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Self Criticism Quotes

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Self Criticism Quotes

“There is no solution for Europe other than deepening the democratic values it invented. It does not need a geographical extension, absurdly drawn out to the ends of the Earth; what it needs is an intensification of its soul, a condensation of its strengths. It is one of the rare places on this planet where something absolutely unprecedented is happening, without its people even knowing it, so much do they take miracles for granted. Beyond imprecation and apology, we have to express our delighted amazement that we live on this continent and not another. Europe, the planet's moral compass, has sobered up after the intoxication of conquest and has acquired a sense of the fragility of human affairs. It has to rediscover its civilizing capabilities, not recover its taste for blood and carnage, chiefly for spiritual advances. But the spirit of penitence must not smother the spirit of resistance. Europe must cherish freedom as its most precious possession and teach it to schoolchildren. It must also celebrate the beauty of discord and divest itself of its sick allergy to confrontation, not be afraid to point out the enemy, and combine firmness with regard to governments and generosity with regard to peoples. In short, it must simply reconnect with the subversive richness of its ideas and the vitality of its founding principles. Naturally, we will continue to speak the double language of fidelity and rupture, to oscillate between being a prosecutor and a defense lawyer. That is our mental hygiene: we are forced to be both the knife and the wound, the blade that cuts and the hand that heals. The first duty of a democracy is not to ruminate on old evils, it is to relentlessly denounce its present crimes and failures. This requires reciprocity, with everyone applying the same rule. We must have done with the blackmail of culpability, cease to sacrifice ourselves to our persecutors. A policy of friendship cannot be founded on the false principle: we take the opprobrium, you take the forgiveness. Once we have recognized any faults we have, then the prosecution must turn against the accusers and subject them to constant criticism as well. Let us cease to confuse the necessary evaluation of ourselves with moralizing masochism. There comes a time when remorse becomes a second offence that adds to the first without cancelling it. Let us inject in others a poison that has long gnawed away at us: shame. A little guilty conscience in Tehran, Riyadh, Karachi, Moscow, Beijing, Havana, Caracas, Algiers, Damascus, Yangon, Harare, and Khartoum, to mention them alone, would do these governments, and especially their people, a lot of good. The fines gift Europe could give the world would be to offer it the spirit of critical examination that it has conceived and that has saved it from so many perils. It is a poisoned gift, but one that is indispensable for the survival of humanity.”

FreedomDemocracyConfidenceEuropeHumanismSelf Criticism
Book:The Tyranny of Guilt: An Essay on Western Masochism
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“Racist” and “antiracist” are like peelable name tags that are placed and replaced based on what someone is doing or not doing, supporting or expressing in each moment. These are not permanent tattoos. No one becomes a racist or antiracist. We can only strive to be one or the other. We can unknowingly strive to be a racist. We can knowingly strive to be an antiracist. Like fighting an addiction, being an antiracist requires persistent self-awareness, constant self-criticism, and regular self-examination.”

ChangeRacismSelf AwarenessSelf CriticismAntiracismSelf ExaminationRacistsAntiracists
Book:How to Be an Antiracist
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“Sometimes people resist letting go of self-criticism--"I suck!"--because it can feel like giving up hope that you could become a better person, but that's the opposite of how it works. How it really works is that when you stop beating yourself up, you begin to heal, and then you grow like never before.”

GrowthSelf LoveSelf Criticism
Book:Come as You Are: The Surprising New Science that Will Transform Your Sex Life
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“Self-evaluation proved to be distasteful business. The refraction of light created from an undulating wave of critical self-observation passing through a tarnished lens produces its own morose, self-negating fixations that can result in a dangerous downward spiral. Unless timely arrested, murderous bouts of self-hatred can destroy a person. A person must use self-detestation exclusively as a means to pry oneself away from the haunting specter created courtesy of the clamor, filth, and grunginess of their prior anarchism. Kick starting a stranded person’s emotional motors through reflective contemplation and thoughtful rumination acts to prod loose remote memories seared in the unspoken silence of a person’s unconscious memory bank. Self-discovery is also an uplifting affair. Contemplation helps one confront their streaked presence and realign their inner voice with the sanguine spirits of their ancestors that preceded one in the walk through time.”

Self DiscoveryInner VoiceSelf HatredSelf CriticismSelf EvaluationSelf ObservationSelf CriticalMind ChatterSelf CriticSelf Evolution
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“Humble people are respectful and accepting of our imperfect human nature. Many inexplicable components make up the vast sea of humanity. My own psyche contains enigmatic elements. Through conscientious studying other people and examination of my own unfathomable nature, I hope to gain a better understanding of the mystery of existence. There are limitations of human knowledge. We have a rich stable of resources available to us including the opportunity to read great literature, inspirational books, self-help books, scholarly psychology books, and a growing trove of cognitive sciences books devoted to exploring how the human brain works. Despite the illustrious resources that expound upon the desires, motives, and behaviors of the human species, the hardships of life frequently force us to realize we are the principal subject that we must study and understand in order to mend a broken personality. In order revive a deflated psyche and transcend into a better and sunnier version of the self, I need to know myself.”

