Consciousness and Self-Knowledge

I must go beyond the dark world of sense information to the clear brilliance of the sunlight of the outside world. Once done, it becomes my duty to go back to the cave in order to illuminate the minds of those imprisoned in the ‘darkness’ of sensory knowledge.

I must distinguish between that which always is and never becomes and which is apprehended by reason and reflection, and that which always becomes and never is and is conceived by opinion with the help of sense.

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

I am smart because I know I nothing.

For a man to conquer himself is the first and noblest of all victories.

Everyone thinks because it is solely responsible for the wisdom or folly of his life, that is to say of his destiny.

Either we shall find what it is we are seeking or at least we shall free ourselves from the persuasion that we know what we do not know.

Complacent ignorance is the most lethal sickness of the soul

Beholding beauty with the eye of the mind, he will be enabled to bring forth, not images of beauty, but realities (for he has hold not of an image but of a reality), and bringing forth and nourishing true virtue to become the friend of God and be immortal, if mortal man may.

Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity I mean the true simplicity of a rightly and nobly ordered mind and character, not that other simplicity which is only a euphemism for folly.

All I really know is the extent of my own ignorance

A sensible man will remember that the eyes may be confused in two ways - by a change from light to darkness or from darkness to light; and he will recognize that the same thing happens to the soul.

A person's desires force him to something to reason and he berates himself and gets indignant with the part that forces him, and his spirit allies with reason as though reason and desire were at civil war.

A life without investigation is not worth living.

It is an observation no less just than common, that there is no stronger test of a man’s real character than power and authority, exciting, as they do, every passion, and discovering every latent vice.

Hypocrisy is the most difficult and nerve-racking vice that any man can pursue; it needs an unceasing vigilance and a rare detachment of spirit. It cannot, like adultery or gluttony, be practised at spare moments; it is a whole-time job.

Let us not look back in anger, nor forward in fear, but around in awareness.

He flattered himself on being a man without any prejudices; and this pretension itself is a very great prejudice.

Prejudice is opinion without judgement.

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.

Talking much about oneself may be a way of hiding oneself.

The true hypocrite is the one who ceases to perceive his deception, the one who lies with sincerity.

The power of hoping through everything, the knowledge that the soul survives its adventures, that great inspiration comes to the middle-aged. God has kept that good wine until now.

our capacity to act would, as it were, be confined to one single deed from which we could never recover.