Thyself Quotes

Thyself Quotes by Og Mandino, Andre Gide, Benjamin Franklin, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Rob Brezsny and many others.

Remind thyself, in the darkest moments, that every failure is only a step toward success, … Your life will never be the same again.
There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.
The greatest gift is a portion of thyself.
Is it life, I ask, is it even prudence, To bore thyself and bore the students?
The 11th Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Bore God. The 12th Commandment: Thou Shalt Not Bore Thyself.
My friendcare for your psyche…know thyself, for once we know ourselves, we may learn how to care for ourselves
Know thyself means this, that you get acquainted with what you know, and what you can do.
I hate organized religion. I think you have to love thy neighbor as thyself. I think you have to pick your own God and be true to him. I always say ‘him’ rather thanher.’ Maybe it’s because of my generation, but I don’t like the idea of a female God. I see God as a benevolent male.
Knowest thou not the beauty of thine own face? Quit this temper that leads thee to war with thyself.
Know thyself,’ said Socrates. Know thyself,’ said Sappho, ‘and make sure that the Church never finds out.
There cannot be self-restraint in the absence of desire: when there is no adversary, what avails thy courage? Hark, do not castrate thyself, do not become a monk: chastity depends on the existence of lust.
Indulge not thyself in the passion of anger; it is whetting a sword to wound thine own breast, or murder thy friend.
Ere I could make thee open thy white hand, and clap thyself my love; then didst thou utter, I am your’s for ever!
Be able to be alone. Lose not the advantage of solitude, and the society of thyself.
Take special care that thou never trust any friend or servant with any matter that may endanger thine estate; for so shalt thou make thyself a bond-slave to him that thou trustest, and leave thyself always to his mercy.
People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.
Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others; for thou hast many faults and imperfections of thine own that require forbearance. If thou art not able to make thyself that which thou wishest, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will?
Happy thou that learnest from another’s griefs, not to subject thyself to the same.
In the morning fix thy good purpose; and at night examine thyself what thou hast done, how thou hast behaved thyself in word, deed, and thought.
Learn to see it in thyself and thou wilt understand the infinite essence, hidden in all illusory forms. Understand that the world which thou knowest is only one of the aspects of the infinite world, and things and phenomena are merely hierolgyphics of deeper ideas.
Sometimes thou seem‘st not as thyself alone, But as the meaning of all things that are.
If thou be not busy for thyself now, who shall be busy for thee in time to come?
So much does the moral health depend upon the moral atmosphere that is breathed, and so great is the influence daily exercised by parents over their children by living a life before their eyes, that perhaps the best system of parental instruction might be summed up in these two words: ‘Improve thyself.’
Live for thy neighbor if thou wouldst live for thyself.
Monarch, thou wishest to cover thyself with glory; be the first to submit to the laws of thy empire.
Righteousness alone can exalt them [America] as a nation. Reader! Whoever thou art, remember this, and in thy sphere practice virtue thyself and encourage it in others.
Stranger, pause and ask thyself the question, Canst thou do likewise? If not, with a blush retire.
Praise thyself never.
If thou suffer injustice, console thyself; the true unhappiness is in doing it.
Everything is in a state of metamorphosis. Thou thyself art in everlasting change and in corruption to correspond; so is the whole universe.
Severally on the occasion of everything that thou doest, pause and ask thyself, if death is a dreadful thing because it deprives thee of this.
It is, I fear, but a vain show of fulfilling the heathen precept, ”Know thyself,” and too often leads to a self- estimate which will subsist in the absence of that fruit by which alone the quality of the tree is made evident.
It is past all question, and agreed on by all sides, that no religion will save a man who is not serious, sincere, and diligent in it. If thou be of the truest religion in the world, and are not true thyself to that religion, the religion is good, but it is none of thine.
By all means use sometimes to be alone. Salute thyself: see what thy soul doth wear. Dare to look in thy chest; for ‘Tis thine own: And tumble up and down what thou findst there. Who cannot rest till he good fellows find, he breaks up house, turns out of doors his mind.
