be, in the next generation or so, a pharmacological method of making people love their servitude, and producing dictatorship without tears, so to speak, producing a kind of painless concentration camp for entire societies, so that people will, in fact, have their liberties taken away from them, but will rather enjoy it.”
― Aldous Huxley
The deepest sin against the human mind is to believe things without evidence.
– Aldous Huxley
The victim of mind manipulation does not know that he is a victim. To him, the walls of his prison are invisible, and he believes himself to be free.
– Aldous Huxley
Medical science has made such tremendous progress that there is hardly a healthy human left.
– Aldous Huxley
Never have so many been manipulated so much by so few.
– Aldous Huxley
The surest way to work up a crusade in favour of some good cause is to promise people they will have a chance of maltreating someone. To be able to destroy with good conscience, to be able to behave badly and call your bad behaviour’ righteous indignation — this is the height of psychological luxury, the most delicious of moral treats.
– Aldous Huxley
It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel light even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling.
– Aldous Huxley
… the greater part of the population is not very intelligent, dreads responsibility, and desires nothing better than to be told what to do. Provided the rulers do not interfere with its material comforts and its cherished beliefs, it is perfectly happy to let itself be ruled.
Aldous Huxley
H.P. Lovecraft Quotes on Self Discovery
I did not study his work at any depth, yet the sharpness of his mind does fascinate me.
“I always know that I am an outsider, a stranger in this century and among those who are still men.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, The Outsider
“The sciences, each straining in its own direction, have hitherto harmed us little; but someday the piecing together of dissociated knowledge will open up such terrifying vistas of reality, and of our frightful position therein, that we shall either go mad from the revelation or flee from the deadly light into the peace and safety of a new dark age.”
― H.P. Lovecraft
“The only saving grace of the present is that it’s too damned stupid to question the past very closely.”
― H.P. Lovecraft, Pickman’s Model
Leo Tolstoy Quotes on Self Discovery
I think he was a confused and scared individual. His philosophy is scattered. However his writings, stories he created are form not this world.
“Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”
― Leo Tolstoy
“We can know only that we know nothing. And that is the highest degree of human wisdom.”
― Leo Tolstoy, War and Peace
“If you want to be happy, be.”
― Tolstoy Leo
“Is it really possible to tell someone else what one feels?”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina
“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.”
― Leo Tolstoy
Nikolai Gogol Quotes on Self Discovery
He is the one for those who believe that there is something sits within our soul and constantly tortures us.
“I am fated to journey hand in hand with my strange heroes and to survey the surging immensity of life, to survey it through the laughter that all can see and through the tears unseen and unknown by anyone.”
― Nikolai Gogol
“In this world, people always find a way of doing what they want.”
― Nikolai Gogol
Alexander Pushkin Quotes on Self Discovery
Pushkin the great. All I can say. His visions, his deep analysis of mythology and history is unprecedented.
“A deception that elevates us is dearer than a host of low truths.”
― Aleksander Pushkin
“If you but knew the flames that burn in me which I attempt to beat down with my reason.”
― Alexander Pushkin
“My dreams, my dreams! What has become of their sweetness? What indeed has become of my youth?”
― Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin
“Moral maxims are surprisingly useful on occasions when we can invent little else to justify our actions.”
― Alexander Pushkin, Tales of Belkin
“Dearer to me than a host of base truths is the illusion that exalts.”
― Alexander Pushkin
Ivan Turgenev Quotes on Self Discovery
Turgenev was one of the first intellectuals in Russian literature to study the personality of the man of modernity, moral qualities, and psychological characteristics of new type of people “freed” from the back breaking labor. He is who is responsible for Nihilism.
“Take for yourself what you can, and don’t be ruled by others; to belong to oneself – the whole savour of life lies in that.”
― Ivan Turgenev, Spring Torrents
“If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.”
― Ivan Turgenev
“We sit in the mud, my friend, and reach for the stars.”
― Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons
“I was afraid of looking into my heart…afraid of thinking seriously about anything…I did not want to know whether I was loved, and I did not want to admit to myself that I was not loved…”
― Ivan Turgenev
“So many memories and so little worth remembering, and in front of me — a long, long road without a goal…”
― Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons
“I look up to heaven only when I want to sneeze.”
