Best lessons & self Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“It seems to me that life's circumstances, being ephemeral, teach us less about durable truths than the fictions based on those truths; and that the best lessons of delicacy and self-respect are to be found in novels where the feelings are so naturally portrayed that you fancy you are witnessing real life as you read.”

Real Self Feelings Seems Found Fiction Teach Novel Circumstances Lessons Real Life Fancy Self Respect Ephemeral Delicacy

Author:Madame de Stael

“If there is a lesson in our story it is that the manipulation, according to strictly self-consistent rules, of a set of symbols representing one single aspect of the phenomena may produce correct, verifiable predictions, and yet completely ignore all other aspects whose ensemble constitutes reality.”

Ifs May Self Stories Reality Produce Lessons Aspect Symbols Consistent Manipulation Predictions Representing Ensemble

Author:Arthur Koestler

“In our true blissful essence of mind is known that everything is alright forever and forever and forever...listen to the silence inside the illusion of the world, and you will remember the lesson you forgot, It is all one vast awakened thing. We were never really born, we will never really die. It has nothing to do with the imaginary idea of a personal self, other selves, many selves everywhere: Self is only an idea, a mortal idea. That which passes into everything is one thing. It's a dream already ended.”

World Mind Ideas Self Dream Remember Dies Born Silence Known Forever One Thing Lessons Illusion Essence Mortals Imaginary Awakened Alright

Author:Jack Kerouac

“Writing is self-taught. Consulting other people only teaches you to depend on their reactions, which may or may not be legitimate. Quit looking for approval ... Learn to evaluate your own work with a dispassionate eye ... the lessons you acquire will be all the more valuable because you've mastered your craft from within.”

People Writing May Self Eye Teach Taught Depends Lessons Valuable Quitting Reactions Crafts Acquire Approval Evaluate Consulting Self Taught Dispassionate

Author:Sue Grafton

“Notwithstanding all the wrongs that slavery heaped upon me, I can bless it for one thing-youth's important lesson of self-reliance.”

I Can Important Self One Thing Youth Lessons Slavery Bless Self Reliance Reliance Important Lessons

Book:Slave Narrative Six Pack 2

Source: Slave Narrative Six Pack 2

“I learned that if you love a boy you are no longer free. The boy may become more important than your own self and if it is so, you will find trouble there. The first time you are hurt in your heart, you do not forget the lesson. It stays forever.”

Ifs Firsts Heart May Important Self Hurt Forget Boys Forever Trouble Lessons First Time

Book:Thirty Girls

Source: Thirty Girls

“At the heart of good education are those gifted, hardworking, and memorable teachers whose inspiration kindles fires that never quite go out, whose remembered encouragement is sometimes the only hard ground we stand upon, and whose very selves are the stuff of the best lessons they ever teach us. Most of us, no matter how long ago it's been, can name our kindergarten teacher. Our first music teacher. Our junior high algebra teacher. Good teachers never die.”

“My readers often say to me, 'If we lived next door to each other, we'd be best friends.' That is precisely what I wanted to say to smart, funny, self-effacing Ellen McCarthy after I finished reading The Real Thing. I loved every lesson laid out in a book that wouldn't dare to call itself a field guide to marriage but amounts to as much on every page. This is a deeply useful little book.”

Ifs Littles Book Real Self Wanted Reading Next Doors Fields Reader Amount Lessons Pages Smart Dare Finished Guides Real Things

Author:Kelly Corrigan

“When we follow our hearts, we follow the path of lessons we were meant to take and gain knowledge from. Sometimes the heart conquers over reason, and this may lead us to making serious mistakes, but these are mistakes written for us to grow. This is the real reason you hear 'FOLLOW YOUR HEART'. And the real reason you hear, 'FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS' is because our dreams expose us to our true multidimensional realities outside of this delusional realm we call reality. Our TRUE reality can be found in our dreams, where we are our true multidimensional selves.”

“My main life lesson from investing: self-interest is the most powerful force on earth, and can get people to embrace and defend almost anything.”

People Self Earth Force Interest Powerful Lessons Embrace Investing Most Powerful Life Lesson Self Interest

Author:Jesse Lauriston Livermore

“When you surrender and release the illusion of control, you begin to free-fall toward your destiny of a grand reunion with your original-self; a self uncorrupted by the world's false lessons of fear and control.”