Above the cloud with its shadow is the star with its light. Above all things reverence thyself.
Then let thy love be younger than thyself, Or thy affection cannot hold the bent.
Do what nature now requires. Set thyself in motion, if it is in thy power, and do not look about thee to see if any one will observe it; nor yet expect Plato‘s Republic: but be content if the smallest thing goes on well, and consider such an event to be no small matter.
Know thyself as the pride of His creation, the link uniting divinity and matter; behold a part of God Himself within thee; remember thine own dignity nor dare descend to evil or meanness.
What is the source of sadness, but feebleness of the mind? What giveth it power but the want of reason? Rouse thyself to the combat, and she quitteth the field before thou strikest.
Let us start a new religion with one commandment, “Enjoy thyself.
Ifit be a thing external that causes thy grief, know, that it is not that properly that doth cause it, but thine own conceit and opinion concerning the thing: which thou mayest rid
thyself of, when thou wilt.
Acquaint thyself with God, if thou would’st taste
His works. Admitted once to his embrace,
Thou shalt perceive that thou was blind before:
Thine eye shall be instructed; and thine heart
Made pure shall relish with divine delight
Till then unfelt, what hands divine have wrought.
If thou canst not make thyself such an one as thou wouldst, how canst thou expect to have another in all things to thy liking?
Thou shalt free thyself from convention, from everyday morality.
Pardon all but thy selfe.
[Pardon all but thyself.]
The proper study of Mankind is Man.
Why seeketh thou revenge, O man! with what purpose is it that thou pursuest it? Thinkest thou to pain thine adversary by it? Know that thou thyself feelest its greatest torments.
Know thyself.
[Lat., Ne quis nimis. (From the Greek)]
This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade ‘Know Thyself!’ and taught Initiation.
Rings and jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself. Thou must bleed for me. Therefore the poet brings his poem; the shepherd, his lamb; the farmer, corn; the miner, a stone; the painter, his picture; the girl, a handkerchief of her own sewing.
We are in this life as it were in another man‘s house…. In heaven is our home, in the world is our Inn: do not so entertain thyself in the Inn of this world for a day as to have thy mind withdrawn from longing after thy heavenly home.
Do not plunge thyself too far in anger.
History is the “know thyself” of humanity – the self-consciousness of mankind.
Johann Gustav Droysen
To ‘know Thyself’ is considered quite an accomplishment.
And thou wilt give thyself relief, if thou doest every act of thy life as if it were the last.
All those things at which thou wishest to arrive by a circuitous road, thou canst have now, if thou dost not refuse them to thyself.
Set not thyself to attain much rest, but much patience.
Would thou confound thy enemy, be good thyself.
The second of our Lord‘s two great commandments carries a double charge: ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’ (Matt. 22:39). Therefore, love of companion is governed, in part, by esteem of self.
Wouldst thou know thyself, observe the actions of others.
Wouldst thou other men know, look thou within thine own heart.
I do not see them here; but after death God knows I know the faces I shall see, Each one a murdered self, with low last breath. ‘I am thyself,what hast thou done to me?’ ‘And Iand Ithyself,’ (lo! each one saith,) ‘And thou thyself to all eternity!
All the great people say it was their destiny to be great. Know thyself-you have a destiny to be great. It’s coded in your DNA/RNA. Meet thy greater self. Express thy higher self. Fulfill your real self.
Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world
If unwilling to rise in the morning, say to thyself, ‘I awake to do the work of a man.’
Flatter not thyself in thy faith in God if thou hast not charity for thy neighbor.
I am convinced that the moment is coming when, with its message of eternal, universal values, it will come to the aid of our society. For in these words: “Thou shalt not kill; Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself,” lie those very moral principles that will enable us to survive even the most critical situations.
If thou marry beauty, thou bindest thyself all thy life for that which, perchance, will neither last nor please thee one year.
