Self Awareness Quotes

Saying it's hard being straight is like complaining to the poor that it's difficult being wealthy.

~ Dashanne Stokes

It's not always a question of you changing your mind. I think very often your mind changes you. You suddenly realise that without having intended to think something, or while intending to think something, you can't quite do it anymore. It doesn't mean the same thing it used to. And you wonder why. And if you want to take an honest exploration of why that is, it may lead you in some alarming but fruitful directions. That's actually why I called this book Hitch-22, because it's a minor-key echo of the great Joe Heller paradox; but in a lifetime that's had quite a lot of commitment in it, and allegiance, I've now reached a point where I'm mainly associated with a group of people who I suppose could be described as adamant for skepticism, or resolve for uncertainty. And this pits us against the people who are completely sure they have all the answers - or modern totalitarians. The ones who have all the information they need, and who indeed have the truth as it's been revealed to them - they're already qualified to tell us what to do. Opposition to that lot is the cause of my life, always has been, in a way, and opposition to all forms of totalitarianism, not just as a system of thought but in the mind.

~ Christopher Hitchens

In a deserted stretch of the Karadj highway Munis had come face-to-face with unbridled lust, although she knew what lust was before being touched by it. The problem was that she had an unbounded awareness of things, an awareness that instilled undue caution in her, making her fearful that action would lead to ignominy, humiliation. This created in her a desire to be ordinary, average. Yet she did not truly know what it meant to be ordinary. She did not know that it meant not loving an earthworm, not genuflecting at the altar of withered leaves, not standing in prayer at the call of a lark, not climbing a mountain to see the sunrise, not staying awake all night to gaze at the Ursa Major. She did not differentiate between earth and gravel, but she distinguished the earth from the sky. She had not seen the skies of the earth, but she knew there were earths of the sky. She saw herself in an inevitable process of stagnation. She was already partially rotten within.What can I do with this mass of trivial knowledge? she wondered aloud. How can I cut through it?

~ Shahrnush Parsipur

Setting our living standards and expectations based on the status of others is like wishing that apples were onions.

~ Dr. Jacinta Mpalyenkana

Or may-be one who is puzzled at me.As if I were not puzzled at myself!

~ Walt Whitman

He has the feeling that merely by being alive he is blocking his own way. From this sense of hindrance, in turn, he deduces the proof that he is alive.

~ Franz Kafka

Persecution complexes are reaffirming to those who benefit from unearned privileges.

~ Dashanne Stokes

If you think being straight means you're being discriminated against, you're probably misreading your privilege.

~ Dashanne Stokes

Knowing your ignorance is far better than knowing what you know! Understanding the path and will of God is far better than mastering your own path.

~ Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

No one knows a man better than himself.

~ Lailah Gifty Akita

Speculation, movements having abandoned rational thought, echo chambers, projection, hypocrisy by little to no self-awareness, bewildering minds brainwashed and manipulative hearts manipulated - one is sure to find these à la people cock-sure in their biased and fanatical, immovable despising of persons. We would all do well to humbly re-think from time to time: 'Whom do I really hate? For what purpose?

~ Criss Jami

You're surroundings can either be a reflection of you or you can end up being a reflection of your surroundings. Ultimately, one will occur noticeably or unnoticeably.

~ Tyconis D. Allison Ty

people inspire you, or they drain you-Pick them wisely

~ Hans F Hansen

The elements of chemistry are many, but finite so are the techniques of enlightenment; everybody falls in love somehow.

~ Efrat Cybulkiewicz

I'm a seeker who writes about what I find. And maybe, on just the right day, I can help you flatten your learning curve. If I've got anything to say, it's this: you are the authority on you.

~ Danielle Laporte

A person must be in tune with the light and dark forces of their nature and remain in harmony with the bands of their own multivariate being.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Character modification requires active participation in challenging new experiences, but without reflection upon our encounters in life and the purposeful alteration in our base philosophy new experiences alone will not result in core personality changes. Our thoughts become our habits, and our habits reveal our character. Only by thinking and acting differently will a person attain the quality of character that they seek.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

Once again I am only who I am.

~ George Saunders

With increased self-awareness comes focus... We become selective. We refrain from jumping to grab every opportunity that comes on our way...

~ Assegid Habtewold

When leaders lack self-awareness, they doubt themselves; uncertain about their abilities; unclear about the direction to take on each turn, and more...

