Oneself Quotes - Page 39

• The evil done by oneself, self-begotten, self-bred, crushes the foolish, as a diamond breaks a precious stone.

  Max Muller

  Crush, Self, Precious Stones

  F. Max Muller (2016). “The Dhammapada”, p.23, Xist Publishing

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• It's unnecessary and destructive to think of oneself at all. People ask me, 'What do you think of yourself as?' My answer is, 'Nothing.

  Paul Bowles

  Thinking, People, Ego

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• One must not imitate the sun, one must make oneself into a sun.

  Raoul Dufy

  Sun, Imitation

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• Life involves maintaining oneself between contradictions that can't be solved by analysis.

  William Empson

  Analysis, Maintaining, Contradiction

  William Empson (2000). “The complete poems”, Lane, Allen

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• The things I felt... about certain painters of the past that... inspired me, like Cezanne and Manet... that complete losing of oneself in the work to such an extent that the work itself... felt as if a living organism was posited there on the canvas, on this surface... That's truly... the act of creation.

  Philip Guston

  Past, Cezanne, Losing

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• What one does in the studio is to pose a series of problems to oneself. I've got to look for some deeper meaning, for some reason for this thing to be in the world. There's enough stuff in the world.

  Anish Kapoor

  Doe, Looks, World

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• Committing oneself to a technique causes stagnation.

  Kimon Nicolaides

  Technique, Causes, Stagnation

  Kimon Nicolaïdes (1990). “The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study”, p.100, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

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• Everywhere in the modern world there is neglect, the need to be recognized, which is not satisfied. Art is a way of recognizing oneself, which is why it will always be modern.

  Louise Bourgeois

  Art, Needs, World

  Louise Bourgeois, Donald Burton Kuspit (1988). “Bourgeois”, Vintage

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• To obsess too virulently is to walk alone in anxiety. But to obsess too little is to wall oneself off from one's own creativity.

  Eric Maisel

  Wall, Creativity, Anxiety

  Eric Maisel (1996). “Affirmations for Artists”, Tarcher

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• To think of abstraction as an end in itself is undoubtedly letting oneself be led into a cul-de-sac and can only lead to exhaustion and impotence.

  Jacob Epstein

  Thinking, Ends, Impotence

  Jacob Epstein, (2013). “Let There Be Sculpture”, p.55, Read Books Ltd

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• Character is the final decision to reject whatever is demeaning to oneself or to others and with confidence and honesty choose what is right.

  Arthur Trudeau

  Honesty, Character, Decision

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• A legislator must know how to take advantage of even the defects of those he wants to govern. The art consists in making others work rather than in wearing oneself out.

  Napoleon Bonaparte

  Art, Power, Politics

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• The essence of success is that it is never necessary to think of a new idea oneself. It is far better to wait until somebody else does it, and then to copy him in every detail, except his mistakes.

  Aubrey Menen

  Mistake, Humorous, Thinking

  Aubrey Menen (2010). “Classic Aubrey Menen: Complete and Unabridged”, p.691, Penguin UK

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• Religion can be condensed in a single phrase: total freedom to be oneself.

  Rajneesh

  Motivational, Phrases

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• The rush and pressure of modern life are a form, perhaps the most common form, of contemporary violence. To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too many demands, to commit oneself to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything, is to succumb to violence. The frenzy of our activity neutralizes our work for peace. It destroys our own inner capacity for peace. It destroys the fruitfulness of our own work, because it kills the root of inner wisdom which makes work fruitful.

  Thomas Merton

  Roots, Demand, Want

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• To live... in any sense of the word... is to reject others; to accept them, one must renounce, do oneself violence.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Rejection, Violence, Accepting

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• The real purpose of the martial arts must be to purge oneself of petty ambitions and desire, to obtain control of one’s own character.

  Morihei Ueshiba

  Art, Real, Ambition

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• Sometimes men and women prefer the darkness to the light because they are attached to their sins. Nevertheless it is only by opening oneself to the light and only by sincerely confessing one's sins to God that one finds true peace and true joy. It is therefore important to receive the Sacrament of Penance regularly, especially during Lent, in order to receive the Lord's forgiveness and to intensify our process of conversion.

  Pope Benedict XVI

  Men, Light, Order

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• It is a very good exercise, at least from a historian's point of view, to imagine oneself a devout pagan while reading various Christian writings.

  Ramsay MacMullen

  Christian, Reading, Writing

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• It is better to grope in the dark and wade through a million errors to reach the Truth than to entrust oneself to someone who knows not that he knows not. Has a man ever learnt swimming by tying a stone to his neck? So let me go my own way even if it is the wrong one.

  Sudhir Kakar

  Dark, Swimming, Men

  Sudhir Kakar (2008). “The Seeker: A Novel”, p.99, Shambhala Publications

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• When we begin to reflect Christ, the Bible, when more understood as being centered around Christ, seems to be potentially every man's biography regarding God's promised experiences and truth for him - his individual, unique path of humbling oneself before the Lord and then being exalted by the Lord back into his true and righteous personhood. Many followers may speak of it merely to try to change other people (before changing themselves), but the prophets speak of it as a living word which miraculously tells their very own experiences.

  Criss Jami

  Unique, Men, People

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• The factory of love encompasses all, but on some days, does it seem to be one of suffocation, squeezing its target too tightly? And on other days not tight enough? Or maybe that is the breath of a living love knowing when to protect, when to release, and when to protect again. For we are the products of an active love - the Father the creator, the Son the perfecter, the Spirit the supervisor - but just like in a factory, to deny the process is to ultimately create a defect of oneself.

  Criss Jami

  Father, Son, Knowing

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.19, Criss Jami

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• As a writer of philosophy, it's good to ask oneself, 'Will I still believe this a week from now, or months, or even years?'

  Criss Jami

  Philosophy, Believe, Years

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.78, Criss Jami

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• How is it that some celebrities, whom the average person would believe to have all the popularity a human being could want, still admit to feeling lonely? It is quite naive to assume that popularity is the remedy for loneliness. Loneliness does not necessarily equal physical solitude, it is the inability to be oneself and rightfully represented as oneself.

  Criss Jami

  Lonely, Loneliness, Believe

  Criss Jami (2015). “Killosophy”, p.115, Criss Jami

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• I have always thought of poems as stepping stones in one's own sense of oneself.

  Seamus Heaney

  Stones, Stepping Stones

  "In their own words: literary giants who died this year" by Jess Sutcliffe, www.theguardian.com. December 28, 2013.

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