Echoes

Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others.

Nature never deceives us; it is we who deceive ourselves.

If you do not tell the truth about yourself you cannot tell it about other people.

To find yourself, think for yourself.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

A man who lies to himself, and believes his own lies, becomes unable to recognize truth, either in himself or in anyone else, and he ends up losing respect for himself and for others. When he has no respect for anyone, he can no longer love, and in him, he yields to his impulses, indulges in the lowest form of pleasure, and behaves in the end like an animal in satisfying his vices. And it all comes from lying — to others and to yourself.

Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

To know thyself is the beginning of wisdom.

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.

Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss whatever insults your own soul.

Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

If it is not right do not do it; if it is not true do not say it.

I know that I know nothing.

What does your conscience say? — You should become who you are.

Though the whole world should praise him, he would not be stimulated to greater endeavour, and though the whole world should condemn him, he would not be depressed. So fixed was he in the difference between the internal judgement of himself and the external judgement of others.

The way to find out about our place in the universe is by examining the universe and by examining ourselves—without preconceptions, with as unbiased a mind as we can muster. We cannot begin with an entirely clean slate, since we arrive at this problem with predispositions of hereditary and environmental origin; but, after understanding such built-in biases, is it not possible to pry insights from nature?

Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without; for much knowledge is a curse.

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.

If anyone tells you that a certain person speaks ill of you, do not make excuses about what is said of you, but answer: He was ignorant of my other faults, else he would not have mentioned these alone.

When I endeavour to examine my own conduct, when I endeavour to pass sentence upon it, and either to approve or condemn it, it is evident that, in all such cases, I divide myself, as it were, into two persons; and that I, the examiner and judge, represent a different character from that other I, the person whose conduct is examined into and judged of.

Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Without, everything seems discordant; only within does it coalesce into unity. Who looks outside dreams; who looks inside awakes.

Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best.

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing.