Self-awareness Quotes

"We are captives of our own identities, living in prisons of our own creation."

- Theodor Bagwell

"Anger is inevitable when our lives consist of giving in and going along; when we assume responsibility for other people’s feelings and reactions; when we relinquish our primary responsibility to proceed with our own growth and ensure the quality of our own lives; when we behave as if having a relationship is more important than having a self."

- Harriet Lerner

"Transformation is my favorite game and in my experience, anger and frustration are the result of you not being authentic somewhere in your life or with someone in your life. Being fake about anything creates a block inside of you. Life can’t work for you if you don’t show up as you."

- Jason Mraz

"Every thought, word, and action plants seeds in the garden of your life. Are you planting seeds of love, compassion, peace, or those of anger, resentment and dissatisfaction? Choose wisely and tend your garden well."

- John Bruna

"So other people hurt me? That's their problem. Their character and actions are not mine."

- Marcus Aurelius

"Anger is the go-to feeling for most people because it’s outward-directed - angrily blaming others can feel deliciously sanctimonious. But often it’s only the tip of the iceberg, and if you look beneath the surface, you’ll glimpse submerged feelings you either weren’t aware of or didn’t want to show: fear, helplessness, envy, loneliness, insecurity. And if you can tolerate these deeper feelings long enough to understand them and listen to what they’re telling you, you’ll not only manage your anger in more productive ways, you also won’t be so angry all the time."

- Lori Gottlieb

"Knowing your own darkness is the best method for dealing with the darknesses of other people."

- Carl Gustav Jung

"He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened."

- Lao Tzu

"Why don’t you really know what you want? Two reasons: 1. You have it. 2. You don’t know yourself, because you never can... Just as a knife doesn’t cut itself, fire doesn’t burn itself, light doesn’t illumine itself. You're always an endless mystery to yourself."

- Alan Watts

"How hurtful it can be to deny one’s true self and live a life of lies just to appease others."

- June Ahern

"…But the human tongue is a beast that few can master. It strains constantly to break out of its cage, and if it is not tamed, it will turn wild and cause you grief."

- Robert Greene

"When you say something really unkind, when you do something in retaliation, your anger increases. You make the other person suffer, and he will try hard to say or to do something back to get relief from his suffering. That is how conflict escalates."

- Thich Nhat Hanh

"You are not the anger, you are the awareness behind the anger. Realize this and the anger will no longer control you."

- Eckhart Tolle

"The best way to find out whether you’re on the right path? Stop looking at the path."

- Marcus Buckingham

"I don’t know what’s worse: to now know what you are and be happy, or to become what you’ve always wanted to be and feel alone."

- Daniel Keyes

"To find out what is truly individual in ourselves, profound reflection is needed; and suddenly we realize how uncommonly difficult the discovery of individuality is."

- C.G. Jung

"You are the books you read, the films you watch, the music you listen to, the people you meet, the dreams you have, the conversations you engage in. You are what you take from these. You are the sound of the ocean, the breath of fresh air, the brightest light and the darkest corner. You are a collective of every experience you have had in your life. You are every single day. So drown yourself in a sea of knowledge and existence. Let the words run through your veins and let the colors fill your mind."

- Jac Vanec

"As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found — in himself."

- Erich Fromm

"What lies behind us and what lies before us, are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."

- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Loneliness does not come from having no people about one, but from being unable to communicate the things that seem important to oneself, or from holding certain views which others find inadmissible."

- Carl Gustav Jung

"As a child I felt myself to be alone, and I am still, because I know things and must hint at things which others apparently know nothing of, and for the most part do not want to know."

- Carl Gustav Jung

"People will do anything, no matter how absurd, to avoid facing their own souls."

- Carl Gustav Jung

"There's no coming to consciousness without pain."

- Carl Gustav Jung

"One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light, but by making the darkness conscious."

- Carl Gustav Jung

"Show me a sane man and I will cure him for you."

- Carl Gustav Jung

"Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune."

- Carl Gustav Jung

"Two things define you. Your patience when you have nothing..."

"The only expectations you should live up to..."

"Ask powerful questions"

"Nobody is perfect"