First find the man in yourself if you will inspire manliness in others.
-- Amos Bronson Alcott

I think happiness comes from self-acceptance. We all try different things, and we find some comfortable sense of who we are. We look at our parents and learn and grow and move on. We change.
-- Jamie Lee Curtis

Whatever games are played with us, we must play no games with ourselves.
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Self-observation brings man to the realization of the necessity of self-change. And in observing himself a man notices that self-observation itself brings about certain changes in his inner processes. He begins to understand that self-observation is an instrument of self-change, a means of awakening.”
-- George Gurdjieff

Without self knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.
-- George Gurdjieff

* The true spiritual life begins within the individual when he perceives the importance of it, and begins to realize what spiritual values are. Therefore, in order for man to emerge from his present state of chaos, he must experience a revolution of a new type, one that will have neither a political nor an economic character. We may call it the individual self-revolution. There is nothing that can better transform man from his materialistic conception of existence to a spiritual awareness of life than such individual revolution from within...
-- Frederick Kettner

* [Our biggest opportunity at this moment in history is] perhaps a deeper connection with all human beings. That kind of connection, made possible by our various technologies, simply couldn’t exist before recent times. The connection guarantees nothing, but it does offer an opportunity for expressions of a global spirit, or what I call a “species consciousness” or “species self.” What that means is not that one ceases to be an American, or a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Jew, or a Hindu. One is any of those and at the same time, in one’s own sense of self, a human being. This kind of species consciousness is expanding. Perhaps it represents our greatest opportunity.
-- Robert Jay Lifton

There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
-- Nelson Mandela

In my mind, the purpose of education is to enable human beings to develop to their full potential, intellectually and spiritually. That means that students have to be empowered to pursue self-knowledge and the skills that will help them be of service to their fellow human beings. Education should encourage people to develop their curiosity about life; above all, it should not trivialize either the students or their lives.
-- Michael Nagler

The true, or higher part of the self is always seeking the state that mystics talk about, the state in which we are filled with a universal love and a peaceful euphoria.
-- James Redfield

Life isn't about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
-- George Bernard Shaw

The true, or higher part of the self is always seeking the state that mystics talk about, the state in which we are filled with a universal love and a peaceful euphoria.
-- James Redfield

“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.”
-- Swami Sivananda

Know Thyself.
- Socrates

"Some people say they haven't yet found themselves. But the self is not something one finds; it is something one creates."
-- Thomas Szasz

"Know Thyself"
-- Thales of Miletus (640 - 546 B.C.)

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.
-- Henry David Thoreau

Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.
-- Henry David Thoreau

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
-- Marianne Williamson

My vision for the future? Two things: to make credit a human right so that each individual human being will have the opportunity to take loans and implement his or her ideas so that self-exploration becomes possible. And second: that it will lead to a world where nobody has to suffer from poverty - a world completely free from poverty.
-- Muhammad Yunus