― Ivan Turgenev, Fathers and Sons
Mikhail Bulgakov Quotes on Self Discovery
Well, for people outside of Russian culture, he is not easy to understand. Yet his mysticism will appesl to those who loke it.
“Everything will turn out right; the world is built on that.”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
“You should never ask anyone for anything. Never- and especially from those who are more powerful than yourself.”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
“What would your good do if evil didn’t exist, and what would the earth look like if all the shadows disappeared?”
― Mikhail Bulgakov
“and a fact is the most stubborn thing in the world.”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
Fyodor Dostoevsky Quotes on Self Discovery
The “propagator” of German idealism, the great judger of human psyche … What else I can say?
“Pain and suffering are always inevitable for a large intelligence and a deep heart. The really great men must, I think, have great sadness on earth.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
“To go wrong in one’s own way is better than to go right in someone else’s.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Crime and Punishment
“Man only likes to count his troubles; he doesn’t calculate his happiness.”
― Fyodor Dostoevsky, Notes from Underground
“The mystery of human existence lies not in just staying alive, but in finding something to live for.”
― Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Anton Chekhov Quotes on Self Discovery
One of the greatest polywaters, humanist, the man who attempted to understand who we are and why we are.
“The role of the artist is to ask questions, not answer them.”
― Anton Pavlovich Chekhov
“What fine weather today! Can’t choose whether to drink tea or to hang myself.”
― A.P. Chekhov
“The world is, of course, nothing but our conception of it.”
― “When asked, “Why do you always wear black?” he said, “I am mourning for my life.”
― Anton Chekhov
Franz Kafka’s Quotes on Self Discovery
It is happiness what you search for in life? Read Kafka, perhaps your notions about happiness will change.
“A book must be the axe for the frozen sea within us.”
― Franz Kafka
“Don’t bend; don’t water it down; don’t try to make it logical; don’t edit your own soul according to the fashion. Rather, follow your most intense obsessions mercilessly.”
― Franz Kafka
“I am free, and that is why I am lost.”
― Franz Kafka
“A First Sign of the Beginning of Understanding is the Wish to Die.”
― Franz Kafka
“I cannot make you understand. I cannot make anyone understand what is happening inside me. I cannot even explain it to myself.”
― Franz Kafka, The Metamorphosis
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, First Part
“A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Faust, First Part
“There is nothing more frightful than ignorance in action.”
― Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Voltaire’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“Judge a man by his questions rather than by his answers.”
“Common sense is not so common.”
― Voltaire― Voltaire
“Love truth, but pardon error.”
― Voltaire
“I don’t know where I am going, but I am on my way.”
― Voltaire
Down To Earth Philosophical Quotes
Thomas Hobbes’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“Curiosity is the lust of the mind.”
― Thomas Hobbes
“Hell is truth seen too late.”
― Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
“The first and fundamental law of Nature, which is, to seek peace and follow it.”
― Thomas Hobbes
“For to accuse requires less eloquence, such is man’s nature, than to excuse; and condemnation, than absolution, more resembles justice.”
― Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan
Arthur Schopenhauer Quotes on Self Discovery
Are you daring to embrace the spiritual awakening journey – Pause for a moment, see what Schopenhauer has to say.
I love this philosopher. Perhaps as a child, he would love his grandfather, the one he would have never wanted to meet, not to face the imminate disappointment.
“It is difficult to find happiness within oneself, but it is impossible to find it anywhere else.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer
“Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see.”
“Compassion is the basis of morality.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer
“Mostly, it is loss which teaches us about the worth of things.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Parerga and Paralipomena
Man can do what he wills, but he cannot will what he wills.”
― Arthur Schopenhauer, Essays and Aphorisms
Friedrich Nietzsche’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.”
“You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist.”
― Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
“The man of knowledge must be able not only to love his enemies but also to hate his friends.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
“No one can construct for you the bridge upon which precisely you must cross the stream of life, no one but you yourself alone.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche
Baltasar Gracián Quotes on Self Discovery
“Be first the master of yourself”
― Balthasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom
“Things do not pass for what they are, but for what they seem. Most things are judged by their jackets.”
― Baltasar Gracián
“Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.”
― Baltasar Gracián y Morales
“Things have their time, even eminence bows to timeliness.”
