Consciousness and Self-Knowledge

There is no one so bound to his own face that he does not cherish the hope of presenting another to the world.

The only condition of peace in this world is to have no ideas, or, at least, not to express them.

The longer we live, the more we find we are like other persons.

The only living language is the language in which we think and have our being.

Little-minded people’s thoughts move in such small circles that five minutes’ conversation gives you an arc long enough to determine their whole curve. An arc in the movement of a large intellect does not sensibly differ from a straight line.

Any new formula which suddenly emerges in our consciousness has its roots in long trains of thought; it is virtually old when it first makes its appearance among the recognized growths of our intellect.

It’s a burden to us even to be human beings—men with our own real body and blood; we are ashamed of it, we think it a disgrace and try to contrive to be some sort of impossible generalized man.

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.

No one can shed light on vices he does not have or afflictions he has never experienced.

Naked I came into the world, naked I shall go out of it! And a very good thing too, for it reminds me that I am naked under my shirt, whatever its colour.

Every person’s feelings have a front-door and a side-door by which they may be entered.

The emotions may be endless. The more we express them, the more we may have to express.

To be too conscious is an illness—a real thoroughgoing illness.

It is the peculiarity of the bore that he is the last person to find himself out.

“Each man’s soul is his genius.”

It is not what he has, or even what he does which expresses the worth of a man, but what he is.

Flow with whatever is happening and let your mind be free. Stay centered by accepting whatever you are doing.

Action is only coarsened thought-thought becomes concrete, obscure, and unconscious.

I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad.

Prosperity knits a man to the world. He thinks he's 'finding his place in it,' while really it is finding its place in him.

The great act of faith is when a man decides he is not God.

Consciously or unconsciously we all strive to make the kind of a world we like.

With what you don't know about me, I could just about fill the Grand Canyon.

I believe we shall come to care about people less and less. The more people one knows the easier it becomes to replace them.