Self quotes

Self

12.5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.

12.5K quotes

Explore further

Browse quotes that often appear alongside self — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.

Quote collection

Self quotes (page 180 of 626)

Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.

George Washington Military Leader, Politician
Self

"Nothing short of self-respect and that justice which is essential to a national character ought to involve us in war."

Read quote 3 likes
George Washington Military Leader, Politician
Self

"I only wish, while I am a servant of the public, to know the will of my masters, that I may govern my self accordingly."

Read quote 3 likes
George Will Political Commentator, Author
Self

"Long before Einstein told us that matter is energy, Machiavelli and Hobbes and other modern political philosophers defined man as a lump of matter whose most politically relevant attribute is a form of energy called "self-interestedness". This was not a portrait of man "warts and all". It was all wart - except that the dominating attribute was not considered a blemish."

Read quote 3 likes
George Will Political Commentator, Author
Self

"She is so totally absorbed in a vocation - both a gift and a mastering passion - that she has no time to be absorbed with the self's worries about itself. And that is the moral of the story: You can pursue happiness by wearing a torn jersey. You can catch it by being good at something you love."

Read quote 3 likes
Georges Bernanos Novelist, Essayist
Self

"When writing of oneself one should show no mercy. Yet why at the first attempt to discover one's own truth does all inner strength seem to melt away in floods of self-pity and tenderness and rising tears?"

Read quote 3 likes
Gore Vidal Writer, Essayist, Playwright
Self

"To a born-again atheist like myself, it is clear that each of us has multiple selves, talents, perceptions. But to the Roman Catholic, unity is all."

Read quote 3 likes
Gore Vidal Writer, Essayist, Playwright
Self

"A current pejorative adjective is narcissistic. Generally, a narcissist is anyone better looking than you are, but lately the adective is often applied to those "liberals" who prefer to improve the lives of others rather than exploit them. Apparently, a concern for others is self-love at its least attractive, while greed is now a sign of the hightest altruism. But then to reverse, periodically, the meanings of words is a very small price to pay for our vast freedom not only to conform but to consume."

Read quote 3 likes
Gore Vidal Writer, Essayist, Playwright
Self

"The world came so close to self-destruction during my lifetime. I was serving in the American Army, in the Pacific, at the time they bombed Hiroshima and then Nagasaki, and I felt there something like a foretaste of the end of the world."

Read quote 3 likes
Gunter Brus Artist
Self

"Self-painting is a further development of painting. The pictorial surface has lost its function as sole expressive support. It was led back to its origins, the wall, the object, the living being, the human body. By incorporating my body as expressive support, occurrences arise as a result, the course of which the camera records and the viewer can experience"

Read quote 3 likes
Glenn Reynolds Blogger, Commentator
Self

"I'd actually love to think that I could trust Kerry on national security. But the only way I could do that, at this point, would be via self-delusion."

Read quote 3 likes
Franz Kafka Writer
Self

"If all responsibility is imposed on you, then you may want to exploit the moment and want to be overwhelmed by the responsibility;yet if you try, you will notice that nothing was imposed on you, but that you are yourself this responsibility."

Read quote 3 likes
Franz Kafka Writer
Self

"The notion of the infinite expanse and copiousness of the cosmos is the result of the mixture, carried to the extreme limit, of laborious creation and free self-determination."

Read quote 3 likes
Noam Chomsky Linguist, Philosopher, Activist
Self

"As international support for Obama's decision to attack Syria has collapsed, along with the credibility of government claims, the administration has fallen back on a standard pretext for war crimes when all else fails: the credibility of the threats of the self-designated policeman of the world."

Read quote 3 likes
Noam Chomsky Linguist, Philosopher, Activist
Self

"In my own professional work I have touched on a variety of different fields. I've done work in mathematical linguistics, for example, without any professional credentials in mathematics; in this subject I am completely self-taught, and not very well taught."

Read quote 3 likes
Noam Chomsky Linguist, Philosopher, Activist
Self

"It seems self-evident that we should want people to be free, to be able to play an active part in making decisions about matters of concern to them, to the largest possible extent."

Read quote 3 likes