― Balthasar Gracian, The Art of Worldly Wisdom
François de La Rochefoucauld Quotes on Self Discovery
“No persons are more frequently wrong than those who will not admit they are wrong.”
― François de La Rochefoucauld
“If we had no faults, we should not take so much pleasure in noting those of others.”
― François de La Rochefoucauld, Maxims
“We promise according to our hopes and perform according to our fears.”
― François de La Rochefoucauld
“Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.”
― François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
“We rarely think people have good sense unless they agree with us.”
― Francois de La Rochefoucauld
Michel de Montaigne Quotes on Self Discovery
“On the highest throne in the world, we still sit only on our own bottom.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
“The greatest thing in the world is to know how to belong to oneself.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
“I quote others only in order the better to express myself.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
“He who fears he shall suffer already suffers what he fears.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
“If I speak of myself in different ways, that is because I look at myself in different ways.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
“I am afraid that our eyes are bigger than our stomachs and that we have more curiosity than understanding. We grasp at everything but catch nothing except wind.”
― Michel de Montaigne, The Complete Essays
Niccolò Machiavelli Quotes on Self Discovery
“Everyone sees what you appear to be; few experience what you really are.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli, The Prince
“It is not titles that honour men, but men that honour titles.”
― Niccolò Machiavelli
“Where the willingness is great, the difficulties cannot be great.”
― Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince
“A man who is used to acting in one way never changes; he must come to ruin when the times, in changing, no longer are in harmony with his ways.”
― Machiavelli Niccolo, The Prince
Carl von Clausewitz’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“The enemy of a good plan is the dream of a perfect plan.”
― Karl von Clausewitz, Vom Kriege, 1832
“Although our intellect always longs for clarity and certainty, our nature often finds uncertainty fascinating.”
― Karl Von Clausewitz
“There are cases in which the greatest daring is the greatest wisdom.”
― Carl Von Clausewitz, On War
“All war presupposes human weakness and seeks to exploit it.”
― Carl von Clausewitz
Montesquieu’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“If one only wished to be happy, this could be easily accomplished, but we wish to be happier than other people, and this is always difficult, for we believe others to be happier than they are.”
― Montesquieu
“Do you think that God will punish them for not practicing a religion which he did not reveal to them?”
― Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu
“The success of most things depends upon knowing how long it will take to succeed.”
― Charles-Louis de Secondat, baron de la Brède et de Montesquieu
Sun Tzu Quotes on Self Discovery
“who wishes to fight must first count the cost.”
― Sun Tzu, The Art of War
“You have to believe in yourself.”
― Sun Tzu
“Wheels of justice grind slow but grind fine.”
― Sun Tzu
Stoics Quotes Relevant to Self-Discovery
Annaeus Seneca Quotes on Self Discovery
“Luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.”
― Seneca
“Non est ad astra mollis e terris via” – “There is no easy way from the earth to the stars.”
― Seneca
“We suffer more often in imagination than in reality.”
― Lucius Annaeus Seneca
“If a man knows not to which port he sails, no wind is favourable.”
― Seneca the Younger
“No man was ever wise by chance.”
― Seneca
Epictetus Quotes on Self Discovery
“Don’t explain your philosophy. Embody it.”
― Epictetus
― “There is only one way to happiness, and that is to cease worrying about things which are beyond the power or our will.”
― Epictetus
“Man is not worried by real problems so much as by his imagined anxieties about real problems.”
― Epictetus
“First say to yourself what you would be;
and then do what you have to do.”
― Epictetus
Marcus Aurelius Quotes on Self Discovery
“You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“Dwell on the beauty of life. Watch the stars and see yourself running with them.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The happiness of your life depends upon the quality of your thoughts.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
“The soul becomes dyed with the colour of its thoughts.”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Virgil Quotes on Self Discovery
“Each of us bears his own Hell.”
― Virgil
“If I cannot move heaven, I will raise hell.” ― Virgil
“Fortune sides with him who dares.” ― Virgil
“The descent into Hell is easy” ― Virgil
The only hope for the doomed is no hope at all…” ― Virgil
Ancient Wisdom
Quotes on Self Discovery form Ancient Word.
Chanakya Quotes on Self Discovery
“Your feelings are your god.”
– Chanakya
“A man is great by deeds, not by birth.”
