People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates. – Thomas Szasz, “Personal Conduct,” The Second Sin, 1973
Never mind searching for who you are. Search for the person you aspire to be. – Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com
Man cannot remake himself without suffering, for he is both the marble and the sculptor. – Dr. Alexis Carrel
[I]t does not always agree with every one, and I say therefore: try it first and see whether it answers. – Sebastian Kneipp, Thus Shalt Thou Live: Hints and Advice for the Healthy and the
The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose. – Richard Grant
I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of. – Michel de Montaigne
I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. – Henry David Thoreau, 1854
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it. – George Moore
Endurance is frequently a form of indecision. – Elizabeth Bibesco, Haven, 195
Man never knows what he wants; he aspires to penetrate mysteries and as soon as he has, he wants to reestablish them. Ignorance irritates him and knowledge cloys. – Amiel, Journal, 1884
The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life. – Muhammad Ali
Perhaps the truth depends on a walk around the lake. – Wallace Stevens
One may understand the cosmos, but never the ego; the self is more distant than any star. – G.K. Chesterton, “The Logic of Elfland,” Orthodoxy, 1908
I met a lot of people in Europe. I even encountered myself. – James Baldwin
There are chapters in every life which are seldom read and certainly not aloud. – Carol Shields
Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves. – Henry David Thoreau
Why should we honour those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself. – William Butler Yeats
Learning how to operate a soul figures to take time. – Timothy Leary
To dare to live alone is the rarest courage; since there are many who had rather meet their bitterest enemy in the field, than their own hearts in their closet. – Charles Caleb Colton, Lacon, 1825
