#elf

We should every night call ourselves to an account; What infirmity have I mastered today? What passions opposed? What temptation resisted? What virtue acquired? Our vices will abort of themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift. ↗

— Lucius Annaeus Seneca

#temptation

You will never have a greater or lesser dominion than that over yourself...the height of a man's success is gauged by his self-mastery; the depth of his failure by his self-abandonment. ...And this law is the expression of eternal justice. He who cannot establish dominion over himself will have no dominion over others. ↗

— Leonardo da Vinci

#self-mastery #will-power #justice

I exist as I am, that is enough, If no other in the world be aware I sit content, And if each and all be aware I sit content. One world is aware, and by the far the largest to me, and that is myself. ↗

— Walt Whitman

#self-esteem #self-satisfaction #satisfaction

Siddhartha has one single goal-to become empty, to become empty of thirst, desire, dreams, pleasure and sorrow-to let the Self die. No longer to be Self, to experience the peace of an emptied heart, to experience pure thought-that was his goal. ↗

— Hermann Hesse

#life #self #siddhartha #thought #dreams

What do you mean I have to wait for someone's approval?  I'm someone.  I approve.  So I give myself permission to move forward with my full support! ↗

— Richelle E. Goodrich

#approval #dreams #drive #goals #myself

There is a noticeable element of the pathological in some current leftist critiques, which I tend to attribute to feelings of guilt allied to feelings of impotence. Not an attractive combination, because it results in self-hatred. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#guilt #impotence #iraq-war #leftism #pathology

Every man must decide whether he will walk in the light of creative altruism or in the darkness of destructive selfishness. ↗

— Martin Luther King, Jr.

#creative #darkness #decide #destructive #every

Each action we take is an act of self-expression. We often think of large-scale or important deeds as being indications of our real selves, but even how we sharpen a pencil can reveal something about our feelings at that moment. Do we sharpen the pencil carefully or nervously so that it doesn’t break? Do we bother to pay attention to what we’re doing? How do we sharpen the same pencil when we’re angry or in a hurry? Is it the same as when we’re calm or unhurried? Even the smallest movement discloses something about the person executing the action because it is the person who’s actually performing the deed. In other words, action doesn’t happen by itself, we make it happen, and in doing so we leave traces of ourselves on the activity. The mind and body are interrelated. ↗

— H.E. Davey

#ki #meditation #mind #mind-and-body-unification #nakamura-tempu

She was looking for something I could never give her." Again his dark eyes bored into Julia's mind. "You have something of the same about you, young woman. Take my advice: Don't think you will find it in another person. You won't. It's not there. You must find it in yourself. ↗

— Iain Pears

#individuality #search #self-awareness #self-reliance #dreams

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect. ↗

— Marcus Aurelius

#honesty #self-respect #respect