Self Will Quotes - Page 2

• If any man would come after me, let him deny himself." The disciple must say to himself the same words Peter said of Christ when he denied him: "I know not this man." Self-denial is never just a series of isolated acts of mortification or asceticism. It is not suicide, for there is an element of self-will even in that. To deny oneself is to be aware only of Christ and no more of self, to see only him who goes before and no more the road which is too hard for us. Once more, all that self denial can say is: "He leads the way, keep close to him.

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer

  Suicide, Men, Self

  Dietrich Bonhoeffer (2012). “The Cost of Discipleship”, p.88, Simon and Schuster

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• Waste begets self-will; thrift begets meanness: but better be mean than self-willed.

  Confucius

  Mean, Self, Waste

  Confucius (1909). “The Sayings of Confucius”

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• If we divested ourselves, once and for all, of all self-will, we would then be in a position of being sure of doing the Will of God, in which the angels find all their delight and men all their happiness.

  Vincent de Paul

  Faith, Angel, Men

  Saint Vincent de Paul, Pierre Coste (1985). “Correspondence, Conferences, Documents: Apr. 1650-July 1653”

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• A man only goes and confesses his faults to the world when his self will not acknowledge or listen to them. WYNDHAM LEWIS, Tarr Two persons will not be friends long if they are not inclined to pardon each other's little failings.

  Jean de la Bruyere

  Men, Self, Two

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• All women are brought up from the very earliest years in the belief that their ideal of character is the very opposite to that of men; not self-will, and government by self-control, but submission and yielding to the control of others. All the moralities tell them that it is their nature to live for others; to make complete abnegation of themselves, and to have no life but in their affections.

  John Stuart Mill

  Character, Men, Self

  John Stuart Mill (1870). “The Subjection of Women”, p.27, Hayes Barton Press

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• Attraction and aversion create a sense of self. There is no self. They are just thoughts. They are insubstantial. When you die, all the ideas of self will go away.

  Frederick Lenz

  Death, Self, Ideas

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• To be free from all egoistic motive, careful of truth in speech and action, void of self-will and self-assertion, watchful in all things, is the condition for being a flawless servant.

  Sri Aurobindo

  Self, Speech, Flawless

  Sri Aurobindo, Aurobindo Ghose (1993). “The Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo's Teaching and Method of Practice”, p.143, Lotus Press

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• Self-will in the man who does not reckon wisely is by itself the weakest of all things.

  Aeschylus

  Men, Self, Doe

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• Go on your knees before God. Bring all your idols; bring self-will, and pride, and every evil lust before Him, and give them up. Devote yourself, heart and soul, to His will; and see if you do not "know of the doctrine.

  Henry Ward Beecher

  Heart, Pride, Idols

  Henry Ward Beecher, Augusta Moore (1859). “Notes from Plymouth Pulpit: A Collection of Memorable Passages from the Discourses of Henry Ward Beecher, with a Sketch of Mr. Beecher and the Lecture Room”, p.58

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• What does God hate or punish except self-will? Let self-will cease, and there will be no hell. On what does that fire feed except on self-will?

  Bernard of Clairvaux

  Hate, Fire, Self

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• The foolish being who lives making even the slightest distinction between the supreme Self and his own self will always be subject to fear.

  Swami Muktananda

  Self, Foolish, Distinction

  Swami Muktananda (2000). “Play of Consciousness: A Spiritual Autobiography”, Siddha Yoga Publication

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• You could sit on top of a mountain praying for hours a day and still not make it if you had no love in your heart. You could spend your life feeding the poor and still not make it because your karma required you to bear and nurture children. The path home to God is different for every person. Only communion with your Higher Self will reveal your path to you.

  Elizabeth Clare Prophet

  Karma, Children, Home

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• Those who have overcome self-will and become instruments to do God's work can accomplish tasks which are seemingly impossible, but they experience no feeling of self achievement. I now know myself to be a part of the infinite cosmos, not separate from other souls or God. My illusory self is dead; the real self controls the garment of clay and uses it for God's work.

  Peace Pilgrim

  Real, Self, Achievement

  Peace Pilgrim (1992). “Peace Pilgrim: Her Life and Work in Her Own Words”, p.128, Friends of Peace PIlgrim

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• You can find God if you will only seek - by obeying divine laws, by loving people, by relinquishing self-will, attachments, negative thoughts and feelings. And when you find God it will be in stillness. You will find God within.

