Consciousness and Self-Knowledge

The discovery of truth by slow, progressive meditation is talent. Intuition of the truth, not preceded by perceptible meditation, is genius.

An aim in life is the only fortune worth the finding; and it is not to be found in foreign lands, but in the heart itself.

The baby, assailed by eyes, ears, nose, skin, and entrails at once, feels it all as one great blooming, buzzing confusion.

One can acquire everything in solitude except character.

Perfectionism is the enemy of creation, as extreme self-solicitude is the enemy of well-being.

The worst part is not in making a mistake but in trying to justify it, instead of using it as a heaven-sent warning of our mindlessness or our ignorance.

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.

A cold in the head causes less suffering than an idea.

One ought to hold on to one's heart; for if one lets it go, one soon loses control of the head too.

I have never for one instant seen clearly within myself. How then would you have me judge the deeds of others?

It has amazed me that the most incongruous traits should exist in the same person and, for all that, yield a plausible harmony.

Man is a universe within himself.

It would be better for me that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.

I don’t adopt any one’s ideas; I have my own.

The “Me” Decade and the Third Great Awakening.

Everybody is identical in their secret unspokenbelief that way deep down they are differentfrom everyone else.

You have no idea how much nastier I would be if I was not a Catholic. Without supernaturalaid I would hardly be a human being.

Sin is a queer thing. It isn’t the breaking of divine commandments. It is the breaking of one’s own integrity.

To learn which questions are unanswerable, and not to answer them: this skill is most needful in times of stress and darkness.

As every divided kingdom falls, so every mind divided between many studies confounds and saps itself.

It is pleasant to be transferred from an office where one is afraid of a sergeant-major into an office where one can intimidate generals, and perhaps this is why History is so attractive to the more timid among us. We can recover self-confidence by snubbing the dead.

The discovery of truth is prevented more effectively, not by the false appearance things present and which mislead into error, not directly by weakness of the reasoning powers, but by preconceived opinion, by prejudice.

Malcolm: Dispute it like a man. Macduff: I shall do so; But I must also feel it as a man: I cannot but remember such things were, That were most precious to me.

Ah God! Had I but studied In the days of my foolish youth. 1