Quotes about Self-reflection

John Newton, "I am not what I ought to be. I am not what I wish to be. I am not what I hope to be. Yet I can truly say, I am not what I once was. By the grace of God, I am what I am.

The chief proof of man's real greatness lies in his perception of his own smallness.

A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.

You may have failed, but you are not a failure. That's what you did. That's not who you are.

Let the refining and improving of your own life keep you so busy that you have little time to criticize others.

If our eyes could see everything, every man would see his own faults.

I am disappointed with myself. I am disappointed not so much with the particular things I have done as with the aspects of who I have become. I have a nagging sense that all is not as it should be.

Ignatius, when he heard the clock strike, would say, "Now I have another hour to answer for." (Eph. 5:16)

Those who are quick to censure others, who speak words that cut and bruise the already wounded soul, are doing Satan's work, and are laborers with the prince of darkness....

The very act of looking for evil in others develops evil in those who look. By dwelling upon the faults of others, we are changed into the same image.

Christians are not particularly gifted at knowing how we sound to others, especially in parts of the world where our voices are the loudest and most numerous.

Anything can become a spiritual practice once you are willing to approach it that way—once you let it bring you to your knees and show you what is real, including who you really are, who other people are, and how near God can be when you have lost your way.