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Introspection Quotes

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Introspection Quotes

“I do feel that I’ve managed to make something I could maybe call my world…over time…little by little. And when I’m inside it, to some extent, I feel kind of relieved. But the very fact I felt I had to make such a world probably means that I’m a weak person, that I bruise easily, don’t you think? And in the eyes of society at large, that world of mine is a puny little thing. It’s like a cardboard house: a puff of wind might carry it off somewhere.”

PhilosophySocietyWeaknessIntrospection
Book:After Dark
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“The tumult in the heart keeps asking questions. And then it stops and undertakes to answer in the same tone of voice. No one could tell the difference. Uninnocent, these conversations start, and then engage the senses, only half-meaning to. And then there is no choice, and then there is no sense; until a name and all its connotation are the same.”

LoveDesirePoetryRelationshipsCommunicationThoughtIntrospection
Book:The Complete Poems 1927-1979
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“Maybe there exists an inherent contradiction in our desires. Maybe this is the reason why we never feel contentment even after the fulfilment of our desires. Maybe we desire actually of a ‘continuous desire’ or persistence of a desire and not its ‘fulfilment’ as such.”

PhilosophyDesireContemplationExistentialismContradictionIntrospectionDualityEpistemologyMetaphysical QuotesExistentialist
Book:Memoir: The Cathartic Night
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“There are seconds - they come only five or six at a time- when you suddenly feel the presence of an eternal harmony that has been fully attained. This is not something earthly. I'm not saying that it's heavenly, but that man in his earthly form cannot endure it. He must change physically or else die. It is a clear and unambiguous feeling. It's as if you suddenly have a sense of nature as a whole, and you suddenly say: yes, this is true. God, when he was creating the world, said at the end of each day of creation: "Yes, this is true, this is good." This... this is not deep emotion, but is simply joy. You don't forgive anything, because there's no longer anything to forgive. You don't really love - oh, this is higher than love! If it lasts longer than five seconds, your soul can't endure it and must disappear. In these five seconds I live an entire lifetime, and for them I will give my entire life, because it's worth it. In order to endure ten seconds, one must change physically. I think that man should stop giving birth. Why have children, why have evolution if the goal has been attained? In the Gospels it is said that in the resurrection there will be no childbirth, but all will be like God's angels. It's a hint. Is your wife giving birth?”

PhilosophyJoyReligiousEmotionEternityHarmonyIntrospectionMetaphysicalTranscendenceSpirituality Vs Religion
Book:Demons
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“So, along with clear seeing, there’s another important element, and that’s kindness. It seems that, without clarity and honesty, we don’t progress. We just stay stuck in the same vicious cycle. But honesty without kindness makes us feel grim and mean, and pretty soon we start looking like we’ve been sucking on lemons. We become so caught up in introspection that we lose any contentment or gratitude we might have had. The sense of being irritated by ourselves and our lives and other people’s idiosyncrasies becomes overwhelming. That’s why there’s so much emphasis on kindness.”

KindnessHonestyGratitudeClarityContentmentIntrospectionIrritationBuddhist Teachings
Book:When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times
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“If you lack open communication and honesty in your life – It’s time to look within. Are you someone who handles heavy, emotional, or tough information well or do you often get excessively agitated, upset, or depressed? My rule of thumb is that no topic ‘should’ ever be off limits with a loved one. That is the goal to work towards. The point being, if you’re easy to talk to, people will talk to you! If you’re not, then they won’t!”

LoveInspirationalWisdomSpiritualGrowthRelationshipsConsciousnessFamilyPsychologyHonestyCommunicationHarmonyPerseveranceInner PeaceZenIntrospectionAnger ManagementAnger And AttitudeRelease The PastRelease The Ego
Book:Living Peace: Essential Teachings For Enriching Life
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“Sometimes the reason God doesn't show up to win your battles is because he already put inside of you the power to end it.”

