#introspection

Introspection and preserved writings give us far more insight into the ways of past humans than we have into the ways of past dinosaurs. For that reason, I'm optimistic that we can eventually arrive at convincing explanations for these broadest patterns of human history. ↗

— Jared Diamond

#broadest #convincing #dinosaurs #eventually #explanations

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection. ↗

— William Godwin

#derived #ever #existed #introspection #mainly

Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom. ↗

— Aristotle

#self-discovery #wisdom #wisdom

The past may not hurt you, but it won't challenge you, either. ↗

— Brad Meltzer

#introspection #memories #introspection

The question is why one should be so inwardly preoccupied at all. Why not reach out to others in love and solidarity or peer into the natural world for some glimmer of understanding? Why retreat into anxious introspection when, as Emerson might have said, there is a vast world outside to explore? Why spend so much time working on oneself when there is so much real work to be done? ↗

— Barbara Ehrenreich

#positive-thinking #self-help #self-improvement #love

He must have looked up at an unfamiliar sky through frightening leaves and shivered as he found what a grotesque thing a rose is and how raw the sunlight was upon the scarcely created grass. ↗

— F. Scott Fitzgerald

#introspection

I am a writer of books in retrospect. I talk in order to understand; I teach in order to learn ↗

— Robert Frost

#on-writing #reflection #introspection

Think of your head as an unsafe neighborhood; don't go there alone. ↗

— Augusten Burroughs

#therapy #introspection

Appius Livius Ocella made mistakes in his whole long existence. Perhaps changing Eric was his finest hour. He created the perfect vampire. Eric's only flaw is you. ↗

— Charlaine Harris

#change

I do feel that I’ve managed to make something I could maybe call my world…over time…little by little. And when I’m inside it, to some extent, I feel kind of relieved. But the very fact I felt I had to make such a world probably means that I’m a weak person, that I bruise easily, don’t you think? And in the eyes of society at large, that world of mine is a puny little thing. It’s like a cardboard house: a puff of wind might carry it off somewhere. ↗

— Haruki Murakami

#philosophy #society #weakness #introspection