Self Quotes

Lord Ronald said nothing; he flung himself from the room, flung himself upon his horse and rode madly off in all directions.

Stephen Leacock, "Nonsense Novels", 1911

The Constitution only gives people the right to pursue happiness. You have to catch it yourself.

Ben Franklin

Johnson himself turned out to be so many different characters he could have populated all of War and Peace and still had a few people left over.

Herbert Mitgang

I hate mankind, for I think myself to be one of them, and I know how bad I am.

Samuel Johnson

First it is necessary to stand on your own two feet. But the minute a man finds himself in that position, the next thing he should do is reach out his arms.

Kristin Hunter, O Magazine, November 2003

It takes far less courage to kill yourself than it takes to make yourself wake up one more time. It is harder to stay where you are than to get out.

Judith Rossne

Self - Respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense of dignity grows with the ability to say no to oneself.

Rabbi Abraham Heschel

We are long before we are convinced that happiness is never to be found, and each believes it possessed by others, to keep alive the hope of obtaining it for himself.

Aldous Huxley

For myself I am an optimist - It does not seem to be much use being anything else.

Sir Winston Churchill

I often quote myself. It adds spice to my conversation.

George Bernard Shaw

He is not only dull himself, but the cause of dullness in others.

Samuel Foote

We believe that an artist, in order to be true to himself and his work, must be a free man.

John F. Kennedy, Introducing Pablo Casals at a White House dinner, November 1961, at which he performed publicly for the first t

I bid him look into the lives of men as though into a mirror, and from others to take an example for himself.

Terence, Adelphoe

To thine own self be true -; And it must follow as the night the day; Thou canst not be false to any man.

William Shakespeare

So full of artless jealousy is guilt, It spills itself in fearing to be spilt.

William Shakespeare, "Hamlet", Act 4 scene 5

If you have no confidence in yourself you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won before you have started.

Marcus Garvey

Thou madest us for Thyself, and our heart is restless, until it repose in Thee.

Saint Augustine, The Confessions. Book 1. (The Harvard Classics. 1909? 14, p. 1)

We hold these truths to be self - Evident that all men are created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

US Declaration of Independence

He that has done you a kindness will be more ready to do you another, than he whom you yourself have obliged.

Benjamin Franklin

If you must hold yourself up to your children, hold yourself up as an object lesson and not as an example.

Sir Walter Besant

Lead me not into temptation; I can find the way myself.

Rita Mae Brown

A good man often appears gauche simply because he does not take advantage of the myriad mean little chances of making himself look stylish. Preferring truth to form, he is not constantly at work upon the faade of his appearance.

Jean Iris Murdoch

Christ will remain a priest and king though He was never consecrated by any papist bishop or greased by any of those shavelings but he was ordained and consecrated by God Himself, and by Him anointed.

Martin Luthe

One might equate growing up with a mistrust of words. A mature person trusts his eyes more than his ears. Irrationality often manifests itself in upholding the word against the evidence of the eyes. Children, savages and true believers remember far less what they have seen than what they have heard.

Eric Hoffe

The surest hindrance of success is to have too high a standard of refinement in our own minds, or too high an opinion of the judgment of the public. He who is determined not to be satisfied with anything short of perfection will never do anything to please himself or others.

Hazlitt

The secret of all success is to know how to deny yourself. Prove that you can control yourself, and you are an educated man; and without this all other education is good for nothing.

R. D. Hitchcock

He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he must pass himself.

George Herbert

Being able to support oneself allows one to choose a marriage out of love and not just economic dependence. It also allows one to risk that marriage.

Gloria Steinem

The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - - And you are the easiest person to fool.

Richard Phillips Feynman

We must not just be in the world and above the world, but also of the world. To love it for what it is... is the only task. Avoid it and you are lost. Loose yourself in it, and you are free.

Henry Miller, in a letter to Lawrence Durrell

Do not let people put you down. Believe in yourself and stand for yourself and trust yourself.

Jacob Neusne

The first prerogative of an artist in any medium is to make a fool of himself.

Pauline Kael

If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches.

Rainer Maria Rilke

To punish me for my contempt for authority, fate made me an authority myself.

Albert Einstein

My friend, if I could give you one thing, I would wish for you the ability to see yourself as others see you. Then you would realize what a truly special person you are.

B. A. Billingsly

Endeavor to be always patient of the faults and imperfections of others for thou has many faults and imperfections of thine own that require forbearance. If thou are not able to make thyself that which thou wishest, how canst thou expect to mold another in conformity to thy will?

Thomas a Kempis

Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man should himself lend a hand.

Hippocrates, Regimen