Self Forgetfulness Quotes

• That which especially distinguishes a high order of man from a low order of man, that which constitutes human goodness, human nobleness, is surely not the degree of enlightenment with which men pursue their own advantage; but it is self-forgetfulness; it is self-sacrifice; it is the disregard of personal pleasure, personal indulgence, personal advantage, remote or present, because some other line of conduct is more right.

  James Anthony Froude

  Sacrifice, Men, Self

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, p. 534, 1895.

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• There is joy in self-forgetfulness. So I try to make the light in others' eyes my sun, the music in others' ears my symphony, the smile on others' lips my happiness.

  Helen Keller

  Eye, Light, Self

  Helen Keller (2015). “The Story of My Life: Top Biography”, p.72, 谷月社

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• The really wonderful moments of joy in this world are not the moments of self-satisfaction, but self-forgetfulness. Standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon and contemplating your own greatness is pathological. At such moments we are made for a magnificent joy that comes from outside ourselves.

  John Piper

  Greatness, Self, Joy

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• ...the essence of gospel-humility is not thinking more of myself or thinking less of myself, it is thinking of myself less.

  Timothy Keller

  Religious, Humility, Thinking

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• The more language is a living operation, the less we are aware of it. Thus it follows from the self-forgetfulness of language that its real being consists in what is said in it.

  Hans-Georg Gadamer

  Real, Self, Language

  Hans-Georg Gadamer (2008). “Philosophical Hermeneutics”, p.65, Univ of California Press

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• Zen is not “attained” by mirror-wiping mediation, but by “self-forgetfulness in the existential 'present' of life here and now.” We do not “come”, we “are.” Don't strive to become, but be.

  Bruce Lee

  Mirrors, Self, Existential

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• To me there is in happiness an element of self-forgetfulness. You lose yourself in something outside yourself when you are happy; just as when you are desperately miserable you are intensely conscious of yourself, are a solid little lump of ego weighing a ton.

  Joseph Priestley

  Happiness, Self, Justice

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• This is the secret of life: the self lives only by dying, finds its identity (and its happiness) only by self-forgetfulness, self-giving, self-sacrifice, and agape love.

  Peter Kreeft

  Sacrifice, Self, Giving

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• At the bottom of the modern man there is always a great thirst for self-forgetfulness, self-distraction . . . and therefore he turns away from all those problems and abysses which might recall to him his own nothingness.

  Henri Frederic Amiel

  Men, Self, Might

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• True humility is more like self-forgetfulness than false modesty.

  C. S. Lewis

  Christian, Humility, Self

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• Happiness lies in a large measure of self-forgetfulness, either in work . . . or in the love of others. ♥

  Everett Ruess

  Love, Happiness, Happy

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• Holiness consists in doing God’s will joyfully. Faithfulness makes saints. The spiritual life is a union with Jesus: the divine and the human giving themselves to each other. The only thing Jesus asks of us is to give ourselves to him, in total poverty and total self-forgetfulness.

  Mother Teresa

  Spiritual, Jesus, Self

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• By means of Invocation, the being awakens, and awakening becomes fullness. By means of balancing, fullness becomes internal wholeness. By virtue of exteriorized attention, internal wholeness becomes Communion. By virtue of self-forgetfulness, Communion becomes Union.

  David Truman

  Life, Mean, Self

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• Composing gives me great pleasure... there is nothing that surpasses the joy of creation, if only because through it one wins hours of self-forgetfulness, when one lives in a world of sound.

  Clara Schumann

  Winning, Self, Giving

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• the self expands through acts of self forgetfulness.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Self, Forgetfulness

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1996). “Creativity: Flow and the Psychology of Discovery and Invention”, Harpercollins

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• But what after all, behind appearances, is this seeming mystery? We can see that it is the Consciousness which had lost itself returning again to itself, emerging out of its giant self-forgetfulness, slowly, painfully, as a Life that is would be sentient, half-sentient, dimly sentient, wholly sentient and finally struggles to be more than sentient, to be again divinely selfconscious, free, infinite, immortal.

  Sri Aurobindo

  Self, Growth, Giants

  "The Life Divine: Art of living".

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• By the experience of active love. Strive to love your neighbour actively and indefatigably. In as far as you advance in love you will grow surer of the reality of God and of the immortality of your soul. If you attain to perfect self-forgetfulness in the love of your neighbour, then you will believe without doubt, and no doubt can possibly enter your soul. This has been tried. This is certain.

  Fyodor Dostoevsky

  Believe, Love You, Reality

  Fyodor Dostoevsky (2017). “The Brothers Karamazov (English Russian Edition illustrated): Братья Карамазовы (англо-русская редакция иллюстрированная)”, p.126, Clap Publishing, LLC.

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• For with eyes made clear by many tears, and a heart softened by the tenderest sorrow, she recognized the beauty of her sister's life—uneventful, unambitious, yet full of the genuine virtues which 'smell sweet, and blossom in the dust', the self-forgetfulness that makes the humblest on earth remembered soonest in heaven, the true success which is possible to all.

  Louisa May Alcott

  Sweet, Heart, Eye

  Louisa May Alcott (2013). “Delphi Complete Works of Louisa May Alcott (Illustrated)”, p.586, Delphi Classics

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• Humility is not an exaggeratedly low opinion of yourself. Humility is self-forgetfulness.

  Peter Kreeft

  Humility, Self, Catholic

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• Humility is self-forgetfulness.

  C. S. Lewis

  Humility, Self, Forgetfulness

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• Remorse presupposes enough self-forgetfulness to feel the pain ofothers.

  Helen Prejean

  Witty, Pain, Self

  Helen Prejean (2011). “Dead Man Walking: An Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty in the United States”, p.144, Vintage

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• Sometimes, it is true, a sense of isolation enfolds me like a cold mist as I sit alone and wait at life’s shut gate. Beyond there is light, and music, and sweet companionship; but I may not enter. Fate, silent, pitiless, bars the way…Silence sits immense upon my soul. Then comes hope with a smile and whispers, ‘there is joy is self-forgetfulness.’ So I try to make the light in others’ eyes my sun, the music in others; ears my symphony, the smile on others’ lips my happiness.

  Helen Keller

  Sweet, Eye, Fate

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• Charm is a cunning self-forgetfulness.

  Christina Stead

  Self, Charm, Forgetfulness

  Christina Stead (2012). “House of All Nations”, p.21, Open Road Media

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• If happiness comes at all: which is by no means prearranged; it comes by the way, while you are seeking for something else. Something outside yourself, beyond yourself: in a brief absorption of self-forgetfulness.

  Caitlin Thomas

  Happiness, Mean, Self

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• Self-forgetfulness in creativity can lead to self-transcendence.

  Sylvia Ashton-Warner

  Creativity, Self, Transcendence

  Sylvia Ashton-Warner (1967). “Myself”, Harvill Secker

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