World Self Fall Destiny Lessons Illusion Originals Surrender Release Our Destiny Your Destiny Reunion Illusion Of Control

Author:Bryant H. McGill

“I do interview senior candidates at the home office or many of our hotel or restaurant General Manager candidates. My two favorite questions are "Tell me about a failure in your career, what you learned from it, and how you've leveraged this lesson" and "All of us are misperceived at one time or another. What's the most common way you're misperceived in the workplace and why?" Both of these questions require a certain amount of self-awareness and a willingness to not give pat, normal answers that we offer experience in interviews.”

“I think it's important for girls at a young age to be involved in as many things as possible. Especially safe communities of people that teach them great life lessons like self-confidence and courage. And getting girls to go to camp especially in the summer where they can meet new friends, learn new things, and not just sit at home and watch TV.”

“The great lesson that nature seems to teach us at all ages is self-dependence, self-protection, self-support. In the hours of our keenest sufferings all are thrown wholly on themselves for consolation.”

Self Seems Age Suffering Hours Freedom Teach Support Lessons Protection Thrown Dependence Consolation Self Protection Self Support

Author:Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“Every child is born not only with a stomach that has to be catered to, it is also endowed with two hands which can work and produce the food for the stomach. The hands have to be given the strength and skill; they have to learn the lesson of self-reliance. They should never be lazy or slothful. Then, there can be no deficiency in food and no problem of underfeeding.”

Should Children Two Self Problem Hands Given Born Produce Lessons Skills Lazy Stomach Self Reliance No Problem Reliance Deficiency Two Hands

Author:Sathya Sai Baba

“I think most generations tend to learn the lesson of war the hard way. There is a deep attraction to the empowerment. Freud is right: societies either become locked in a collective embrace of Eros, as individuals do, or a collective embrace of Thanatos, the death instinct. They swing between the two. The notion that societies are naturally prone toward self-preservation is wrong. Self-annihilation can be deeply addictive, intoxicating, enticing. So I take a darker view of human nature, that war is probably always going to be with us. I think history bears me out.”

“In the years of the Roman Republic, before the Christian era, Roman education was meant to produce those character traits that would make the ideal family man. Children were taught primarily to be good to their families. To revere gods, one's parents, and the laws of the state were the primary lessons for Roman boys. Cicero described the goal of their child rearing as "self- control, combined with dutiful affection to parents, and kindliness to kindred.”

“Prayer is not an old woman's idle amusement. Properly understood and applied, it is the most potent instrument of action. . . . . . . Prayer is the first and the last lesson in learning the noble and brave art of sacrificing self in the various walks of life culminating in the defence of one's nation's liberty and honour.”

Firsts Art Self Action Lasts Nations Prayer Walks Liberty Sacrifice Lessons Understood Instruments Brave Various Noble Honour Idle Amusement Defence Old Woman Walks Of Life

Author:Mahatma Gandhi

“After an inferior man has been taught a doctrine of superiority he will remain as inferior as he was before his lesson. He will merely assume himself to be superior, and attempt to employ his recently-learned tactics against his own kind, whom he will then consider his inferiors. With each inferior man enjoying what he considers his unique role, the entire bunch will be reduced to a pack of strutting, foppish, self-centered monkeys gamboling about on an island of ignorance. There they will play their games under the supervision of their keeper, who was and always will be a superior man.”

Source: The Devil's Notebook

“It only takes about 50 contact hours to transmit basic literacy and math skills well enough that kids can be self-teachers from then on. The cry for 'basic skills' practice is a smokescreen behind which schools pre-empt the time of children for twelve years and teach them the six lessons I've just taught you.”

Years Wells Children Self Enough Kids School Hours Behinds Teach Practice Teacher Cry Taught Lessons Skills Six Math Contact Twelve Literacy Transmit Math Skills

Author:John Taylor Gatto

“I am not the center of the universe. And it's a lesson that I keep having to learn; it's my ongoing work, I'd say. And being in a career that is predicated on a degree of self-absorption, that is a tricky thing to negotiate sometimes.”

Self Sometimes Universe Careers Lessons Degrees Ongoing Tricky Absorption Self Absorption Center Of The Universe

Author:Patrick Fabian

“Suppose you have a parallel self who has made different choices, who is following a different event track since you made certain choices in your life. Maybe you can reach to that self and borrow gifts and lessons from that self and maybe even help them on their road.”