LoveCharacterGodFaithChoicesLeadershipAnswersCouragePlansDreamsTalentHonestyConfidenceSolutionsTestsIntuitionProtectionTrialsSelf WorthCharacteristicsWorthIntrospectionBlessingsSermonsTrust YourselfPromisesTribulationBattlesKnowing OneselfGideonAnswers To PrayersLeadership RolesCommonsenseTribulationsTrusting The Journey
Author:Shannon L. Alder
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“Reading, writing, listening to music, skipping rope, flying kites, taking long walks along the sea, hiking in the crisp mountain air, all serve a joint purpose: these self-initiated acts free us from the drudgery of life. These forms of physical and mental exercises release the mind to roam uninhibited, such collaborative types of mind and body actions take people away from their physical pains and emotional grievances. A reprieve from the crippling grind of sameness allows personal imagination to soar. Imagination, a form of dreaming, is inherently pleasant and restorative. It is within these moments of personal introspection stolen from the industry of surviving that humankind touches upon the absolute truth of life: that there must be something more to living then merely getting by; the fundamental human condition thirsts for a way to improve upon the vestment that shelters our self-absorbed lives.”

WritingReadingImaginationMusicHuman ConditionReading BooksIntrospectionWriting LifeIntrospectiveImagination QuotesPhilosphy Of LifeMind And Body Integration
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“A marijuana high can enhance core human mental abilities. It can help you to focus, to remember, to see new patterns, to imagine, to be creative, to introspect, to empathically understand others, and to come to deep insights. If you don’t find this amazing you have lost your sense of wonder. Which, by the way, is something a high can bring back, too.”

MindImaginationEmpathyMemoryPatternsInsightPotMarijuanaCreative ProcessIntrospectionDrugsCreative WritingDopeCreativity QuotesCannabisSense Of WonderMemory QuoteDrug UseRemembering The PastFocus QuotesInsightful QuoteInsight QuotesAha MomentDrugs And SexCognitive FunctioningDrug WarPattern RecognitionDrugs MarijuanaCannabis QuotesEmpathy PsychologyMarihuanaEmpathy In AutismEpisodic MemoryCognitive EnhancementMind Enhancement
Author:Sebastian Marincolo
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“I also often ask my guests about what they consider to be their invisible weaknesses and shortcomings. I do this because these are the characteristics that define us no less than our strengths. What we feel sets us apart from other people is often the thing that shapes us as individuals. This may be especially true of writers and actors, many of whom first started to develop their observational skills as a result of being sidelined from typical childhood or adolescent activities because of an infirmity or a feeling of not fitting in. Or so I’ve come to believe from talking to so many writers and actors over the years.”

ActorsLonelinessSelf AwarenessIndividualityPersonal DevelopmentJournalismInterviewsWritersIntrospectionArtistsShortcomingsChildhood TraumaInterviewWeaknessesDefining MomentsInterviewingOutcastsNot Fitting InDefining YourselfWhat Makes Us Who We AreWhat Shapes Us
Book:All I Did Was Ask: Conversations with Writers, Actors, Musicians, and Artists
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“The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize." [Modernism's Patriarch (Time Magazine, June 10, 1996)]”

ArtDoubtSelf EsteemGreatnessHumilityConfidenceFameDepressionSelf AwarenessInsecurityCreative ProcessNarcissismIntrospectionGreat ArtArtistsGreat ArtistSelf DoubtSelf DelusionCezanneFame And FortuneSelf Esteem Or Lack ThereofDepression HumorSelf DoubtsPaul Cezanne
Author:Robert Hughes
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“When you look at yourself, you catch a fleeting glimpse of a moment in eternity, as if peering into the infinite flow of time through the lens of your own existence. But when you look within yourself, delving deep into the core of your being, you uncover the profound truth that eternity resides within each passing moment. In that single heartbeat of your life, you can find the vastness of the universe, where time dissolves and every experience, emotion, and thought connects you to the boundless essence of existence.”

PhilosophyWisdomTimeSpiritualityExistenceConsciousnessEternityMetaphysicsIntrospectionSelf Reflection
Author:Anton Sammut
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“Do you want to live your entire life with me, but very far from here? It's in the mountains, in Switzerland, there's a certain place there... Don't worry, I'll never abandon you and I won't put you into a madhouse. I'll have enough money to live without begging. You will have a servant, you won't have to do any work. Everything you can possibly want will be provided for you. You will pray, go where you like and do what you like. I won't touch you. I won't leave the place and go anywhere my whole life either. If you want, I won't speak to you my whole life; if you want, you can tell me your stories every evening, as you used to in the corners of those rooms in Petersburg. I'll read books to you, if you wish. But in exchange for all this, it will be an entire life spent in one place, and a gloomy place at that. Do you want to? Can you make up your mind to do it? You won't regret it, and torment me with tears and curses?”

