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Self Quotes

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Self Quotes

“...But I don't think I'm the only person who is tired of books and movies full of paper-doll characters you don't care about, who have no self-respect and no respect for anybody or any institution....And I don't want to sound preachy or Victorian, but I'm tired of amorality in fiction and in real life. Immorality is a fascinating human dilemma that creates suspense for the readers and tension for the characters, but where is the tension in an amoral situation? When people have no personal code, nothing is threatening and nothing is meaningful.”

PeopleThinkingWantWritingHumansPersonsBookRealSelfCharacterCareSoundFictionSituationReaderPaperInstitutionsTiredDon't CareMeaningfulReal LifeSuspenseCodeTensionSelf RespectFascinatingThreateningDollsDilemmaI'm TiredImmoralityVictorianNo RespectBooks And MoviesAmorality
Author:Olive Ann Burns
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“In the course of his long, turbulent career, W. E. B. Du Bois attempted virtually every possible solution to the problem of twentieth-century racism...scholarship, propaganda, integration, national self-determination, human rights, cultural and economic separatism, politics, international communism, expatriation, third world solidarity.”

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Author:David Levering Lewis
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“Self-awareness is a supreme gift, a treasure as precious as life. This is what makes us human. But it comes with a costly price: the wound of mortality. Our existence is forever shadowed by the knowledge that we will grow, blossom, and, inevitably, diminish and die.”

HumansSelfDiesGrowsExistenceForeverAwarenessSelf AwarenessWoundsSupremeTreasureMortalityDiminish
Book:Staring at the Sun: Overcoming the Terror of Death
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“There can be no richer man or woman than the individual who has found his or her labor of love. Personal fulfillment through the virtue of work is the highest form of desire. Work is the conduit between the supply and the demand of all human needs, the forerunner of human progress, and the medium by which the imagination is given the wings of action. A labor of love is exalted because it provides joy and self-expression to those who perform it.”

MenNeedsHumansSelfActionFormJoyDesireFoundIndividualGivenImaginationLove IsActingVirtueProgressExpressionDemandHighestLaborWingsMediumsFulfillmentSelf ExpressionExaltedHuman NeedsHuman ProgressForerunnersPersonal FulfillmentLabor Of LoveFulfillment In Life
Book:What Makes the Great Great: Strategies for Extraordinary Achievement
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“The Bible makes clear a basic truth that we self-centered humans find difficult to accept, namely, that the natural universe was not created primarily for us. There is no doubt that God wants us to enjoy it and even use its resources to optimize a good life for ourselves. But the ultimate purpose of creation is worship. Nature and all living things were created to glorify God.”

WantHumansSelfUsePurposeUniverseEnjoyDifficultNaturalAcceptingClearDoubtCreationWorshipResourcesUltimateEnvironmentalNo DoubtGood LifeWant ULiving ThingsSelf CenteredGlorify
Book:Carpe Diem: Seize the Day
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“Humans call animals 'dumb'... after they robbed their entire own precious world. They are intelligent beings in their own right, and thoroughly self-sufficient... if not molested by humans. Yet, after millennia of slavery by selfish/callous humans they're made to look dumb! The 'superior species' in their situations would, too, appear 'dumb'.”

IfsWorldHumansLooksMadeSelfAnimalSituationIntelligentSlaverySpeciesSelfishSuperiorsDumbSufficientAnimal RightsSelf SufficientCallous
Author:Adela Popescu
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“It would be foolish to despise tradition. But with our growing self-consciousness and increasing intelligence we must begin to control tradition and assume a critical attitude toward it, if human relations are ever to change for the better.”

IfsHumansSelfWould BeConsciousnessAttitudeGrowingTraditionRelationAssumingCriticalFoolishDespiseHuman RelationsSelf ConsciousnessChange For The Better
Book:Einstein on Politics: His Private Thoughts and Public Stands on Nationalism, Zionism, War, Peace, and the Bomb
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“Unlike the pattern which seems to prevail in the rest of life, in the human species the weak not only survive but often triumph over the strong. The self-hatred inherent in the weak unlocks energies far more formidable then those mobilized by an ordinary struggle for existence.”

HumansSelfSeemsEnergyStrongExistenceStruggleOrdinaryWeakHatredSpeciesPatternsTriumphInherentFormidableHuman SpeciesSelf HatredRest Of LifeStruggle For Existence
Book:Between the Devil and the Dragon: The Best Essays and Aphorisms of Eric Hoffer
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“If we are to understand the human condition, and if we are to accept ourselves in all the complexity, self-doubt, extravagance of feeling, guilt, joy, the slow freeing of the self to its full capacity for action and creation, both as human being and as artist, we have to know all we can about each other, and we have to be willing to go naked.”