  Peace Pilgrim

  Attachment, Self, Law

  Peace Pilgrim (1981). “Steps Toward Inner Peace”, p.29, Friends of Peace PIlgrim

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• I've done lots of pieces on self-esteem and hair. There's a desire to conform, but if the encouragement to be yourself is there from loved ones, you'll find that later, that true self will come out.

  Jami Floyd

  Being Yourself, Encouragement, Self Esteem

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• Hitoshi: I'll never be able to be here again. As the minutes slide by, I move on. The flow of time is something I cannot stop. I haven't a choice. I go. One caravan has stopped, another starts up. There are people I've yet to meet, others I'll never see again. People who are gone before you know it, people who are just passing through. Even as we exchange hellos, they seem to grow transparent. I must keep living with the flowing river before my eyes. I earnestly pray that a trace of my girl-child self will always be with you. For waving good-bye, I thank you.

  Banana Yoshimoto

  Girl, Children, Moving

  Banana Yoshimoto, Megan Backus (1979). “Three Plays”, p.150, Grove Press

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• When you are dealing with a serious compulsion or addictive pattern, then by definition self-will, self-discipline, and any other machinations of the conscious mind are not enough by themselves to handle the problem. It is like a breaker switch in your brain is simply flipped. Anybody who has had this kind of a problem knows that it doesn't matter how intelligent you are. Sigmund Freud said, "Intelligence will be used in the service of the neurosis."

  Marianne Williamson

  Intelligent, Self, Discipline

  Interview with John Robbins, foodrevolution.org. January 1, 2013.

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• Now repentance is no fun at all. It is something much harder than merely eating humble pie. It means unlearning all the self-conceit and self-will that we have been training ourselves into for thousands of years. It means undergoing a kind of death. In fact, it needs a good man to repent. And here's the catch. Only a bad person needs to repent: only a good person can repent perfectly. The worse you are the more you need it and the less you can do it. The only person who could do it perfectly would be a perfect person - and he would not need it.

  C. S. Lewis

  Fun, Mean, Humble

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• Inner resilience and the ability to bounce back are personal qualities. ... Align yourself with someone who has this kind of resilience so that your own can be strengthened. Find another oak to weather the storm with you. Anyone who is in touch with his or her core self will always respond.

  Deepak Chopra

  Self, Weather, Personal Qualities

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• You can then further enhance the process of writing by forming the clear intention that your Higher Self will influence your writing.

  Genevieve

  Writing, Self, Influence

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• But at three, four, five, and even six years the childish nature will require sports; now is the time to get rid of self-will in him, punishing him, but not so as to disgrace him.

  Plato

  Sports, Children, Self

  Plato (2016). “The Complete Works of Plato (Unabridged): From the greatest Greek philosopher, known for The Republic, Symposium, Apology, Phaedrus, Laws, Crito, Phaedo, Timaeus, Meno, Euthyphro, Gorgias, Parmenides, Protagoras, Statesman and Critias”, p.2702, e-artnow (Open Publishing)

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• Writing is a process and you must trust the process! Fear and anxiety are part of that process along with the enthusaism and the good days and the joy and the passion and the great hopes you have for a book. But when you run into problems, when you get stuck or scared, you must trust that that is part of how a book comes to pass, and what you need to do is get very still and quiet because Self will tell you how to get out of a hole you've dug for yourself.

  Sue Grafton

  Running, Book, Passion

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• Fastidiousness is only another word for egotism; and all men who know not where to look for truth save in the narrow well of self will find their own image at the bottom, and mistake it for what they are seeking.

  James Russell Lowell

  Mistake, Men, Self

  James Russell Lowell (1870). “Among My Books: Six Essays”, p.331

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• When the devil looks at a man who sincerely desires not to sin, he is not so unintelligent as to suggest to him (as he would to a hardened sinner) that he go and commit fornication or go and steal. He knows we do not want that and he does not set out to tell us something we do not want to hear; but he finds out that little bit of self-will or self-righteousness and through that, with the appearance of well doing, he will do us harm.

  Dorotheus of Gaza

  Christian, Men, Self

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• There is a higher more powerful part of you. Your higher self will come through your intuition, coincidences and synchronicity of all kinds.

  James Van Praagh

  Positive, Powerful, Law Of Attraction

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