When thou hast profited so much that thou respectest even thyself, thou mayst let go thy tutor.
Sometimes, perhaps, thou hearest another pray with much freedom and fluency, whilst thou canst hardly get out a few broken words. Hence thou art ready to accuse thyself and admire him, as if the gilding of the key made it open the door the better.
If I serve you in hopes of Paradise, deny me Paradise.If I serve thee in fear of hell, condemn me to hell.But if I love thee for love of thyself,then grant me thyself.
First get an absolute conquest over thyself, and then thou wilt easily govern thy wife.
Come, swear it, damn thyself, lest, being like one of heaven, the devils themselves should fear to seize thee; therefore be double-damned, swear,–thou art honest.
Have therefore zeal to better thyself and then mayst thou have zeal to thy neighbor.
On the occasion of every act ask thyself, How is this with respect to me? Shall I repent of it? A little time and I am dead, and all is gone.
And it is so simple… The one thing is – love thy neighbor as thyself – that is the one thing. That is all, nothing else is needed. You will instantly find how to live.
A caterpillar who seeks to know himself would never become a butterfly
Know then thyself, presume not God to scan; The proper study of mankind is man.
Love thyself last, cherish those hearts that hate thee;
Corruption wins not more than honesty.
I am not schizoid. A little manic-depressive, maybe.” “‘Know thyself.'” “We try, sir.
Make faithfulness and truth thy masters: have no friends unlike thyself: be not ashamed to mend thy faults.
In many things it is not well to say, “Know thyself”; it is better to say, “Know others.”
Arise, transcend Thyself, Thou art man and the whole nature of man Is to become more than himself.
Free thyself from the mighty attraction-
The maddening wine of love, the charm of sex.
Break the harp! Forward, with the ocean‘s cry!. . .
That which has died falls not out of the universe. If it stays here, it also changes here, and is dissolved into its proper parts, which are elements of the universe and of thyself. And these too change, and they murmur not”.
Do thine own work, and know thyself.
‘Know thyself’ is a good saying, but not in all situations. In many it is better to say ‘know others.’
There is a joy which is not given to the ungodly, but to those who love Thee for Thine own sake, whose joy Thou Thyself art. And this is the happy life, to rejoice to Thee, of Thee, for Thee; this it is, and there is no other.
I cannot raise my worth too high; Of what vast consequence am I! “Not of the importance you suppose,” Replies a Flea upon his nose; “Be humble, learn thyself to scan; Know, pride was never made for man.
Never value anything as profitable to thyself which shall compel thee to break thy promise, to lose thy self-respect, to hate any man, to suspect, to curse, to act the hypocrite, to desire anything which needs walls and curtains.
‎”Begin the morning by saying to thyself, I shall meet with the busy-body, the ungrateful, arrogant, deceitful, envious, unsocial
Let God operate in thee; Hand the work over to Him and do not disquiet thyself as to whether or no He is working with nature or above nature, for His are both nature and grace.
Help thyself and Heaven will help thee.
Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.
Know thyself because what else is there to know?
The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart.
Look well into thyself; there is a source of strength which will always spring up if thou wilt always look.
In me didst thou exist-and, in my death, see by this image, which is thine own, how utterly thou hast murdered thyself.
Disguise thyself as thou wilt, still, Slavery,” said I, “still thou art a bitter draught.
It is better to err by excess of mercy than by excess of severity. . .Wilt thou become a Saint? Be severe to thyself but kind to others.
Trust thyself: every heart vibrates to that iron string.
He hath never failed thee yet. Never will His love forget. O fret not thyself nor let Thy heart be troubled, Neither let it be afraid.
Prize not thyself by what thou hast, but by what thou art; he that values a jewel by her golden frame, or a book by her silver clasps, or a man by his vast estate, errs; if thou art not worth more than the world can make thee, thy Redeemer had a bad pennyworth, or thou an uncurious Redeemer.
