Quotes about Self-reflection

No man can break any of the Ten Commandments. He can only break himself against them.

The instrument through which you see God is your whole self. And if a man's self is not kept clean and bright, his glimpse of God will be blurred

He who desires to become a spiritual man must not be ever taking note of others, and above all of their sins, lest he fall into wrath and bitterness, and a judging spirit towards his neighbours.

The man who is content to live alone is either a beast or a god.

The man who is deeply discontented with himself is probably growing fast into the full likeness of Christ.

The problem is not primarily external and resolved by learning to behave better. The problem is internal

We tell ourselves, It's important to get a sense of what people are saying about me.' But it really feeds some narcissistic impulse to check and see if people like you.

To speak out aloud when alone is as it were to have a dialogue with the divinity which is within.

That evening, before he went to bed, he said again: Let us never fear robbers nor murderers. Those are dangers from without, petty dangers. Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves. What matters it what threatens our head or our purse! Let us think only of that which threatens our soul.

We have no idea any more what it means to feel guilty. The communists have the excuse that Stalin misled them, murdurers have the excuse that their mothers didn't love them. And suddenly you come out and say: there is no excuse. No one could be more innocent in his soul and conscience than Oedipus, and yet he punished himself when he saw what he had done.

The invention of printing formerly enabled people to understand one another. In the era of universal graphomania, the writing of books has an opposite meaning: everyone surrounded by his own words as by a wall of mirrors, which allows no voice to filter in from the outside.

You are going to love some of your characters because they are you or some facet of you, and you are going to hate some of your characters for the same reason.