self-reflection quotes

It is a fact that cannot be denied: the wickedness of others becomes our own wickedness because it kindles something evil in our own hearts.

No man is hurt but by himself.

Nowhere can man find a quieter or more untroubled retreat than in his own soul.

If you look into your own heart, and you find nothing wrong there, what is there to worry about? What is there to fear?

The truth is, I’ve never fooled anyone. I’ve let men sometimes fool themselves.

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

One of the many lessons that one learns in prison is, that things are what they are and will be what they will be.

A noble man compares and estimates himself by an idea which is higher than himself; and a mean man, by one lower than himself. The one produces aspiration; the other ambition, which is the way in which a vulgar man aspires.

Always first draw fresh breath after outbursts of vanity and complacency.

I have nothing to ask but that you would remove to the other side, that you may not, by intercepting the sunshine, take from me what you cannot give.

If I am no longer disturbed myself, I will deal less with disturbed people, but I don’t regret having concerned myself with them because I think most of us are disturbed.

I was awfully curious to find out why I didn’t go insane.

I am so clever that sometimes I don’t understand a single word of what I am saying.

I have often wondered how it is that every man loves himself more than all the rest of men, but yet sets less value on his own opinions of himself than on the opinions of others.

For what shall it profit a man, if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his soul?

Whosoever is delighted in solitude is either a wild beast or a god.

Let the one among you who is without sin be the first to cast a stone.

I definitely connected to the fact that life gets out of control and you end up doing things and wishing you were doing other things instead.

You know, most people really don’t know me.

A part of me has become immortal, out of my control.

The best of us must sometimes eat our words.

I have never smuggled anything in my life. Why, then, do I feel an uneasy sense of guilt on approaching a customs barrier?

Every one suspects himself of at least one of the cardinal virtues.

Don’t despair, not even over the fact that you don’t despair.

I don’t think I’m bad for people. If I did think I was bad for people, I would go back to driving a truck, and I really mean this.

When I am getting ready to reason with a man, I spend one-third of my time thinking about myself and what I am going to say and two-thirds about him and what he is going to say.

All honor’s wounds are self-inflicted.

A man’s own judgment should be the final appeal in all that relates to himself.

Feels good to try, but playing a father, I’m getting a little older. I see now that I’m taking it more serious and I do want that lifestyle.

Upon the subjects of which I have treated, I have spoken as I have thought. I may be wrong in regard to any or all of them; but, holding it a sound maxim that it is better only sometimes to be right than at all times to be wrong, so soon as I discover my opinions to be erroneous, I shall be ready to renounce them.

There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.

Don’t wait for the last judgment – it takes place every day.