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After last week’s post full of quotes on being different and true to yourself, I thought it might be helpful to do one on quotes about knowing yourself.
How can you embrace your authentic self if you don’t even know who that is?
Let’s look at some thought-provoking quotes to encourage you on your journey of self-discovery.
We can start with perhaps one of the most famous quotes about knowing yourself:
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
– Aristotle
And, now, let’s dive in and take a look at 27 more quotes about knowing yourself.
How To Know Yourself Quotes
Here are some quotes about knowing yourself that will help you figure out how to get to know yourself.
“To know your mind,
you need a little distance.
You need to be a step or two away
and be able to notice
what your mind is doing
without being so lost or involved in it
that you can’t see it.
It’s like trying to see your eyes.
If you want to see yourself,
you need to create some space,
you need a mirror.
Stillness, mindfulness, meditation:
these are the mirrors.”
― Eric Overby
“To know yourself, you must sacrifice the illusion that you already do.”
― Vironika Tugaleva
“To know a species, look at its fears. To know yourself, look at your fears. Fear in itself is not important, but fear stands there and points you in the direction of things that are important. Don’t be afraid of your fears, they’re not there to scare you; they’re there to let you know that something is worth it.”
― C. JoyBell C.
“If you want to see yourself closely, look at yourself from far away!”
― Mehmet Murat ildan
”Knowing yourself has many layers. Start knowing your bodily discomforts. Know your success, know your failures. Know your fears. Know your irritations. Know your pleasures, joy and happiness. Know your mental wounds. Go deeper and examine every feeling you have.”
― Amit Ray
“You learn who you are by unlearning who they taught you to be.”
― Nikki Rowe
“You have to be able to identify yourself as someone who is made happy by this and as someone who doesn’t like that; then when you meet people, discern if those same things are the things that make them happy and if those same things are the things that they don’t like, because at a point in time it becomes beneficial to you, to not waste time on blending in behalf of virtue but rather it becomes beneficial to you, to see yourself and go into the direction that makes you happy, taking people with you that are already going in that same direction and who also do not like the things that you do not like. At the end of the day, there are those paths in life, and you have to take one of them, you can’t walk down all of them.”
― C. JoyBell C.
“When you take the time to really know yourself—know your values, know your beliefs, know what is important to you—you can make the right choice, even when it’s hard. We all have choices. We can choose our direction, every single day.”
― Suraj Dahal
Importance of Knowing Yourself Quotes
The journey of getting to know yourself is hard, and sometimes downright frustrating. But it’s so important! Here are some quotes on the importance of knowing yourself.
“Nothing limits you like not knowing your limitations.”
― Tom Hayes
“How can you even know what you want, if you don’t know who you are? Invest the time and energy into getting to know yourself. Get real with yourself.”
― Akiroq Brost
“A person who doesn’t understand flowers might tug on them to make them grow. A person who doesn’t speak the language of someplace might misread the locals’ sentiments and intentions. Yet you are already such a flower, and your inner locals—your emotions, your body, your thoughts—are already speaking to you. If you don’t learn the language of your experience, then how can you understand yourself? How can you help yourself?”
― Vironika Tugaleva
“A genius in the wrong position could look like a fool.”
― Idowu Koyenikan
“In order to grow, we need to know ourselves. To understand what triggers certain behaviour, we need to identify the root cause.”
― Adiela Akoo
“When you don’t know yourself, who you are and what you want, you just become a product of your environment – a leaf that gets blown each and every way until it just lands, in a big pile of mud, and gets stuck.”
― Evan Sutter
(While we’re on the subject… if you’re feeling stuck, here’s an article from Psychology Today on how to get unstuck.)
“In order to change it is important to know who you are, what you believe, and how you became that person. Only then can we live more comfortably in the present and cease unconscious reactions that result in undesired outcomes.”
― Paula Heller Garland
“People think that what’s important is that the world sees them, understands them, values them. That’s not what’s important. What’s important is that you see yourself, you understand yourself, and that you value yourself.”
― C. JoyBell C.
“Some people think that if they don’t know their faults, they don’t have any.”
–– Frank Sonnenberg
“If you don’t know yourself, you don’t know what you love. If you don’t know what you love, you can’t persevere.”
― Maxime Lagacé
Find quotes for wisdom, happiness, motivation and more on wisdomquotes.com!
More Quotes About Knowing Yourself
“Self-understanding is a lifetime endeavour. It is not a weekend seminar. It does not come in capsule form.”
― Vironika Tugaleva
“Do you even know what you like or want? Or are you just listening to cultural conditioning and societal programming? What is you and what is them? Are you living a life for you or for them?”
― Akiroq Brost
“So many people focus on who they will be that they never get around to figuring out who they are.”
― Shannon L. Alder
“Change. Unlearning yourself is more important than knowing yourself.”
― Brenda Lozano
“If you know who you are then your ego feels safe instead of fearful, and is more open to exploration.”
― Julia Woodman
“There is such a thirst to be known, isn’t there? What is it about being known that would cause us to hunger so much after it, at any cost? I’m afraid too many of us have forgotten that far more noble is the journey that one embarks on to know oneself; than the trip one goes on in the search for fame. Isn’t it better to know and to know and to know yourself and if your heart is found to be noble, isn’t it better that you know this on your own and truly; rather than for you to chase after the thoughts that others might have of you? To be a true royal in heart is better than to be a false royal with a throne.”
― C. JoyBell C.
“Peel yourself layer by layer. There is an absolute earth shattering magnificent person waiting to be discovered.”
― Hiral Nagda
“If you know you are an angel, you will act like one.”
― Lailah Gifty Akita
That last one I especially love, because it points out that who you believe yourself to be is going to be reflected in your actions, thus becoming a self-fulfilling prophecy.
Who Do You Want To Be?
My two cents is that if you want to know who you are, you ought to pinpoint the kind of person you want to be.
Life is an ongoing process of creating yourself, deciding who you want to be each day.
If you feel like you don’t know yourself, maybe you should start from another frame of mind.
Who do you want to be?
Answer that question, and you just may discover who you really are.
“Know thyself.” – Socrates
Sincerely,
For a how-to guide for discovering your values, beliefs, passions, and more, check out this post!
Looking for simple tips on getting to know yourself on a deeper level? Here are 5 of them!
Can you think of any other know yourself quotes? Drop ’em in the comments below! ⬇️⬇️⬇️
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