Consciousness and Self-Knowledge

Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.

When one is out of touch with oneself, one cannot touch others.

To have doubted one’s own first principles is the mark of a civilized man.

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

The summit of happiness is reached when a person is ready to be what he is.

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.

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

Man creates culture and through culture creates himself.

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

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

Reading furnishes the mind only with materials of knowledge; it is thinking that makes what we read ours.

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

Thought is action in rehearsal.

The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude.

The great charm in argument is really finding one’s own opinions, not other people’s .

Too often we enjoy the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought.

Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is probably the reason so few engage in it.

Nine times out of ten, the first thing a man’s companion knows of his shortcomings is from his apology.

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.

Give me the benefit of your convictions, if you have any; but keep your doubts to yourself, for I have enough of my own.

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

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

To be idle requires a strong sense of personal identity.

I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.