– Chanakya
“A man attains greatness by his merits, not simply by occupying an exalted seat. Can we call a crow an eagle simply because he sits on the top of a tall building.”
– Chanakya
“Don’t judge the future of a person based on his present conditions because time has the power to change black coal to shiny diamond.”
– Chanakya
Heraclitus Quotes on Self Discovery
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.”
― Heraclitus
“The Only Thing That Is Constant Is Change -“
― Heraclitus
“Nothing endures but change.”
― Heraclitus
“Man’s character is his fate.”
― Heraclitus, Fragments
“How can you hide from what never goes away?”
― Heraclitus
“It is in changing that we find purpose.”
― Heraclitus
Epicurus’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“Death, therefore, the most awful of evils, is nothing to us, seeing that, when we are, death is not come, and, when death is come, we are not.”
― Epicurus
“He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing.”
― Epicurus
“It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself.”
― Epicurus
“Not what we have But what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance.”
― Epicurus
Plato’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“Only the dead have seen the end of war.”
― Plato
“The price good men pay for indifference to public affairs is to be ruled by evil men.”
― Plato
“I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.”
― Plato, The Republic
“Ignorance, the root and stem of every evil.”
― Plato
Aristotle Quotes on Self Discovery
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
― Aristotle
“Happiness is the meaning and the purpose of life, the whole aim and end of human existence.”
“Happiness depends upon ourselves.”
― Aristotle
“To perceive is to suffer.”
― Aristotle
Lao Tzu Quotes on Self Discovery
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don’t resist them; that only creates sorrow. Let reality be reality. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like.”
― Lao Tzu
“Those who know do not speak. Those who speak do not know.”
― Lao Tsu, Tao Teh Ching
“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.”
― Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching
“Care about what other people think, and you will always be their prisoner.”
― Lao Tzu
Confucius’s Quotes on Self Discovery
“Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart.”
― Confucius
“He who knows all the answers has not been asked all the questions.”
― Confucius― Confucius
“Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated.”
― Confucius
“Study the past if you would define the future.”
― Confucius
Omar Khayyâm Quotes on Self Discovery
“To wisely live your life, you don’t need to know much. Just remember two main rules for the beginning:
You better starve than eat whatever. And better be alone than with whoever.”
― Omar Khayyám, Rubaiyat
“As far as you can avoid it, do not give grief to anyone. Never inflict your rage on another. If you hope for eternal rest, feel the pain yourself; but don’t hurt others.”
― Omar Khayyám
“Dead yesterdays and unborn tomorrows, why fret about it, if today be sweet.”
― Omar Khayyâm
“Poor soul, you will never know anything of real importance. You will not uncover even one of life’s secrets. Although all religions promise paradise, take care to create your own paradise here and now on earth.”
― Omar Khayyám, The Ruba’iyat of Omar Khayyam
Avicenna, Ibn Sina Quotes on Self Discovery
“The world is divided into men who have wit and no religion and men who have religion and no wit.”
“The knowledge of anything, since all things have causes, is not acquired or complete unless it is known by its causes.” – Avicenna, Ibn Sina
“Width of life is more important than the length of life.” – Avicenna, Ibn Sina
Saint Augustine Quotes on Self Discovery
“Right is right even if no one is doing it; wrong is wrong even if everyone is doing it.”
― Saint Augustine
“Hope has two beautiful daughters; their names are Anger and Courage. Anger at the way things are, and Courage to see that they do not remain as they are.”
― Augustine of Hippo
“There is no saint without a past, no sinner without a future.”
― St. Augustine
“In order to discover the character of people, we have only to observe what they love.”
― St. Augustine
Thomas Aquinas Quotes on Self Discovery
“We must love them both, those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject, for both have laboured in the search for truth, and both have helped us in finding it.”
― St. Thomas Aquinas
“There is nothing on this earth more to be prized than true friendship.”
― Thomas Aquinas
“The things that we love tell us what we are.”
― St. Thomas Aquinas
“Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts.”
― Thomas Aquinas
“The Study of philosophy is not that we may know what men have thought, but what the truth of things is. ”
― St. Thomas Aquinas
Summary
This list of Self Discovery Quotes is far from being comprehensive, but it is a start.
Enjoy,
Regards, Val
