Self Quotes - Page 407

I strive to be brief, and I become obscure.

The beauty of a lake reflects the beauty around it. When the mind is still, the beauty of the Self is seen reflected in it.

For the spread and endurance of an idea the originator is dependent on the self-development of the receivers and transmitters.

I like to receive money for my work. But I can pass that up this time. I like to have people know my work is done by me. But I can pass that up. I like to have tenants made happy by my work. But that doesn't matter too much. The only thing that matters, my goal, my reward, my beginning, my end is the work itself. My work done my way. Peter, there's nothing in the world that you can offer me, except this. Offer me this and you can have anything I've got to give. My work done my way. A private, personal, selfish, egotistical motivation. That's the only way I function. That's all I am.

Self-esteem is reliance on one's power to think... The man of authentic self-confidence is the man who relies on the judgment of his own mind.

Love is our response to our highest values. Love is self-enjoyment. The noblest love is born out of admiration of another's values.

Who is fit to govern others? He who governs himself. You might as well have said: nobody.

I was struck with a bolt of distilled horror like I have never known before. Far worse than suddenly finding yourself walking through a prison cafeteria wearing Daisy Duke shorts and a Jane Fonda headband.

My own self-consciousness cries out to me coldly: how does one love zero?

If you don’t define yourself for yourself then you will be crushed into other's fantasies of you and eaten alive

You can be plain and smart, or pretty and smart. You can even be plain and dumb! You just have to be yourself.

I do not want to give my power, my self-esteem, or my autonomy, to any person, place, or thing outside myself... The only thing that matters is how I feel about myself, my personal integrity, and my relationship with my Creator.

I have repeatedly stressed that the selfish impulses of man constitute a much less historic danger than his integrative tendencies. To put it in the simplest way: the individual who indulges in an excess of aggressive self-assertiveness incurs the penalties of society-he outlaws himself, he contracts out of the hierarchy. The true believer, on the other hand, becomes more closely knit into it; he enters the womb of his church, or party, or whatever the social holon to which he surrenders his identity.

...the crimes of violence committed for selfish, personal motives are historically insignificant compared to those committed ad majorem gloriam Dei, out of a self-sacrificing devotion to the flag, a leader, a religeous faith or political conviction.

I don't possess a lot of self-confidence. I'm an actor so I simply act confident every time I hit the stage.

Self-confidence is something caught and not taught. And, risk-running and chance-taking are the only ways to catch it.

If egotism means a terrific interest in one's self, egotism is absolutely essential to efficient living.

I have not taken my good looks seriously from the beginning. When I would be teased by my friends about my looks, I would just make a self-deprecating remark and let it pass.

That which is common to the greatest number has the least care bestowed upon it. Every one thinks chiefly of his own, hardly at all of the common interest; and only when he is himself concerned as an individual. For besides other considerations, everybody is more inclined to neglect the duty which he expects another to fulfill.

It must not be supposed that happiness will demand many or great possessions; for self-sufficiency does not depend on excessive abundance, nor does moral conduct, and it is possible to perform noble deeds even without being ruler of land and sea: one can do virtuous acts with quite moderate resources. This may be clearly observed in experience: private citizens do not seem to be less but more given to doing virtuous actions than princes and potentates. It is sufficient then if moderate resources are forthcoming; for a life of virtuous activity will be essentially a happy life.

The self-indulgent man craves for all pleasant things... and is led by his appetite to choose these at the cost of everything else.

Selfishness is the biggest form of helplessness as it makes the person blind so much that he fails to search his true self for being always in the lurch.

Our pride and self-importance are European, while our development and actions are Asiatic.

Self-pity is essentially humorless, devoid of that lightness of touch which gives understanding of life.

The ego is a self-justifying historian which seeks only that information that agrees with it, rewrites history when it needs to, and does not even see the evidence that threatens it.