Oneself Quotes - Page 4

• The final mystery is oneself.

  Oscar Wilde

  Inspiring, Learning, Growth

  Letter to Alfred Douglas, Jan. - Mar. 1897

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• It is only in the giving of ourselves to others that we truly live — only with the meeting of our minds — thine and mine — do we become conscious of the divine spark each of us shares — only in sharing in our daily contacts, one with another, in our mutual hopes and fears do we find real peace. The human contribution is the essential ingredient.

  Ethel Percy Andrus

  Relationship, Inspiring, Giving

  "The Wisdom of Ethel Percy Andrus".

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• Josh Billings said, It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too. Human beings have always employed an enormous variety of clever devices for running away from themselves, and the modern world is particularly rich in such stratagems.

  John W. Gardner

  Running, Being Yourself, Clever

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• Dignity is the reward of holding oneself accountable to conscience.

  Wes Fesler

  Accountability, Rewards, Dignity

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• To live is to be among men, and to be among men is to struggle, a struggle not only with them but with oneself; with their passions, but also with one's own.

  Jose Rizal

  Struggle, Passion, Men

  Letter to his family from Dapitan, 1884.

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• I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention.

  Henry Rollins

  Believe, Scar Tissue, Reinvention

  Henry Rollins (2009). “The Portable Henry Rollins”, p.283, Villard

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• Most of what we say and do is unnecessary: remove the superfluity, and you will have more time and less bother. So in every case one should prompt oneself: 'Is this, or is it not, something necessary?' And the removal of the unnecessary should apply not only to actions but to thoughts also: then no redundant actions either will follow.

  Marcus Aurelius

  Time, Action, Unnecessary

  Marcus Aurelius (2006). “Meditations”, p.70, Penguin UK

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• The sun has a sense of all-pervasive brilliance, which does not discriminate in the slightest. It is the goodness that exists in a situation, in oneself, and in one's world, which is expressed without doubt, hesitation, or regret. The sun principle also includes the notion of blessings descending upon us and creating sacred world. It also represents clarity, without doubt.

  Chogyam Trungpa

  Regret, Blessing, Creating

  Chogyam Trungpa (2010). “The Collected Works of Chogyam Trungpa: Volume Seven: The Art of Calligraphy (Excerpts); Dharma Art; Visual Dharma (Excerpts); Selecte d Poems; Selected Writings”, p.21, Shambhala Publications

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• Surrender is to give oneself up to the original cause of one's being.

  Ramana Maharshi

  Giving, Causes, Surrender

  Sri Ramana Maharshi (1991). “Be As You Are: The Teachings of Sri Ramana Maharshi”, p.102, Penguin UK

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• In Zen Buddhism an action is considered good when it brings happiness and well-being to oneself and others, evil when it brings suffering and harm to oneself and others.

  Thich Thien-An

  Happiness, Buddhism, Evil

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• To practice Zen Buddhism is to train oneself to eliminate hatred, anger and selfishness and to develop loving-kindness towards all.

  Thich Thien-An

  Kindness, Anger, Buddhism

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• To look for total satisfaction in oneself is a futile endeavor. Since everything changes from moment to moment, where can self and where can satisfaction be found? Everybody is unhappy simply because of unfilled desire. Everybody is looking for something that isn't available.

  Ayya Khema

  Self, Unhappy, Desire

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• An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man's entire existence.

  Honore de Balzac

  Being Yourself, Work, Love Yourself

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• Nothing is worth more than laughter. It is strength to laugh and to abandon oneself, to be light. Tragedy is the most ridiculous thing.

  Frida Kahlo

  Laughter, Light, Laughing

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• One must have the adventurous daring to accept oneself as a bundle of possibilities and undertake the most interesting game in the world -- making the most of one's best.

  Harry Emerson Fosdick

  Inspirational, Depression, Teaching

  "The New Speaker's Treasury of Wit and Wisdom". Book by Herbert Victor Prochnow, 1958.

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• Any path is only a path, and there is no affront to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you.

  Carlos Castaneda

  Change, Spiritual, Heart

  Carlos Castaneda (1972). “The Teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui Way of Knowledge”, p.76, Univ of California Press

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• To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.

  Henri Bergson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Change

  Henri Bergson (2015). “Creative Evolution”, p.16, Sheba Blake Publishing

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• I believe that one defines oneself by reinvention. To not be like your parents. To not be like your friends. To be yourself. To cut yourself out of stone.

  Henry Rollins

  Inspirational, Life, Friends

  Henry Rollins (2009). “The Portable Henry Rollins”, p.283, Villard

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• One can have no smaller or greater mastery than mastery of oneself.

  Leonardo da Vinci

  Inspirational, Life, Happiness

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• The mistake you make, don't you see,is in thinking one can live in a corrupt society without being corrupt oneself. After all, what do you achieve by refusing to make money? You're trying to behave as though one could stand right outside our economic system. But one can't. One's got to change the system, or one changes nothing. One can't put things right in a hole-and-corner way, if you take my meaning.

  George Orwell

  Mistake, Thinking, Trying

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• Being present, whether with children, with friends, or even with oneself, is hard work. But isn't this attentiveness - the feeling that someone is trying to think about us - something we want more than praise?

  Stephen Grosz

  Children, Hard Work, Thinking

  Stephen Grosz (2014). “The Examined Life: How We Lose and Find Ourselves”, p.22, W. W. Norton & Company

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• The quality of one's life is directly related to the quality of questions one asks oneself.

  Tony Robbins

  Quality, Life Is, Asks

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• Feeling free inside oneself is being free.

  Rei Kawakubo

  Feelings, Being Free

  Interview with Ronnie Cooke Newhouse, www.interviewmagazine.com. November 24, 2008.

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• Jihad is holy struggle, a legitimate tenet of Islam meaning to purify oneself or one's community.

  John O. Brennan

  Struggle, Community, Islam

  "Obama's Complacency About Radical Islam" by Victor Davis Hanson, www.realclearpolitics.com. May 1, 2013.

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• Grooming oneself with all the crazed compulsion of an under-exercised lab rat in order to hook a rich man and obtain a lush lifestyle makes a certain (albeit seedy) sense.

  Julie Burchill

  Men, Order, Hook

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