Be conscious first of thyself within, then think and act. All living thought is a world in preparation; all real act is a thought manifested. The material world exists because an idea began to play in divine self–consciousness.
Hast thou attuned thyself to the suffering of humanity, O candidate for light?
Know thyself, especially thyself after a couple of drinks.
Be thou good thyself, and let people speak evil of thee; it is better than to be wicked, and that they should consider thee as good.
Give not thyself up, then, to fire, lest it invert thee, deaden thee, as for the time it did me. There is a wisdom that is woe; but there is a woe that is madness.
Physician, heal thyself’ is more true in matters religious than mundane.
A humble knowledge of thyself is a surer way to God than a deep search after learning.
O Beauty, find thyself in love, not in the flattery of thy mirror.
Know thyself. Remain steadfast. Follow your dreams. These are great directives and perfectly fitting for graduates. But reality is that achieving dreams takes a solid education – education that remains elusive for too many Americans.
Search others for their virtues, thyself for thy vices.
Sit not down without assurance. Get alone, and bring thy heart to the bar of trial; force it to answer the interrogatories put to it; set the qualifications of the saints on one side, and the qualifications of thy soul on the other side, and then judge what resemblance there is between them.
All things are changing; and thou thyself art in continuous mutation and in a manner in continuous destruction and the whole universe to.
Content thyself to be obscurely good. When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, the post of honoris a private station.
Transform reason into ordered intuition; let all thyself be light. This is thy goal.
In solitude, be a multitude to thyself.
The Golden Rule: Do unto others (as in people, Mother Nature) as you would have done to yourself. Truly know thyself, and to thine own self be true. Have dreams/goals and never quit working toward achieving them.
And, in fine, the ancient precept, “Know thyself,” and the modern precept, “Study nature,” become at last one maxim.
Know thyself’ was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, ‘Be thyself’ shall be written.
The neurotic usually obeys his own Golden Rule: Hate thy neighbor as thyself.
Thou art a dreaming thing, A fever of thyself.
Wrap thyself in the decent veil that the arts or the graces weave for thee, O human nature! It is only the statue of marble whose nakedness the eye can behold without shame and offence!
The first principle from which stems the moral of about all people at all time; it is summarized in this precept: Love thy neighbour as thyself, and: do as you would be done by.
The situation that has not its duty, its ideal, was never yet occupied by man. Yes, here, in this poor, miserable, hampered, despicable actual, wherein thou even now standest, here or nowhere is thy ideal; work it out therefrom, and, working, believe, live, be free. Fool! the ideal is in thyself.
Lord, thou madest us for thyself, and we can find no rest till we find rest in thee.
By faith ponder on this, that though thou art no way able in or by thyself to get the conquest over thy distemper, though thou art even weary of contending, and art utterly ready to faint, yet that there is enough in Jesus Christ to yield thee relief.
To know thyself–in others self-concern;
Would’st thou know others? read thyself–and learn!
Take physic, pomp; Expose thyself to feel what wretches feel, That thou mayst shake the superflux to them And show the heavens more just.
Persuade thyself that imperfection and inconvenience are the natural lot of mortals, and there will be no room for discontent, neither for despair.
Rings and other jewels are not gifts, but apologies for gifts. The only gift is a portion of thyself.
Envy not greatness: for thou mak’st thereby Thyself the worse, and so the distance greater.
Life is short. Time is fleeting. Realize the Self. Purity of the heart is the gateway to God. Aspire. Renounce. Meditate. Be good; do good. Be kind; be compassionate. Inquire, know Thyself.
You need to know things the others don’t know. It’s what no one knows about you that allows you to know yourself.
So peaceful shalt thou end thy blissful days, And steal thyself from life by slow decays.
Love thyself, so that you can love another. Love thyself so that you cannot project fear. Love thyself so as to let others love you. Love thyself so as to let people near.
Taste this, and be henceforth among the Gods thyself a Goddess.
