"Here and there it happened in my practice that a patient grew beyond himself because of unknown potentialities, and this became an experience of prime importance to me. I had learned in the meanwhile that the greatest and most important problems of life are all in a certain sense insoluble. They must be so because they express the necessary polarity inherent in every self-regulating system. They can never be solved, but only outgrown."
Self quotes
Self
12.5K quotes on this topic — from poets, philosophers, and thinkers across history.
Explore further
Topics related to Self
Browse quotes that often appear alongside self — connected by shared ideas and recurring themes.
Quote collection
Self quotes (page 58 of 626)
Follow a thought to its author, or read the full quote page.
"Human beings have a demonstrated talent for self-deception when their emotions are stirred."
"I'm not a great believer in self-help."
"All efforts at self-transformation challenge us to engage in on-going, critical self-examination and reflection about feminist practice, and about how we live in the world. This individual commitment, when coupled with engagement in collective discussion, provides a space for critical feedback which strengthens our efforts to change and make ourselves anew."
"Genetics do play a role in how you consciously or subconsciously manifest your true self."
"The problem with self-improvement is knowing when to quit."
"To finish first you have to first finish. Don't get in a position where you go back to go. What's interesting is that some guy whose grandfather was a lawyer and a judge-hurriedly going to Harvard Law with a wave of veterans-I was willing to go into so many different businesses. I was constantly going right into the other fellow's business and doing better than the other fellow did. The reason it was possible? Self-education- developing mental discipline, big ideas that really work."
"Of course you want to drive that out of yourself because you want to be wise, not foolish. You also have to allow for the self-serving bias of everybody else because most people are not going to remove it all that successfully, the human condition being what it is. If you don't allow for self-serving bias in your conduct, again you're a fool."
"Whether you believe it a moral imperative or in the rich world's enlightened self-interest, securing the conditions that will lead to a healthy, prosperous future for everyone is a goal I believe we all share."
"Time management requires self-discipline, self-mastery and self-control more than anything else."
"That's what every uncomfortable feeling is for-that's what pain is for, what money is for, what everything in the world is for: your self-realization."
"D’Artagnan: Why is Athos sitting by himself? Aramis: He takes his drinking very seriously. Not to worry, he’ll be his usual charming self by morning."
"Self-plagiarism is style."
"A most insidious form of fear is that which masquerades as common sense or even wisdom, condemning as foolish, reckless, insignificant or futile the small, daily acts of courage which help to preserve man's self-respect and inherent human dignity."
"It is his capacity for self-improvement and self-redemption which most distinguishes man from the mere brute."
"The great lesson to learn of life is the need of giving out from the abundance of one's self in order to be ever abundant within one's self."
"I think this is what college is all about: self-examination and dealing with those questions of "Who am I?""
"One of the peculiar ironies of being a human self in the Cosmos: A stranger approaching you in the street will in a second's glance see you whole, size you up, place you in a way in which you cannot and never will, even though you have spent a lifetime with yourself, live in the Century of the Self, and therefore ought to know yourself best of all."
"Two loves have made two different cities: self-love hath made a terrestrial city, which rises in contempt of God; and Divine Love hath made a celestial one, which rises in contempt of self. The former glories in itself - the latter in God."
"For what is the self-complacent man but a slave to his own self-praise."