IfsKnowsHumansSelfFeelingsActionJoyArtistHumanityHuman BeingsAcceptingDoubtConditionsCreationWillingCapacityGuiltNakedComplexityHuman ConditionExtravaganceSelf-doubt
Book:Journal of a Solitude
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“Self-interest and mutual interest are inextricably linked. National interests can best be advanced through collective action, ... Calculate not just the human misery of the poor themselves. Calculate our loss: The aid, the lost opportunity to trade, the short-term consequences of the multiple conflicts; the long-term consequences on the attitude to the wealthy world of injustice and abject deprivation amongst the poor.”

WorldHumansLongSelfActionOpportunityLostTermInterestLossPoorAttitudeConflictConsequenceTradeMiseryInjusticeAidsLong TermCollectivesMutualWealthyMultipleLinkedShort TermSelf InterestDeprivationNational InterestsCollective ActionLost OpportunityMutual Interest
Author:Tony Blair
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“The greatest love of all is happening to me.. So goes the popular song. It's a great song. It speaks to the heart, and deeply. It strikes powerfully to uplift the human spirit, at the quest for self-love and self-esteem, the pride in being alive that each of us is entitled to experience simply by being born a human being.”

HumansHeartSelfSpiritSongSpeakBornHuman BeingsAliveSelf EsteemPrideSelf LoveHappeningsStrikesEsteemUpliftingQuestsEntitledHuman SpiritGreatest LovePopular Song
Author:Robert J. White
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“To gauge the understanding and insight that metaphysics provides is to ask whether, in the final analysis, it helps us to cope with our world and harmonize our existence with nature, humanity, and ourselves, and leads to greater freedom and self-realization. Metaphysics is only the beginning. The end is human progress.”

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Author:Rudolph Rummel
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“What led me to my science and what fascinated me from a young age was the, by no means self-evident, fact that our laws of thought agree with the regularities found in the succession of impressions we receive from the external world, that it is thus possible for the human being to gain enlightenment regarding these regularities by means of pure thought”

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Author:Max Planck
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“Willful sterility is, from the standpoint of the nation, from the standpoint of the human race, the one sin for which the penalty is national death, race death; a sin for which there is no atonement. No man, no woman, can shirk the primary duties of life, whether for love of ease and pleasure, or for any other cause, and retain his or her self-respect.”

MenLoveHumansSelfNationsCausesSinPleasureRaceDutyPrimariesEaseHuman RaceSelf RespectPenaltiesStandpointAtonementProcreationLove RespectShirkDeath Race
Book:Message of the President of the United States Communicated to the Two Houses of Congress at the Beginning of the Second Session of the Fifty-ninth Congress
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“Ultimate peace begins within; when we find peace within there will be no more conflict, no more occasion for war. If this is the peace you seek, purify your body by sensible living habits, purify your mind by expelling all negative thoughts, purify your motives by casting out any ideas of greed or self-striving and by seeking to serve you fellow human beings, purify your desires by eliminating all wishes for material possessions or self-glorification and by desiring to know and do God's will for you. Inspire others to do likewise.”

IfsKnowsMindHumansIdeasWarSelfBodyDesireWishHuman BeingsInspireMaterialsHabitConflictNegativeUltimateFellowsStriveGreedSeekingPossessionYour BodyGods WillOccasionsMotiveSensibleCastingFinding PeaceNegative ThoughtsEliminatingInspire OthersMaterial PossessionsPeace WithinGlorificationSelf Glorification
Author:Peace Pilgrim
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“Belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so primal, we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval, which are not only hollow substitutes for belonging, but often barriers to it. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.”

WorldTryingHumansSelfHappensMotivationalDesireLevelsGreaterAcceptanceSeekingAcquireBarriersBelongingSubstitutesSelf AcceptanceImperfectYearningApprovalInnateHollowFittingPrimal
Book:Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead
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“The demands of our reality function require that we adapt to reality, that we constitute ourselves as a reality and that we manufacture works which are realities. But doesn't reverie, by its very essence, liberate us from the reality function? From the moment it is considered in all its simplicity, it is perfectly evident that reverie bears witness to a normal useful irreality function which keeps the human psyche on the fringe of all the brutality of a hostile and foreign non-self.”

