Consciousness and Self-Knowledge

Circumstances do not make the man; they merely reveal him to himself.

Man is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.

Never react emotionally to criticism. Analyze yourself to determine whether it is justified. If it is, correct yourself. Otherwise, go on about your business.

By nature, men are nearly alike; by practice, they get to be wide apart.

Measure your mind’s height by the shade it casts.

Self -deception once yielded to, all other deceptions follow naturally more and more.

The most important thing in communication is to hear what isn’t being said.

As the Sandwich Islander believes that the strength and valor of the enemy he kills passes into himself, so we gain the strength of the temptation we resist.

We think basically you watch television to turn your brain off, and you work on your computer when you want to turn your brain on.

Thinking is the endeavor to capture reality by the means of ideas.

Beware when the great God lets loose a thinker on this planet. Then all things are at risk.

Sometimes people hold a core belief that is very strong. When they are presented with evidence that works against that belief, the new evidence cannot be accepted. It would create a feeling that is extremely uncomfortable, called cognitive dissonance. And because it is so important to protect the core belief, they will rationalize, ignore and even deny anything that doesn’t fit in with the core belief.

I am the wisest man alive, for I know one thing, and that is that I know nothing.

To be idle requires a strong sense of personal identity.

The real purpose of books is to trap the mind into doing its own thinking.

When you have to make a choice and don’t make it, that is in itself a choice.

Complacent ignorance is the most lethal sickness of the soul

Is man merely a mistake of God's? Or God merely a mistake of man?

In a word, neither death, nor exile, nor pain, nor anything of this kind is the real cause of our doing or not doing any action, but our inward opinions and principles.

The more thoroughly a person understands life, the less he will mock, though in the end he might still mock the "thoroughness of his understanding.

We do not err because truth is difficult to see. It is visible at a glance. We err because this is more comfortable.

Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect.

Never to talk of oneself is a form of hypocrisy.

Character is determined more by the lack of certain experiences than by those one has had.