30 Quotes About Getting to Know Yourself

"Who am I?" "What do I know about myself?" When asked to describe yourself, you will most probably list your achievements, qualifications, work experience, and designation. To make your profile sound complete, you may even throw in a hobby for good measure. But are these the things that really make up who you are?

The toughest questions to answer are ones about yourself. When you begin to ponder such questions, you may find yourself squirming uncomfortably. Probe a little deeper and you will find that your name, race, gender, and other personal details are merely tags. To know yourself, look beyond superficial embellishments. It does not matter whether you are a Nobel Prize winner or not. Rediscover yourself through these quotes, perfect for self-reflection.

Famous Quotes About the Self

Muhammad Ali: "It's lack of faith that makes people afraid of meeting challenges, and I believed in myself."

Oscar Wilde: "Perhaps, after all, America never has been discovered. I myself would say that it had merely been detected."

Mark Twain: "I don't like to commit myself about heaven and hell—you see, I have friends in both places."

Mark Twain: "As an example to others, and not that I care for moderation myself, it has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain from smoking when awake."

Marilyn Monroe: "I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent."

Marilyn Monroe: "I restore myself when I'm alone."

Maya Angelou: "I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself."

Thomas Jefferson: "I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it."

David Allen: "You can do anything, but not everything."

Lin-Chi: "When hungry, eat your rice; when tired, close your eyes. Fools may laugh at me, but wise men will know what I mean."

John Wilmot: "Before I got married I had six theories about bringing up children; now I have six children and no theories."

Jean Rostand: "My pessimism extends to the point of even suspecting the sincerity of the pessimists."

Lily Tomlin: "Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world."

Richard Lewis: "I quit therapy because my analyst was trying to help me behind my back."

Clarence Darrow: "When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President. Now I’m beginning to believe it."

Cullen Hightower: "Laughing at our mistakes can lengthen our own life. Laughing at someone else’s can shorten it."

Cyril Connolly: "There are many who dare not kill themselves for fear of what the neighbors will say."

Albert Einstein: "The person who reads too much and uses his brain too little will fall into lazy habits of thinking."

Andre Gide: "Believe those who are seeking the truth. Doubt those who find it."

Aryeh Frimer: "I’d rather live with a good question than a bad answer."

Bill Vaughan: "We learn something every day, and lots of times it’s that what we learned the day before was wrong."

Cale Yarborough: "Don’t ever wrestle with a pig. You’ll both get dirty, but the pig will enjoy it."

Christopher Hampton: "Asking a working writer what he thinks about critics is like asking a lamppost how it feels about dogs."

Cyril Connolly: "Better to write for yourself and have no public, than to write for the public and have no self."

Dame Edna Everage: "Never be afraid to laugh at yourself, after all, you could be missing out on the joke of the century."

Edith Sitwell: "I am patient with stupidity but not with those who are proud of it."

Gordon R. Dickson: "Some people like my advice so much that they frame it upon the wall instead of using it."

Lily Tomlin: "The trouble with the rat race is that even if you win, you’re still a rat."

Napoleon: "Never ascribe to malice that which can be explained by incompetence."

Thomas Szasz: "When a person can no longer laugh at himself, it is time for others to laugh at him."