Droll thing life is – that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself – that comes too late – a crop of inextinguishable regrets. Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness
I don’t like work – no man does – but I like what is in the work – the chance to find yourself. Your own reality – for yourself not for others – what no other man can ever know. They can only see the mere show, and never can tell what it really means. ibid.
The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be oneself. Montaigne aka Michel Eyquem de Montaigne, Essais 1580
The most terrible and violent of our afflictions is to despise our own beings. Michel de Montaigne
I think therefore I am. Rene Descartes
Except our own thoughts, there is nothing absolutely in our power. Rene Descartes
Conquer yourself rather than the world. Rene Descartes
I doubt therefore I think; I think therefore I am. [Dubito ergo cogito; cogito ergo sum] Rene Descartes
On the one hand I have a clear and distinct idea of myself, in so far as I am a thinking, non-extended thing; and on the other hand I have a distinct idea of body, in so far a this is simply an extended, non-thinking thing. And, accordingly, it is certain that I am really distinct from my body, and exist without it. Rene Descartes, Meditations on First Philosophy, 1641
The diversity of our opinions, consequently, does not arise from some being endowed with a larger share of reason than others, but solely from this, that we conduct our thoughts along different ways, and do not fix our attention on the same objects. For to be possessed of a vigorous mind is not enough; the prime requisite is rightly to apply it. The greatest minds, as they are capable of the highest excellences, are open likewise to the greatest aberrations; and those who travel very slowly may yet make far greater progress, provided they keep always to the straight road, than those who, while they run, forsake it. Rene Descartes, Discourse on Method and Meditations on Philosophy
And the first problem with having a mind, Montaigne thought, is that it makes for awkward relations with our bodies. Alain de Botton, Philosophy: Montaigne on Self-Esteem, Channel 4 2000
Montaigne was inviting us not to be humiliated by aspects of ourselves. ibid.
Just be yourself, sir. Whatever happens they can’t take that away from you. Trading Places 1983 starring Dan Aykroyd & Eddie Murphy & Ralph Bellamy & Don Ameche & Denholm Elliott & Jamie Lee Curtis, director John Landis, servant to Billy Ray Valentine
I think the importance of life is to like yourself. If you don’t like yourself nothing means anything ... What’s the point of living if you don’t like who you are? Aaron Russo, interview Alex Jones
One is what one is. Samuel Beckett, Waiting For Godot starring Stephen Brennan & Barry McGovern & Johnny Murphy & Sam McGovern et al, director Michael Lindsay-Hogg, Vladimir
When I consider the small span of my life absorbed in the eternity of all time, or the small part of space which I can touch or see engulfed by the infinite immensity of spaces that I know not and that know me not, I am frightened and astonished to see myself here instead of there … now instead of then. Blaise Pascal
The self is hateful. Blaise Pascal, Pensees, 1670
Every great dream begins with a dreamer. Always remember, you have within you the strength, the patience, and the passion to reach for the stars to change the world. Harriet Tubman
To truly know the world, look deeply within your own being; to truly know yourself, take real interest in the world. Rudolf Steiner, Verses and Meditations
Each individual is a species unto himself. Rudolf Steiner
We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell. Oscar Wilde
Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation. Oscar Wilde
I won’t tell you that the world matters nothing, or the world’s voice, or the voice of society. They matter a good deal. They matter far too much. But there are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely — or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands. You have that moment now. Choose! Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan
The aim of life is self-development. To realise one’s nature perfectly – that is what each of us is here for. People are afraid of themselves, nowadays. They have forgotten the highest of all duties, the duty that one owes to one’s self. Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray
In the wild struggle for existence, we want to have something that endures, and so we fill our minds with rubbish and facts, in the silly hope of keeping our place. ibid.
A man who is master of himself can end a sorrow as easily as he can invent a pleasure. I don’t want to be at the mercy of my emotion. I want to use them, to enjoy them and to dominate them. Oscar Wilde
The final mystery is oneself. When one has weighed the sun in the balance, and measured the steps of the moon, and mapped out the seven heavens star by star, there still remains oneself. Who can calculate the orbit of his own soul? Oscar Wilde, De Profundis
You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist. Friedrich Nietzsche
Giving style to one’s character – a great and rare art! It is exercised by those who see all the strengths and weaknesses of their own natures and then comprehend them in an artistic plan until everything appears as art and reason and even weakness delights the eye. Friedrich Nietzsche, The Gay Science
It is the business of the very few to be independent; it is a privilege of the strong. And whoever attempts it, even with the best right, but without being OBLIGED to do so, proves that he is probably not only strong, but also daring beyond measure. He enters into a labyrinth, he multiplies a thousandfold the dangers which life in itself already brings with it; not the least of which is that no one can see how and where he loses his way, becomes isolated, and is torn piecemeal by some Minotaur of conscience. Supposing such a one comes to grief, it is so far from the comprehension of men that they neither feel it, nor sympathize with it. And he cannot any longer go back! He cannot even go back again to the sympathy of men! Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself. Friedrich Nietzsche, also attributed to Rudyard Kipling
What we have done for ourselves alone dies with us; what we have done for others and the world remains and is immortal. Albert Pike
It is an uneasy lot at best, to be what we call highly taught and yet not to enjoy: to be present at this great spectacle of life and never to be liberated from a small hungry shivering self. George Eliot, Middlemarch
So, now I shall talk every night. To myself. To the moon. I shall walk, as I did tonight, jealous of my loneliness, in the blue-silver of the cold moon, shining brilliantly on the drifts of fresh-fallen snow, with the myriad sparkles. I talk to myself and look at the dark trees, blessedly neutral. So much easier than facing people, than having to look happy, invulnerable, clever. Sylvia Plath, Johnny Panic and the Bible of Dreams
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. Steve Jobs
What ought a man to be? Well, my short answer is ‘himself’. Henrik Ibsen, Peer Gynt, 1867
The most important kind of freedom is to be what you really are. You trade in your reality for a role. You trade in your sense for an act. You give up your ability to feel, and in exchange, put on a mask. There can’t be any large-scale revolution until there’s a personal revolution, on an individual level. It’s got to happen inside first. Jim Morrison