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Quotes tagged “Self-knowledge”

“You can only find out what you actually believe (rather than what you think you believe) by watching how you act. You simply don’t know what you believe, before that. You are too complex to understand yourself.”
— Jordan B. Peterson, 12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chaos
Tagged: Belief, Self-knowledge
“I know you better than you know yourself, but you don't know me at all.”
— Joseph Weisberg, Joel Fields, The Americans, Season 1: The Colonel
Tagged: Perception, Self-knowledge
“The only reason I don't shoot you has nothing to do with duty or principle. It's simply a matter of knowing who I am.”
— Æon Flux, Ӕon Flux, Season 3: The Demiurge
Tagged: shoot, Gun, Duty, Principle, Self-knowledge, self-assured
“Know then thyself, presume not God to scan,
The proper study of mankind is Man.
Placed on this isthmus of a middle state,
A being darkly wise and rudely great:
With too much knowledge for the Sceptic side,
With too much weakness for the Stoic's pride,
He hangs between, in doubt to act or rest;
In doubt to deem himself a God or Beast;
In doubt his mind or body to prefer;
Born but to die, and reas'ning but to err;
Alike in ignorance, his reason such,
Whether he thinks too little or too much;
Chaos of thought and passion, all confused;
Still by himself abused or disabused;
Created half to rise, and half to fall;
Great lord of all things, yet a prey to all;
Sole judge of truth, in endless error hurl'd;
The glory, jest, and riddle of the world!
Go, wondrous creature! mount where science guides,
Go, measure earth, weigh air, and state the tides;
Instruct the planets in what orbs to run,
Correct old time, and regulate the sun;
Go, soar with Plato to th’ empyreal sphere,
To the first good, first perfect, and first fair;
Or tread the mazy round his followers trod,
And quitting sense call imitating God;
As Eastern priests in giddy circles run,
And turn their heads to imitate the sun.
Go, teach Eternal Wisdom how to rule—
Then drop into thyself, and be a fool!”
— Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man
Tagged: Wisdom, Self-knowledge
“I feel like my life has taken a turn. I'm heading down a road I've never been on before. Nothing is familiar. The signs don't make sense. Do I get off the road, or do I keep riding? The people that I see aren't the people i know. Do I go alone or take others with me? Who do I trust and who do I not? I now understand why being a leader requires isolation. I have to remove myself from those whose lives were affected by my decisions. Those I love as well as those I hate. It's getting more and more difficult to be a brother when my decisions are the ones a father has to make. I now realize that every time I make a decision effects everyone around me. By the time you're old enough to make sense of this life, to make sense of me, you'll know everything. the things I'm proud of and the things I regret—and then you'll be faced with your own decisions. And just know that the decisions that you make effect everyone and everything. It has taken me along time to realize that, and I wish I would have sooner. And as much as I want to help you, tell you what to do. I can't. Those choices will be yours, and yours alone. The only advice I can give you, sons, is to examine who you are as people and what you choose as your path in your life. Figure out what's important to you. Know yourselves...Know what's in your heart...and know whats right. Don't be swayed by fear or history or the opinions of outsiders. Find your own truth. It will lead you to the things you love.”
— Jax Teller, Sons of Anarchy, Season 6: Straw
Tagged: Self-knowledge, Decisions, Truth, heart
“The female body reacts in the same way to “bad stress” whether the context is the birthing room or the university or the workplace. If the female brain senses that an environment is not safe, its stress response inhibits all the same organs and systems, regardless of setting.”
— Naomi Wolf, Vagina: Revised and Updated
Tagged: Female Pleasure, Self-knowledge, Creativity, Prioritizing Female Pleasure, Female Desire, Liberation, Female Sexuality, Female Arousal, Emotional Safety, Toxic Stress
“This biological, evolutionary connection for women of possible ecstasy to emotional security has implications that cannot be overstressed. Relaxing allows for female arousal.”
— Naomi Wolf, Vagina: Revised and Updated
Tagged: Female Pleasure, Self-knowledge, Creativity, Prioritizing Female Pleasure, Female Desire, Liberation, Female Sexuality, Female Arousal, Emotional Safety
“Female sexual pleasure, rightly understood, is not just about sexuality, or just about pleasure. It serves, also, as a medium of female self-knowledge and hopefulness; female creativity and courage; female focus and initiative; female bliss and transcendence; and as medium of a sensibility that feels very much like freedom.”
— Naomi Wolf, Vagina: Revised and Updated
Tagged: Female Pleasure, Self-knowledge, Creativity, Prioritizing Female Pleasure, Female Desire, Liberation, Female Sexuality
“Knowledge is important, but only if we're being kind and gentle with ourselves as we work to discover who we are.”
— Brené Brown, The Gifts of Imperfection: Let Go of Who You Think You're Supposed to Be and Embrace Who You Are
Tagged: Self-knowledge, Self-Love

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This page was created by our editorial team. Each page is manually curated, researched, collected, and issued by our staff writers. Quotes contained on this page have been double checked for their citations, their accuracy and the impact it will have on our readers.

Kelly Peacock is an accomplished poet and social media expert based in Brooklyn, New York. Kelly has a Bachelor's degree in creative writing from Farieligh Dickinson University and has contributed to many literary and cultural publications. Kelly assists on a wide variety of quote inputting and social media functions for Quote Catalog. Visit her personal website here.

Kendra Syrdal is a writer, editor, partner, and senior publisher for The Thought & Expression Company. Over the last few years she has been personally responsible for writing, editing, and producing over 30+ million pageviews on Thought Catalog.