Made Different Self Helping Certain Choices Events Lessons Track Following Parallels Different Choices

Author:Robert Moss

“Michael, from 'Six Dance Lessons...' He was somebody who had a lot of self-loathing; being a gay man who lost his family and felt ostracized. It was an interesting character to play. He was so bitter and jaded about life. Even though I'm not like that personally, everybody has a side of themselves that tends to look at the negative side of things. He was an interesting character to play.”

Men Looks Self Play Character Lost Felt Sides Interesting Lessons Gay Six Negative Bitter Loathing Gay Men Self Loathing Jaded Interesting Characters

Author:Cheyenne Jackson

“My Dad played the trombone and I think my Mom played the piano for about two years. It is very self-driven. They pushed me to do piano lessons, but they were never forceful about anything. They never pushed me to sing or anything, it was something that I did myself.”

Thinking Years Two Self Mom Dad Lessons My Dad My Mom Driven Piano Two Years Piano Lesson Trombone

Author:Thomston

“When I was starting out, I would get printouts of what was being written about me that week. At first it was all good things, and then it started to turn. I very quickly learned, "This isn't good, this isn't helping me." But it was a very important exercise for me in terms of really understanding that one's sense of self is internal. I have had an extreme opportunity to learn that lesson, and I think it's been such a blessed fortune.”

“There are many moments during a match when you are tense, wrestling with yourself. Tennis is a lesson in self-control.”

Self Moments Lessons Tennis Wrestling Self Control Tense

Author:Rafael Nadal

“It is Chairman Mao who should be held primarily responsible for the Great Leap Forward. But it didn't take him long - just a few months - to recognize his mistake, and he did so before the rest of us and proposed corrections. And in 1962, when because of some other factors those corrections had not been fully carried out, he made a self-criticism. But the lessons were not fully drawn, and as a result the "Cultural Revolution" erupted.”

Should Long Made Self Results Mistake Revolution Months Lessons Criticism Responsible Factors Leap Chairman Corrections Mao Self Criticism Chairman Mao

Author:Deng Xiaoping

“When I am wrong, I will learn the lesson and move on to face other challenges. For me, that's what creating your own life is. Doing your best work while being your best self.”

Self Faces Moving Life Is Challenges Lessons Creating Best Work Doing Your Best Best Self

Author:Jennifer Lopez

“Perhaps the most powerful lesson other brands can learn from Nike is the need to act in accordance with the reality of the world we live in. In a mutually dependant, intimately connected global community facing several major crises, brands need to operate with an expanded definition of self-interest that includes the greater good.”

World Needs Self Reality Interest Community Powerful Greater Lessons Majors Crisis Definitions Connected Brands Most Powerful Self Interest Greater Good Nike Global Community

Author:Simon Mainwaring

“...boredom speaks the language of time, and it is to teach you the most valuable lesson in your life--...the lesson of your utter insignificance. It is valuable to you, as well as to those you are to rub shoulders with. 'You are finite,' time tells you in a voice of boredom, 'and whatever you do is, from my point of view, futile.' As music to your ears, this, of course, may not count; yet the sense of futility, of limited significance even of your best, most ardent actions is better than the illusion of their consequence and the attendant self-satisfaction.”

“Instruction for life: Take into account that great love and great achievements involve great risk. When you lose, don't lose the lesson. Follow the three R's: - Respect for self. - Respect for others. - Responsibility for all your actions. Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck. Learn the rules so you know how to break them properly.”

“Learn this lesson, that to be self-contented is to be vile and ignorant, and that to aspire is better than to be blindly and impotently happy.”

Self Hope Lessons Ignorant Aspire

Book:Flatland: The Movie Edition

Source: Flatland: The Movie Edition

“I feel moderately bad about this whole thing. On the one hand, I am providing myself with urgently required survival skills. Other lessons in this series include Shoplifting, Beating People Up, Picking Locks, Climbing Trees, Driving, Housebreaking, Dumpster Diving, and How to Use Oddball Things like Venetian Blinds and Garbage Can Lids as Weapons. On the other hand, I’m corrupting my poor innocent little self. I sigh. Somebody’s got to do it.”

Source: The Time Traveler's Wife

“The lesson here is very simple. But it is striking how often it is overlooked. We are so caught in the myths of the best and the brightest and the self-made that we think outliers spring naturally from the earth. We look at the young Bill Gates and marvel that our world allowed that thirteen-year-old to become a fabulously successful entrepreneur. But that's the wrong lesson. Our world only allowed one thirteen-year-old unlimited access to a time sharing terminal in 1968. If a million teenagers had been given the same opportunity, how many more Microsofts would we have today?”

