Consciousness and Self-Knowledge

Search then the Ruling Passion: There, alone,

Although he knew who he was; although he was aware of his celebrity, he always took it with humor and always laughed at it and at himself.

I know of no more encouraging fact than the unquestionable ability of man to elevate his life by conscious endeavor.

I admit that thoughts influence the body.

You, who have gotten under the skin of so many people and, indeed, of humanity, have had no occasion to slip under mine.

I am not I: thou art not he or she: they are not they.

One's real life is often the life that one does not lead.

I can usually judge a fellow by what he laughs at.

Happiness in intelligent people is the rarest thing I know.

I like the scientific spirit – the holding off, the being sure but not too sure, the willingness to surrender ideas when the evidence is against them.

The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.

One can be the master of what one does, but never of what one feels.

What a computer is to me is the most remarkable tool that we have ever come up with. It’s the equivalent of a bicycle for our minds.

We are, perhaps uniquely among the earth’s creatures, the worrying animal.

Where the heart lies, let the brain lie also.

You start a question, and it’s like starting a stone. You sit quietly on top of a hill; and the stone goes, starting others.

We do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts.

There’s only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.

These are the voices which we hear in solitude, but they grow faint and inaudible as we enter into the world.

I don’t like work—no man does—but I like what is in the work—the chance to find yourself.

It is impossible to improve the world if first the man does not improve.

The brain may take advice, but not the heart.

For what is enthusiasm but the oblivion and swallowing-up of self in an object dearer than self?

I perplex others, not because I am clear, but because I am utterly perplexed myself.