HumansSelfMomentsRealityBearsDemandNormalEssenceFunctionSimplicityWitnessEvidentHostileFringeBrutalityReverieHuman Psyche
Author:Gaston Bachelard
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“Business is a creative and therefore spiritual endeavor. Great entrepreneurs enter the field of business in the same way great artists enter the field of art. With their business creation, entrepreneurs express their spiritual desire for self-realization, evolutionary passion for self- fulfillment, and creative vision of a new world. The entrepreneur's business is their artwork. The creation of business is as creative as any creation in art. In fact, building a business may be the most creative human activity.”

WorldWayHumansMayArtSelfFactsSpiritualDesireArtistPassionVisionCreativeCreationFieldsBuildingActivityEntrepreneurSelf RealizationRealizationFulfillmentEndeavorNew WorldGreat ArtGreat ArtistArtworkHuman ActivitySelf FulfillmentCreative VisionBuilding A Business
Author:Yasuhiko Kimura
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“To be enthusiastic about doing much with human nature is a foolish business indeed; and, throwing himself into his work as he was doing, and expecting so much from it, would not the tide ebb as strongly as it was flowing? It is a rash game this setting our hearts on any future beyond what we have our own selves control over. Things do not walk as we settle with ourselves they ought to walk, and to hope is almost the correlative of to be disappointed.”

HumansHeartSelfGamesWalksHuman NatureOughtFoolishSettingSettingsSettlingDisappointedThrowingExpectingTidesSelf ControlEnthusiastic
Book:The Nemesis of Faith
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“I came to see that man finds meaning in his existence only through the active demonstration of his human self, a cosmos comprising the entire constellation of life's factors: culture, civilization, tradition, history, ideals, facts, physical conditions, one's mental state, the ecology, and so on.”

MenHumansSelfStatesFactsCultureExistenceConditionsCivilizationIdealsTraditionActiveFactorsCosmosEcologyFind MeDemonstrationConstellations
Book:The Mute's Soliloquy: A Memoir
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“Ideas, like men, can become dictators. We Americans have so far escaped regimentation by our rulers, but have we escaped regimentation by our own ideas? I doubt if there exists today a more complete regimentation of the human mind than that accomplished by our self-imposed doctrine of ruthless utilitarianism.”

IfsMenMindHumansIdeasSelfTodayDoubtDoctrineAccomplishedHuman MindRulersDictatorRuthlessUtilitarianismRegimentation
Book:Aldo Leopold: A Sand County Almanac & Other Writings on Conservation and Ecology: (Library of America #238)
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“Christianity has held back any further advances in human consciousness for the past thousand years. And for the past century it's been in direct conflict with its illegitimate offspring, Communism (again with a capital C). Both ask the individual to sacrifice his self-interest to the higher goals of the organization. (Which is okay by me as long as it's voluntary; but as soon as either becomes too big - and takes on that damned capital C - they stop asking for cooperation and start demanding it.) Any higher states of human enlightenment have been sacrificed between these two monoliths.”

YearsHumansLongHas BeensTwoSelfStatesBigsPastAsksIndividualGoalInterestConsciousnessChristianitySacrificeCenturyHigherThousandConflictEnlightenmentDirectOkayOrganizationAskingCommunismCooperationThousand YearsSelf InterestOffspringHuman ConsciousnessHigher Goals
Author:David Gerrold
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“Science fiction, because it ventures into no man's lands, tends to meet some of the requirements posed by Jung in his explorations of archetypes, myth structures and self-understanding. It may be that the primary attraction of science fiction is that it helps us understand what it means to be human.”

MenHumansMayMeanSelfHelpingUnderstandingFictionLandScience FictionStructureMythAttractionPrimariesExplorationVentureRequirementsArchetypeJungSelf UnderstandingWhat It Means To Be Human
Author:Frank Herbert
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“So long as we judge ourselves by human comparisons, there is plenty of room for self-satisfaction, and self-satisfaction kills faith, for faith is born of the sense of need. But when we compare ourselves with Jesus Christ, and through Him, with God, we are humbled to the dust, and then faith is born, for there is nothing left to do but to trust to the mercy of God.”

NeedsHumansLongSelfJesusLeftChristBornRoomsJudgingJesus ChristMercySatisfactionDustPlentyCompareComparisonSelf-satisfactionMercy Of God
Author:William Barclay
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