“To be the father of growing daughters is to understand something of what Yeats evokes with his imperishable phrase 'terrible beauty.' Nothing can make one so happily exhilarated or so frightened: it's a solid lesson in the limitations of self to realize that your heart is running around inside someone else's body. It also makes me quite astonishingly calm at the thought of death: I know whom I would die to protect and I also understand that nobody but a lugubrious serf can possibly wish for a father who never goes away.”

“The home is the first and most effective place to learn the lessons of life: truth, honor, virtue, self control, the value of education, honest work, and the purpose and privilege of life. Nothing can take the place of home in rearing and teaching children, and no other success can compensate for failure in the home.”

“I was not really angry: I felt for him all the time, and longed to be reconciled; but I determined he should make the first advances, or at least show some signs of an humble and contrite spirit, first; for, if I began, it would only minister to his self-conceit, increase his arrogance, and quite destroy the lesson I wanted to give him.”

Ifs Giving Should Firsts Self Shows Wanted Spirit Felt Lessons Increase Angry Humble Determined Ministers Arrogance Conceit

Book:The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

Source: The Tenant of Wildfell Hall

“Nothing could be more absurd than moral lessons at such a moment! Oh, self-satisfied people: with what proud self-satisfaction such babblers are ready to utter their pronouncements! If they only knew to what degree I myself understand all the loathsomeness of my present condition, they wouldn't have the heart to teach me.”

People Ifs Heart Self Moments Moral Teach Conditions Ready Proud Lessons Degrees Satisfaction Satisfied Absurd Self-satisfaction Moral Lessons

Author:Fyodor Dostoevsky

“The assumption is that life doesn't need to be navigated with lessons. You can just do it intuitively. After all, you only need to achieve autonomy from your parents, find a moderately satisfying job, form a relationship, perhaps raise some children, watch the onset of mortality in your parents' generation and eventually in your own, until one day a fatal illness starts gnawing at your innards and you calmly go to the grave, shut the coffin and are done with the self-evident business of life.”

Needs Children Self Done Jobs Form Parent Watches Generations Achieve Lessons One Day Raises Illness Graves Assumption Mortality Satisfying Evident Autonomy Just Do It Coffins

Author:Alain de Botton

“Husbands lie, Masha. I should know; I've eaten my share. That's lesson one. Lesson number two: among the topics about which a husband is most likely to lie are money, drink, black eyes, political affiliation, and women who squatted on his lap before and after your sweet self.”

Knows Should Two Self Eye Political Lying Black Numbers Share Sweet Drink Lessons Husband Topics Lap Affiliation Before And After Black Eyes

Book:Deathless

Source: Deathless

“His wry sense of humour and his stalwart courage were an inspiring example to so many. His ability to laugh at Life's idiosyncrasies and himself in a self deprecating way taught that most valuable of lessons: 'to be of good cheer, no matter what Life threw at you, and ever to find the hope that dwells in every human heart'.”

“The old lessons (work, self-discipline, sacrifice, teamwork, fighting to achieve) aren't being taught by many people other than football coaches these days. The football coach has a captive audience and can teach these lessons because the communication lines between himself and his players are more wide open than between kids and parents. We better teach these lessons or else the country's future population will be made up of a majority of crooks, drug addicts, or people on relief.”

“Is it too late to prevent us from self-destructing? No, for we have the capacity to design our own future, to take a lesson from living things around us and bring our values and actions in line with ecological necessity. But we must first realize that ecological and social and economic issues are all deeply intertwined. There can be no solution to one without a solution to the others.”

“The great lesson to learn of life is the need of giving out from the abundance of one's self in order to be ever abundant within one's self.”

Life Needs Giving Self Life Is Order Inspirational Life Lessons Abundance Unconditional Love

Author:Walter Russell

“The family should be a closely knit group. The home should be a self-contained shelter of security; a kind of school where life's basic lessons are taught; and a kind of church where God is honored; a place where wholesome recreation and simple pleasures are enjoyed.”

Should Kind Self Home School Church Simple Pleasure Groups Security Taught Lessons Parenting Enjoyed Shelter Honored Recreation Simple Pleasures Self Contained

Author:Billy Graham

Lessons Quotes

Related topics

Lessons Quotes