Self Quotes - Page 25

• By His trials, God means to purify us, to take away all our self-confidence, and our trust in each other, and bring us into implicit, humble trust in Himself.

  Horace Bushnell

  Humble, Mean, Self Confidence

  Horace Bushnell (1858). “Sermons for the new life”, p.432

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• Wooden-headedness, the source of self-deception, is a factor that plays a remarkably large role in government. It consists in assessing a situation in terms of preconceived fixed notions while ignoring or rejecting any contrary signs. It is acting according to wish while not allowing oneself to be deflected by the facts.

  Barbara Tuchman

  Thinking, Government, Play

  Barbara Tuchman (2015). “The March of Folly: From Troy to Vietnam”, p.13, Crux Publishing Ltd

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• Intercourse is after all man's best teacher. "Know thyself" is an excellent maxim; but even self-knowledge cannot be perfected in closets and cloisters--nor amid lake scenery, and on the sunny side of the mountains. Men who seldom mix with their fellow-creatures are almost sure to be one-sided--the victims of fixed ideas, that sometimes lead to insanity.

  William Matthews

  Teacher, Men, Lakes

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• Love is the ultimate giving, an expression of one's best self.

  Bel Kaufman

  Love Is, Expression, Giving

  Bel Kaufman (2012). “This and That: Random Thoughts and Recollections”, p.111, Open Road Media

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• An artist’s work is almost entirely inquiry based and self-regulated. It is a fragile process of teaching oneself to work alone, and focusing on how to hone your quirky creative obsessions so that they eventually become so oddly specific that they can only be your own.

  Teresita Fernandez

  Teaching, Artist, Creative

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• The worst effect of tutelage is that it negates self-discipline, and therefore people suddenly released from it are almost bound to make fools of themselves.

  Suzanne La Follette

  Discipline, People, Fool

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• There is such wonderful balm in self-imposed sacrifice.

  Baroness Orczy

  Sacrifice, Wonderful

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• Harris had the egotistical dogmatism of the self-made man who had painfully educated himself without contact with superior brains.

  Beatrice Webb

  Education, Men, Brain

  Beatrice Potter Webb (1963). “American diary, 1898”

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• Spring is strictly sentimental, self-regarding; but I burn more careless in the autumn bonfire.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Spring, Autumn, Sentimental

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, Claire Harman (1994). “The diaries of Sylvia Townsend Warner”, Virago Pr

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• A story demanded to be written, and that is why I have not answered your letter before: a wrong-headed story, that would come blundering like a moth on my window, and stare in with small red eyes, and I the last writer in the world to manage such a subject. One should have more self-control. One should be able to say, Go away. You have come to the wrong inkstand, there is nothing for you here. But I am so weakminded that I cannot even say, Come next week.

  Sylvia Townsend Warner

  Eye, Next Week, Should Have

  Sylvia Townsend Warner, William Maxwell (1982). “Letters”

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• Woe to those who get what they desire. Fulfillment leaves an empty space where your old self used to be, the self that pines and broods and reflects. You furnish a dream house in your imagination, but how startling and final when that dream house is your own address. What is left to you? Surrounded by what you wanted, you feel a sense of amputation. The feelings you were used to abiding with are useless. The conditions you established for your happiness are met. That youthful light-headed feeling whose sharp side is much like hunger is of no more use to you.

  Laurie Colwin

  Success, Dream, Space

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• Prayer is intended to increase the devotion of the individual, but if the individual himself prays he requires no formula; he pours himself forth much more naturally in self-chosen and connected thoughts before God, and scarcely requires words at all. Real inward devotion knows no prayer but that arising from the depths of its own feelings.

  Wilhelm von Humboldt

  Prayer, Real, Feelings

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• This it is that gives a majesty so pure and touching to the historic figure of Christ; self-abandonment to God, uttermost surrender, without reserve or stipulation, to the guidance of the Holy Spirit from the Soul of souls; pause in no darkness; hesitation in no perplexity, recoil in no extremity of anguish, but a gentle unfaltering hold of the invisible Hand, of the Only Holy and All Good--these are the features that have made Jesus of Nazareth the dearest and most sacred image to the heart of so many ages.