SacrificeEmotionalRomanticLongingDevotionPsychologicalIsolationIntrospectionCompanionshipLiterary
Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky
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“I promised me that it will all be poetry. Instead, it was and was and was big nothing, materialized in loss.”

ArtPoetryDespairMeaning Of LifeExistentialismIntrospection
Book:SONG FOR YOU / CÂNTEC PENTRU TINE (Bilingual English–Romanian Edition / Ediție bilingvă engleză–română / 2025): Poems of Love, Madness & Resurrection / ... nebunie și renaștere
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“You ape, you're teasing me so as to get the better of me. Shut up, you can't understand anything. If there is no God, then l am God. You know, I never was able to understand this particular point of yours: why should you be God?' If God exists, then all will is his, and I can't escape his will. If he does not exist, then all will is mine, and I am obliged to proclaim self-will. 'Self-will? And why are you obliged?' 'Because all will has become mine. Can it really be that no one on this entire planet, once having put an end to God and having developed a belief in self-will, will dare to proclaim self-will, in the fullest possible sense? It's like a poor man who's received an inheritance and is frightened by it and doesn't dare come near the bag full of money, regarding himself as too feeble to possess it. I want to proclaim self-will. Even if I'm the only one, I'll do it.' 'So go ahead and do it.' I am obliged to shoot myself because my self-will in the fullest possible sense for me is to kill myself. "But look, you're not the only one to kill yourself; there are many suicides." "With good reason. But to do it without any reason, solely for self-will, I'm the only one.' 'You know what,' he observed irritably, "if I were in your place, to show self-will I would kill someone else, and not myself. You could become useful. I'll show you who, if you're not afraid. Then perhaps you won't have to shoot yourself today. We could reach an understanding." "To kill someone else would be the lowest point of my self-will, and that's where you reveal who you are completely. I'm not you: I want the highest point, and I'll kill myself." 'He's worked this out all by himself,' Pyotr Stepanovich muttered angrily. I am obliged to proclaim disbelief,' Kirillov was walking about the room. 'For me there is no higher idea than the non- existence of God. Human history is behind me. Man has done nothing but invent God in order to live without killing himself; that's the essence of world history to this point. I am the only one in world history who hasn't felt like inventing God for the allow first time. Let people find that out once and for all.”

PhilosophyAtheismIdentityDespairPsychologicalRebellionExistentialMetaphysicsIntrospectionSelf Will
Book:Demons
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“Kirillov remained silent. 'You know what, in my opinion, your belief is even stronger than a priest's.' In whom? In Him? Listen.' Kirillov stopped pacing, and stared straight before him with a fixed and ecstatic look. 'Listen to a great idea. There was a certain day on earth, and in the centre of the earth stood three crosses. One man on a cross believed to such an extent that he said to another: "Today you will be with me in paradise." The day ended, both died, they went and they found nothing - neither paradise nor resurrection. What had been said proved unjustified. Listen: this man was the highest on the entire earth, he comprised that which allowed it to live. The entire planet, with everything on it, is nothing but madness without that man. There has never been one like Him, either before or after, even by virtue of a miracle. The miracle is that there never has been nor will there be another such man, ever. And if that's so, if the laws of nature didn't spare even This One, didn't even spare his miracle, but compelled even Him to live amidst a lie and to die for a lie, then it follows that the entire planet is a lie and rests on a lie and on a stupid joke. It follows that the very laws of the planet are a lie and a farce put on by the Devil. What's there to live for, answer me, if you are a man?”

PhilosophyBeliefReligiousDespairMadnessRadicalHuman ConditionExistentialIntrospectionMetaphysical
Book:Demons
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“Now I did not say to you that I don't believe at all!' he finally shouted. 'I'm letting you know, purely and simply, that I'm an unhappy, boring book and nothing more, for the time being, for the time being. But let my name perish! You're what ... we're discussing, not me... I am a man without talent, and all I can do is spill my blood and nothing more, like any man without talent. Let my blood perish as well!”

PhilosophySufferingBeliefEmotionalDespairMortalityExistentialIntrospectionLiterarySelf Identity
Book:Demons
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