Step into the fire of self-discovery. This fire will not burn you, it will only burn what you are not.
I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.
When people appear to be something other than good and decent, it is only because they are reacting to stress, pain, or the deprivation of basic human needs such as security, love, and self-esteem.
Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.
If you foolishly ignore beauty, then you will soon find yourself without it.
We deal with our mind from morning till evening, and it can be our best friend or our worst enemy.
The worst curse to befall anyone is stagnation, a banal existence, the quiet desperation that comes out of a need for conformity.
A flower does not think of competing to the flower next to it. It just blooms.
As much as I live I shall not imitate them or hate myself for being different to them.
Everybody is identical in their secret unspoken belief that way deep down they are different from everyone else.
I wanted to become me, totally me. The more me, the better. I instinctively knew this and I was right.
Remember: no attachment should grow, no clinging should grow. They are all against your independence, your freedom, your individuality.
As we go through life we gradually discover who we are, but the more we discover, the more we lose ourselves.
You must always be prepared to place a bet on yourself, on your future, by heading in a direction that others seem to fear.
My philosophy is: It's none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier.
The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity.
Longer Version:
The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. The inventor did it, because it was natural to him, and so in him it has a charm. In the imitator, something else is natural, and he bereaves himself of his own beauty, to come short of another man's.
Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.
There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.
Self-control is strength. Right thought is mastery. Calmness is power.
Study the past if you would define the future.
Longer Version:
Study the past if you would define the future. I am not one who was born in the possession of knowledge; I am one who is fond of antiquity, and earnest in seeking it there. Learning without thought is labor lost; thought without learning is perilous.
The most loving parents and relatives commit murder with smiles on their faces. They force us to destroy the person we really are: a subtle kind of murder.
I wanted to start a revolution, using art to build the sort of society I myself envisioned.
To make mistakes is human; to stumble is commonplace; to be able to laugh at yourself is maturity.
The more you like yourself, the less you are like anyone else, which makes you unique.
The real man smiles in trouble, gathers strength from distress, and grows brave by reflection.
Make yourself an honest man, and then you may be sure there is one less rascal in the world.
One was a book I read by Mahatma Gandhi. In it was a passage where he said that religion, the pursuing of the inner journey, should not be separated from the pursuing of the outer and social journey, because we are not isolated beings.
When you do something, you should burn yourself up completely, like a good bonfire, leaving no trace of yourself.
If you know the enemy and know yourself you need not fear the results of a hundred battles.
Longer Version:
If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself you will succumb in every battle.
If you have three people in your life that you can trust, you can consider yourself the luckiest person in the whole world.
Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.
The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are, and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen.
Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.
The best way to sell yourself to others is first to sell the others to yourself.
I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.
I respect myself and insist upon it from everybody. And because I do it, I then respect everybody, too.
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them.
Longer Version:
You may not control all the events that happen to you, but you can decide not to be reduced by them. Try to be a rainbow in someone's cloud. Do not complain. Make every effort to change things you do not like. If you cannot make a change, change the way you have been thinking. You might find a new solution.
I have feelings too. I am still human. All I want is to be loved, for myself and for my talent.
Disciplining yourself to do what you know is right and important, although difficult, is the highroad to pride, self-esteem, and personal satisfaction.
If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.
Longer Version:
If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life. With confidence, you have won even before you have started.
Adapt yourself to the things among which your lot has been cast and love sincerely the fellow creatures with whom destiny has ordained that you shall live.
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Your self-worth has nothing to do with your craft or calling, and everything to do with how you treat yourself.
You give but little when you give of your possessions. It is when you give of yourself that you truly give.
We are all selfish and I no more trust myself than others with a good motive.
Love who you are, embrace who you are. Love yourself. When you love yourself, people can kind of pick up on that: they can see confidence, they can see self-esteem, and naturally, people gravitate towards you.
Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.
Education begins the gentleman, but reading, good company and reflection must finish him.
The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action.
Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.
Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.
We have all a better guide in ourselves, if we would attend to it, than any other person can be.
Cheating in school is a form of self-deception. We go to school to learn. We cheat ourselves when we coast on the efforts and scholarship of someone else.
For true success ask yourself these four questions: Why? Why not? Why not me? Why not now?
To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly.
Do not read, as children do, to amuse yourself, or like the ambitious, for the purpose of instruction. No, read in order to live.
Guard well within yourself that treasure, kindness. Know how to give without hesitation, how to lose without regret, how to acquire without meanness.
Beware of the man who does not return your blow: he neither forgives you nor allows you to forgive yourself.
You just have to be yourself and go full with confidence and be courageous.
When a hundred men stand together, each of them loses his mind and gets another one.
Whoever despises himself nonetheless respects himself as one who despises.
I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and to incur my own abhorrence.
Longer Version:
I prefer to be true to myself, even at the hazard of incurring the ridicule of others, rather than to be false, and incur my own abhorrence. From my earliest recollection, I date the entertainment of a deep conviction that slavery would not always be able to hold me within its foul embrace.
The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others.
The time when most of you should withdraw into yourself is when you are forced to be in a crowd.