Flatter not thyself in thy faith to God, if thou wantest charity for thy neighbor; and think not thou halt charity for thy neighbor, if thou wantest faith to God; where they are not both together, they are both wanting; they are both dead, if once divided.
Self-awareness is not self-centeredness, and spirituality is not narcissism. ‘Know thyself’ is not a narcissistic pursuit.
Be kind to all and severe to thyself.
Dost thou know what life is, my child? Hast thou comprehended the action of those springs which produce existence? Hast thou examined thyself?
Almighty Power, by whose most wise command, helpless, forlorn, uncertain, here I stand, take this faint glimmer of thyself away, or break into my soul with perfect day!
Know thyself, or at least keep renewing the acquaintance.
One’s character is one’s habitual way of behaving. We all have patterns of behavior or habits, and often we are quite unaware of them. When Socrates urged us to Know thyself, he clearly was directing us to come to know our habitual ways of responding to the world around us.
We are surrounded by abysses, but the greatest of all depths is in our own heart, and an irresistible leaning leads us there. Draw thyself from thyself!
Tear thyself from delay.
Be thou incapable of change in that which is right, and men will rely upon thee. Establish unto thyself principles of action; and see that thou ever act according to them. First know that thy principles are just, and then be thou.
Why wilt thou be so sottish, such an enemy to thyself, as to prefer puddle-water, and that poisoned too and stolen, before pure living waters out of thy own well?
Knowledge can be acquired by a suitable and complete study, no matter what the starting point is. Only one must know how to “learn.” What is nearest to us is man; and you are the nearest of all men to yourself. Begin with the study of yourself; remember the saying “Know thyself.”
Know thyself. Know the customer. Innovate.
To maintain an opinion because it is thine, and not because it is true, is to prefer thyself above the truth.
Treat others as thou wouldst be treated. What thou likest not for thyself, dispense not to others.
Khwaja Abdullah Ansari
Be conscious first of thyself within, then think and act.
Make not thyself the judge of any man.
The starting-point of critical elaboration is the consciousness of what one really is, and is ‘knowing thyself’as a product of the historical processes to date, which has deposited in you an infinity of traces, without leaving an inventory.
But make not more business necessary than is so; and rather lessen than augment work for thyself.
Love thy neighbor as thyself because you are your neighbor. It is illusion that makes you think that your neighbor is someone other than yourself.
Know thyself, and thou shalt know God.
Drown thyself? Drown cats and blind puppies.
Though thou loved her as thyself,
As a self of purer clay,
Tho’ her parting dims the day,
Stealing grace from all alive,
Heartily know,
When half-gods go,
The gods arrive.
The only gift is a portion of thyself . . . the poet brings his poem; the shepherd his lamb. . . .
Observe all men, thyself most.
Attach thyself to truth; defend justice; rejoice in the beautiful. That which comes to thee with time, time will take away; that which is eternal will remain in thy heart.
But thou, contracted to thine own bright eyes, Feed‘st thy light’s flame with self-substantial fuel, Making a famine where abundance lies, Thyself thy foe, to thy sweet self too cruel.
Men seek out retreats for themselves in the country, by the seaside, on the moutains . . . But all this is unphilosophical to the last degree . . . when thou canst at a moment’s notice retire into thyself.
Consider thyself to be dead, and to have completed thy life up to the present time; and live according to nature the remainder which is allowed thee.
Renew thyself completely each day.
If thou wouldst find much favor and peace with God and man, be very low in thine own eyes; forgive thyself little, and others much.
Those who have everything but thee, my God, laugh at those who have nothing but thyself.
Revere thyself, and yet thyself despise
As long as man continues to be the ruthless destroyer of lower living beings he will never know health or peace. For as long as men massacre animals, they will kill each other.
To “know thyself” must mean to know the malignancy of one’s own instincts and to know, as well, one’s power to deflect it.
Truly know thyself, and to thine own self be true.
Thyself shall see the act; For, as thou urgest justice, be assured Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desir’st.