HumilityHumbleHumblenessSelf CriticismHumility QuotesSelf ExaminationHumility In GreatnessHumility And PurposeHumility Quote
Book:Dead Toad Scrolls
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“For all his arrogance, the opinions of his friends, his family, mattered deeply. None of them would ever chide him for his failure, but he'd punish himself for it. Nesta brushed her fingers against Cassian's in silent understanding. HIs own curled against hers, meeting her stare as if to say, See? We're the same after all.”

UnderstandingSarah J MaasCassianNesta ArcheronNestaA Court Of Silver FlamesSelf CriticismThe SameCaring What People ThinkFingers Touching
Book:A ​Court of Silver Flames
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“Inside Critics The critical voices in our own heads are far more vicious than what we might hear from the outside. Our "inside critics" have intimate knowledge of us and can zero in on our weakest spots. You might be told by the critics that you're too fat, too old, too young, not intelligent enough, a quitter, not logical, prone to try too many things... It's all balderdash! Some elements of these may be true, and it's completely up to you how they affect you. Inside critics are really just trying to protect you. You can: Learn to dialogue with them. Give them new jobs. Turn them into allies. You can also dismantle/exterminate them.”

WritingArtCreativitySelf EsteemProcrastinationDreamingSelf CriticismInner CriticCritical ThoughtSelf Critic
Book:A Creative Companion: How to Free Your Creative Spirit
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“Self-love has to include a disregard for how other people might perceive me, and living as though life is in the present, rather than something that will start in earnest once certain thresholds have been passed. I sometimes have to say aloud to myself: you do not agree that life's worth should be measured in this way. Don't give the idea the authority to direct your self-criticism for not measuring up. It feels like a life's work. Repeat it until you mean it. Say it like a friend would.”

Self LoveSelf WorthComparisonSelf CriticismMilestonesSelf KindnessMeasuring UpMake Your Own PathMaking Your Own Rules
Book:Arrangements in Blue
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“I am continuously struck by how frequently the various thought processes of the inner critic trigger overwhelming emotional flashbacks. This is because the PTSD-derived inner critic weds shame and self-hate about imperfection to fear of abandonment, and mercilessly drive the psyche with the entwined serpents of perfectionism and endangerment. Recovering individuals must learn to recognize, confront and disidentify from the many inner critic processes that tumble them back in emotional time to the awful feelings of overwhelming fear, self-hate, hopelessness and self-disgust that were part and parcel of their original childhood abandonment.”

ShameImperfectionAbandonmentPerfectionismAbuse SurvivorsSurvivorsHealing InsightsSelf CriticismSelf HateComplex PtsdFlashbacksSelf Disgust
Author:Pete Walker
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“Often, we try to drag ourselves forward with harsh discipline and force. We admonish ourselves to do better, be faster, get stronger. But what if, instead, we enticed ourselves toward growth with kindness and curiosity? ... Shame drains energy; it rarely fuels sustainable change. On the other hand, inviting ourselves forward with compassion... creates a different dynamic. We move because we want to, not because we fear”

MotivationGrowthChangeKindnessPsychologyDisciplineShameGentlenessSelf CompassionSelf Criticism
Author:Ajmal, from the book "Borders of the Inner World"
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“That’s how one of my stories that has received the most praise from critics and, especially, from readers came to be published. However, that experience did not prevent me from continuing to rip up manuscripts I didn’t think were publishable, but rather taught me that it’s necessary to tear them in such a way that they can never be pieced back together.”

DestructionTrashReconstructionSelf CriticismDumpster Diving
Book:The Scandal of the Century: And Other Writings
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“As there must be moderation in other things, so there must be moderation in self-criticism. Perpetual contemplation of our own actions produces a morbid consciousness, quite unlike that normal consciousness accompanying right actions spontaneously done; and from a state of unstable equilibrium long maintained by effort, there is apt to be a fall towards stable equilibrium, in which the primitive nature reasserts itself. Retrogression rather than progression may hence result.”

MayLongSelfStatesDoneActionFallResultsEffortConsciousnessProduceNormalCriticismContemplationStablePerpetualPrimitiveModerationProgressionEquilibriumUnstableMorbidRight ActionSelf Criticism
Author:Herbert Spencer
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“It is the West that has liberated women, racial minorities, religious minorities, and gays and lesbians, recognizing and defending their rights. The notions of freedom and human rights were present at the dawn of Western civilization, as ideals at least, but have gradually come to fruition through supreme acts of self-criticism.”

HumansSelfReligiousRightsCivilizationGayIdealsCriticismWestWesternNotionHuman RightsSupremeDawnMinoritiesRecognizingLiberatedWestern CivilizationFruitionSelf CriticismLiberated Woman
Author:Ibn Warraq
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