“I think that an anthill is better than a nest ... that in the anthill among a hundred thousand or a million you are freer than in a nest, where all sit around and look at one another, waiting until scientists finally discover ways to make us mind readers. ... the psychology of the nest is loathsome to me, and I always sympathize with one who flees his nest, even if he flees into an anthill, where it may be crowded but one can find solitude - that most natural, most worthy state of man, that precious and intense state of being conscious of the world and of oneself.” IfsThinkingMenWorldWayMindLooksMayStatesWaitingNaturalMillionsPsychologyReaderThousandSolitudeConsciousHundredScientistOneselfWorthyIntenseCrowdedNests Author:Nina Berberova
“Maturity involves being honest and true to oneself, making decisions based on a conscious internal process, assuming responsibility for one's decisions, having healthy relationships with others and developing one's own true gifts. It involves thinking about one's environment and deciding what one will and won't accept.” ThinkingProcessDecisionResponsibilityAcceptingEnvironmentHonestHealthyConsciousAssumingOneselfDevelopingBeing HonestMaturityInternalsMaking DecisionsRelationships With OthersHealthy RelationshipTrue To OneselfTrue GiftsAssuming Responsibility Author:Mary Pipher
“To rail and rant against tyranny is to manifest inferiority, for there is no tyranny but ignorance; to be conscious of one's powers is to lose consciousness of tyranny. Self government is not a remote aim. It is an intimate and inescapable fact. To govern oneself is a natural imperative, and all tyranny is the miscarriage of self government. The first requisite of freedom is to accept responsibility for the lack of it.” FirstsSelfFactsGovernmentLosesNaturalConsciousnessResponsibilityAcceptingIgnoranceConsciousAimOneselfTyrannyIntimateManifestImperativesInferiorityRailSelf-governmentRantMiscarriage Author:E.C. Riegel
“Everything good is costly, and the development of personality is one of the most costly of all things. It is a matter of saying yes to oneself, of taking oneself as the most serious of tasks, of being conscious of everything one does, and keeping it constantly before one's eyes in all its dubious aspects.” DoeMatterEyeSeriousPersonalityDevelopmentConsciousAspectAll ThingsTasksOneselfSaying YesDubious Author:Carl Jung
“An orotundity, which I define as Nobelitis a pomposity in which one is treated as representative of more than oneself by someone conscious of representing more than himself.” ConsciousOneselfTreatedRepresentativesRepresentingPomposity Author:William Golding
“We practice conscious forgetting by refusing to summon up the fiery material, we refuse to recollect. To forget is an active, not a passive, endeavor. It means to not haul up certain materials, or turn them over and over, to not work oneself up by repetitive thought, picture, or emotion.” MeanCertainTurnsForgetEmotionPracticeMaterialsConsciousOneselfRefuseActiveEndeavorPassiveFieryRepetitiveHaul Author:Clarissa Pinkola Estes
“The notion of a conscious model of oneself as an individual entity actively trying to establish epistemic relations to the world and to oneself, I think, comes very close to what we traditionally mean by notions like "subjectivity".” ThinkingWorldTryingMeanIndividualModelsConsciousRelationNotionOneselfEntitySubjectivity Author:Thomas Metzinger
“Consciousness is not the ineluctable starting point for self-understanding because there is a difference between being conscious and understanding oneself as a conscious being. The difference is between being in a certain state and knowing oneself to be in a certain state.” UnderstandingConsciousnessConsciousOneselfKnowing Oneself Author:Ray Brassier
“No culture has yet solved the dilemma each has faced with the growth of a conscious mind: how to live a moral and compassionate existence when one is fully aware of the blood, the horror inherent in all life, when one finds darkness not only in one’s own culture but within oneself.” MindCultureGrowthExistenceMoralDarknessBloodHorrorConsciousOneselfCompassionateInherentDilemmaArcticConscious Mind Book:Arctic Dreams Source: Arctic Dreams
“Early on, I learnt from the Russian intelligentsia that the only meaning of life lies in conscious participation in the making of history. The more I think of that, the more deeply true it seems to be. It follows that one must range oneself actively against everything that diminishes man, and involve oneself in all struggles which tend to liberate and enlarge him. This categorical imperative is by no way lessened by the fact that such an involvement is inevitably soiled by error: it is a worse error merely to live for oneself, caught within traditions which are soiled by inhumanity.” ThinkingMenWayFactsSeemsLyingStruggleConsciousTraditionErrorsOneselfCaughtRangeMeaning Of LifeParticipationDiminishImperativesInvolvementInhumanityCategorical Imperative Book:Memoirs of a Revolutionary Source: Memoirs of a Revolutionary
“Whether we meditate individually or collectively, there is one thing we absolutely must do: we have to meditate consciously. Making an unconscious effort is like forcing oneself to play football in spite of one's utmost unwillingness. One plays, but gets no joy. Conscious effort is like playing football most willingly. One gets real joy. Similarly, conscious meditation gives us inner Delight from the soul.” GivingRealSoulPlayJoyEffortMeditationOne ThingFootballConsciousOneselfDelightUnconsciousSpiteGet RealPlaying FootballReal Joy Author:Sri Chinmoy