~ Assegid Habtewold

Those who benefit from unearned privilege are too often quick to discount those who don't.

~ Dashanne Stokes

If you want to know more about someone, look at their results.

~ Jennifer Ho-Dougatz

We are the instruments of genius, yet more the rhythm and less the drum as each expanding beat arises.

~ Heather K. O'hara

There can be no one better than yourself, so be the best version of you because no one is born to represent another.

~ Gift Gugu Mona

Bigotry hurts the economy, so the next time you want to blame minorities for your problems, first take a look in the mirror.

~ Dashanne Stokes

A fine line exists between quitting on ourselves and letting go of a restrictive position in life and moving forward to reach our ultimate destination based upon our natal predisposition honed by a lifetime of experimentation. Who has not been forced to stop and ask ourselves, ‘who are we,’ ‘what are we doing,’ and ‘where are we going?’ Who has not been forced to pause by life’s dynamic forces and ask ourselves, ‘what mystical chords bind us as a species; what is the meaning of life; and how do we give birth to our genetic blueprint while shaping a sense of purposefulness out of our own existence and striving to bring joy to other people’s hearth?’ To answer these life affirming questions that gnaw most voraciously at our consciousness at the time when tension and unsettling trauma besieges us, we must appreciate our heritage, be mindful our epoch, accept responsibility for our adult decisions, and strive to accumulate wisdom that segues our entrance into the future. Each of us must arrive at a unifying philosophy that guides our living quest, and the sooner we come to terms with our eccentric self the quicker we will perceive and appreciate the ineffable beauty of nature.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

The road to enlightenment requires a life dedicated to self-study, accepting the minor tragedies of life as an ineluctable part of the human condition.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

We employ our personality, what we know, think, and believe, in order to interpret the world, making self-understanding a critical act because it establishes the baseline for our philosophical and intellectual approach towards life.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

It takes extraordinary mental discipline to transmit human experience without perversion. Truth telling is unnatural. Lying is an important aspect of humanity. We lie to other people to prevent hurt feelings and we deceive ourselves in order to protect our noble sense of being a good person. Dishonesty and inaccuracy preserves our quest seeking uninterrupted personal pleasure. I shall eschew pleasure seeking and cultivate precision of mind and moral character that precious truth telling necessitates. Reading and writing, along with observing nature and studious reflection on vivid personal experiences is the process methodology that will bring me closest to discovering inviolate verity of existence and becoming a doyen for all the immaculate truth, beauty, and goodness in this world.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

When you have an open mind and you're flexible....not married to your beliefs, you can see clearly because you're able to feel and remain neutral at the same time.You're curious.

~ Dana Gore

In the absence of self-control, this primordial nature of the limbic brain often compels the mind to give in to evils of corruption.

~ Abhijit Naskar

All roads taken lead us only to ourselves.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

The real virtue is not to be free from desires but to be content with what you have.

~ Abhijit Naskar

Narrative writing represents a personal attempt to quantify and understand the psychological singularities behind the author’s personality traits as delineated by winnowed list of formative life experiences.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

The mysteries of life include the external and the internal conundrums that each person encounters in a world composed of competing ideologies and agents of change. Conflicting ideas include political, social, legal, and ethical concepts. Agents of change include environmental factors, social pressure to conform, aging, and the forces inside us that made us into whom we are as well as the forces compelling us to be a different type of person.

~ Kilroy J. Oldster

In judging our progress as individual we tend to concentrate on external factors such as one's social position, influence and popularity, wealth and standard of education. These are, of course, important in measuring one's success in material matters and it is perfectly understandable if many people exert themselves mainly to achieve all these. But internal factors may be even more crucial in assessing one's development as a human being. Honesty, sincerity, simplicity, humility, pure generosity, absence of vanity, readiness to serve others - qualites which are within reach of every soul - are the foundation of one's spiritual life.

~ Nelson Mandela

Oversimplifying is the first grave mistake we make when confronted by complexity; overconfidence is the second. And there is a third: based on our overconfidence in our oversimplified conclusions, we overreact.

~ Ted Cadsby

Self-confidence comes with self-awareness.

~ Deepak Burfiwala

I always dream of it: that something will open my eyes, and open everything inside me as well.

~ Oddný Eir

Loving yourself may seem like the hardest thing to do. But it's the greatest gift you can give yourself. If you're waiting for someone else to do it for you, you're wasting your time.

~ Rosa Livingstone