Self Quotes

What is the first business of one who practices philosophy To get rid of self - Conceit. For it is impossible for anyone to begin to learn that which he thinks he already knows.

Epictetus

Originality does not consist in saying what no one has ever said before, but in saying exactly what you think yourself.

James Stephens

No one can give you better advice than yourself.

Marcus Tullius Cicero

Never trouble another for what you can do for yourself.

Thomas Jefferson

Surround yourself with only people who are going to lift you higher.

Oprah Winfrey

I was never less alone than while by myself.

Edward Lawrence Gibson

Sit quiety, doing nothing, spring comes, and the grass grows by itself.

Zen Prove

I gave up on new poetry myself thirty years ago, when most of it began to read like coded messages passing between lonely aliens on a hostile world.

Russell Bake

As an athlete, when you least expect it, you may find yourself standing on the threshold of an accomplishment so monumental that it strikes fear into your soul. You must stand ready, at any moment, to face the unknown. You must be ready to walk boldly thru the wall of uncertainty.

John "The Penguin" Bingham, The courage to start

The worst of all deceptions is self - Deception.

Saul Bellow

Growth itself contains the germ of happiness.

Pearl Sydenstricker Buck

Great ability develops and reveals itself increasingly with every new assignment.

Baltasar Gracian

They wonder much to hear that gold, which in itself is so useless a thing, should be everywhere so much esteemed, that even men for whom it was made, and by whom it has its value, should yet be thought of less value than it is.

Sir Thomas More, Utopia

Getting my lifelong weight struggle under control has come from a process of treating myself as well as I treat others in every way.

Oprah Winfrey, O Magazine, August 2004

There is this difference between happiness and wisdom, that he that thinks himself the happiest man, really is so; but he who thinks himself the wisest, is generally the greatest fool.

C. C. Colton

Love, unrequited, robs me of my rest Love, hopeless love, my ardent soul encumbers Love, nightmare - Like, lies heavy on my chest, And weaves itself into my midnight slumbers.

William S. Gilbert

Nobody will believe in you unless you believe in yourself.

Liberace

However mean your life is, meet it and live it do not shun it and call it hard names. Cultivate poverty like a garden herb, like sage. Do not trouble yourself much to get new things, whether clothes or friends. Things do not change, we change. Sell your clothes and keep your thoughts.

Henry David Thoreau

A woman of honor should not expect of others things she would not do herself.

Marguerite de Valois

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.

Anna Quindlen

Hope itself is a species of happiness, and perhaps, the chief happiness which this world affords.

Samuel Johnson

Book dedication To myself, without whose inspired and tireless efforts this book would not have been possible.

Al Jaffee

Do not accustom yourself to use big words for little matters.

Samuel Johnson

There is no limit to stupidity. Space itself is said to be bounded by its own curvature, but stupidity continues beyond infinity.

Gene Wolfe

The common idea that success spoils people by making them vain, egotistic, and self - Complacent is erroneous - - On the contrary, it makes them, for the most part, humble, tolerant, and kind. It is failure that makes people bitter and cruel.

W. Somerset Maugham

I live in the crowds of jollity, not so much to enjoy company as to shun myself.

Samuel Johnson

The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self - Activity.

Thomas Carlyle

For the sake of peace one may lie, but peace itself should never be a lie.

The Talmud

Eliminating what is not wanted or needed is profitable in itself.

Philip Crosby, Reflections on Quality

Real education should educate us out of self into something far finer into a selflessness which links us with all humanity.

Lady Nancy Asto

You can either hold yourself up to the unrealistic standards of others, or ignore them and concentrate on being happy with yourself as you are.

J. Jacques, Questionable Content webcomic, #352, 05 - 04 - 05

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.

Sun - Tzu

Most powerful is he who has himself in his own power.

Seneca

His mother called such people ignorant and superstitious, but his father only shook his head slowly and puffed his pipe and said that sometimes old stories had a grain or two of truth in them and it was best not to take chances. It was why, he said, he crossed himself whenever a black cat crossed his path.

Stephen King

An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.

Albert Camus

So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

William Shakespeare

When he stood up, it was a very complicated motion. If the deck chairs on the Ship to the Sea of Night had opened up, they would have done so like that. It was like he was unfolding himself forever.

Neil Gaiman, Good Omens