  James Martineau

  Jesus, Heart, Invisible Hand

  James Martineau (1905). “A Martineau year book: Extracts from sermons”

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• If we listen to our self-love, we shall estimate our lot less by what it is than by what it is not; shall dwell upon its hindrances and be blind to its possibilities; and, comparing it only with imaginary lives, shall indulge in flattering dreams of what we should do if we had but power, and give if we had but wealth, and be if we had no temptations.

  James Martineau

  Dream, Indulge In, Giving

  James Martineau (1905). “Tides of the Spirit: Selections from the Writings of James Martineau”

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• Up, then, with speed, and work;
  Fling ease and self away--
  This is no time for thee to sleep--
  Up, watch, and work, and pray!

  Horatius Bonar

  Sleep, Watches, Ease

  Horatius Bonar (1858). “Hymns of Faith and Hope ... Third edition”, p.262

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• There are two persons in the world we never see as they are,--one's self and one's other self.

  Arsene Houssaye

  Two, World, Persons

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• Actually, when it comes to knocking the Canadian cultural scene, nobody outdoes Canadians, myself included. We are veritable masters of self-deprecation.

  Mordecai Richler

  Scene, Knocking, Masters

  Mordecai Richler (1970). “Canadian writing today”, Penguin Books

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• Many of us believe that 'real artists' do not experience self-doubt. In truth, artists are people who have learned to live with doubt and do the work anyway.

  Julia Cameron

  Real, Believe, Artist

  Julia Cameron (2002). “The Artist's Way: 25th Anniversary Edition”, p.255, Penguin

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• An artist requires the upkeep of creative solitude. An artist requires the healing of time alone. Without this period of recharging, our artist becomes depleted. Until we experience the freedom of solitude, we cannot connect authentically. We may be enmeshed, but we are not encountered. Art lies in the moment of encounter. We meet our truth and we meet ourselves and we meet our self-expression.

  Julia Cameron

  Art, Lying, Healing

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• A direct statement about yourself is considered objective only if it is negative. If it's positive, it is considered subjective. And 'objective' means it is accurate, and 'subjective' means it is conceited self-delusion.

  Barbara Sher

  Mean, Conceited, Negative

  Barbara Sher (1979). “Wishcraft: How to Get what You Really Want”

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• If you think that you are where you are just because you worked hard, it is easy to become self-righteous and make classist moral judgments about others.

  Charlotte Bunch

  Thinking, Moral, Judgment

  Charlotte Bunch, Nancy Myron (1974). “Class and feminism: a collection of essays from the Furies”

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• Many of our problems with anger occur when we choose between having a relationship and having a self.

  Harriet Lerner

  Anger, Problem

  Harriet Lerner (2014). “The Dance of Anger: A Woman's Guide to Changing the Patterns of Intimate Relationships”, p.19, Harper Collins

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• There is seemingly no biological benefit to acting with conscience; if there were, only moral individuals would survive and procreate. Sadly, we know that's not true. The benefit of conscience is that you won't suffer guilt (private) or shame (public), and that by your own self-imposed definition, you are a moral human, a special kind of animal who takes unique pride in elevating him/herself above the termites.

  Laura Schlessinger

  Pride, Unique, Animal

  Dr. Laura Schlessinger (2009). “How Could You Do That?!: Abdication of Character, Courage, Consci”, p.25, Harper Collins

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• Birth is a shadow. Courage, self-sustained, outlords succession's phlegm, and needs no ancestors.

  Aaron Hill

  Shadow, Needs, Birth

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• Nowhere has democracy ever worked well without a great measure of local self-government, providing a school of political training for the people at large as much as for their future leaders.

  Friedrich August von Hayek

  School, Government, People

  "The Road to Serfdom". Book by Friedrich Hayek, Ch. 15 : The Prospects of International Order, 1940 - 1943.

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