Real freedom is freedom from the opinions of others. Above all, freedom from your opinions about yourself. Brennan Manning, The Wisdom of Tenderness
We are not going to change the whole world, but we can change ourselves and feel free as birds. We can be serene even in the midst of calamities and, by our serenity, make others more tranquil. Serenity is contagious. If we smile at someone, he or she will smile back. And a smile costs nothing. We should plague everyone with joy. If we are to die in a minute, why not die happily, laughing? Swami Satchidananda, The Yoga Sutras
To be silent the whole day long, see no newspaper, hear no radio, listen to no gossip, be thoroughly and completely lazy, thoroughly and completely indifferent to the fate of the world is the finest medicine a man can give himself. Henry Miller
I am now quite cured of seeking pleasure in society, be it country or town. A sensible man ought to find sufficient company in himself. Emily Bronte, Wuthering Heights
To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you like everybody else, means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting. e e cummings
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are. e e cummings
Be yourself, don’t take anyone’s shit, and never let them take you alive. Gerard Way
The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss – an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. – is sure to be noticed. Soren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death
Be that self which one truly is. Soren Kierkegaard
Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are. Soren Kierkegaard
Don’t forget to love yourself. Soren Kierkegaard
That sweet bondage which is freedom’s self. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Queen Mab
Oft-times nothing profits more
Than self-esteem, grounded on just and right
Well managed. John Milton, Paradise Lost 8:571
We’re all of us sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own skins, for life! Tennessee Williams, Orpheus Descending, 1958
Because nobody ever gets to know anybody. We’re all, we’re all of us sentenced to solitary confinement inside our own lonely skins for as long as we live on this earth. Tennessee Williams, The Fugitive Kind, Brando, 1960
Not in the clamour of the crowded street,
Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng,
But in ourselves, and triumph and defeat. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Poets, 1876
It’s bullshit! Breaking boards, walking on glass, psychology seminars and counter-groups, self-improvement books and videos, even walking on hot coals. Penn & Teller, Bullshit! S1e9: Self-Helpless, Showtime 2003
There are over thirty thousand self-help books in the US alone. ibid.
Over-inflated self-esteem is bullshit. Penn & Teller, Bullshit! s8e9: Self-Esteem
Is low self-esteem really the root of all evil? ibid.
Does anyone think this stuff works? ibid.
In 1987 the State of California created the Californian Task Force to prove once and for all that low self-esteem was responsible for everything from poor academic achievement to criminal achievement. ibid.
Are we creating a nation of narcissists? ibid.
What makes us who we are? Through the Wormhole with Morgan Freeman s3e4: What Makes Us Who We Are? Science 2014
Is our sense of self constructed from the memories of who we once were and our imagination of who we hope to be? ibid.
Could we change who we are? ibid.
Resolve to be thyself: and know that he
Who finds himself, loses his misery. Matthew Arnold, Self-Dependence, 1852
Weary of myself, and sick of asking
What I am, and what I ought to be,
At this vessel’s prow I stand, which bears me
Forwards, forwards, o’er the starlit sea. Matthew Arnold
Be yourself. Above all, let who you are, what you are, what you believe, shine through every sentence you write, every piece you finish. John Jakes
Never think that you’re not good enough yourself. A man should never think that. My belief is that in life people will take you very much at your own reckoning. Anthony Trollope, The Small House at Allington, 1864
My name is Marcos du Sautoy. And I’m about to take part in a medical experiment – one which is specifically designed to rob me of my faculties. I’m going to be taken to the edge of awareness, and on the way it’s going to alter the sense of who I am. I’m hoping to find out what makes me me. Marcus du Sautoy, Horizon: The Secret You, BBC 2009
Where am I, or what? From what causes do I derive my existence, and to what condition shall I return? ... I am confounded with all these questions, and begin to fancy myself in the most deplorable condition imaginable, environed with the deepest darkness, and utterly deprived of the use of every member and faculty. David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding
The feelings of our heart, the agitation of our passions, the vehemence of our affections, dissipate all its conclusions, and reduce the profound philosopher to a mere plebeian. ibid.
For my part, when I enter most intimately into what I call myself, I always stumble on some particular perception or other, of heat or cold, light or shade, love or hatred, pain or pleasure. I never can catch myself at any time without a perception, and never can observe any thing but the perception ... If any one, upon serious and unprejudic’d reflection thinks he has a different notion of himself, I must confess I can reason no longer with him. All I can allow him is, that he may be in the right as well as I, and that we are essentially different in this particular. He may, perhaps, perceive something simple and continu’d, which he calls himself; tho’ I am certain there is no such principle in me. David Hume, A Treatise of Human Nature
The golden calf of self-love. Thomas Carlyle
Who dwells in his inner self, and is the same in pleasure and pain; to whom gold or stones or earth are one, and what is pleasing or displeasing leave him in peace; who is beyond both praise and blame, and whose mind is steady and quiet. Bhagavad Gita: Krishna's Dialogue on the Soul 14:24
One gradually attains tranquillity of mind by keeping the mind fully absorbed in the Self by means of a well-trained intellect, and thinking of nothing else. ibid.
A man’s own self is his friend. A man’s own self is his foe. ibid.
Little by little, through patience and repeated effort, the mind will become stilled in the Self. ibid
I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before. But I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious and I caught it. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
And my communication to him is that he has great expectations. ibid.
I had never thought of being ashamed of my hands before. But I began to consider them a very indifferent pair. Her contempt for me was so strong that it became infectious and I caught it. Charles Dickens, Great Expectations
It is easy – terribly easy – to shake a man’s faith in himself. To take advantage of that to break a man’s spirit is devil’s work. George Bernard Shaw, Candida, 1898
The whole system that we live in drills into us that we’re powerless, that we’re weak, that our society is evil, that it is crowded etc. and so forth. It’s all a big fat lie. We are powerful, beautiful, extraordinary. There is no reason why we cannot understand who we truly are, where we are going. There is no reason why the average human being cannot be fully empowered. We are incredibly powerful beings. Carl Sagan