“In examining others we know ourselves.”

Self-knowledge, she argues, comes through watching the passions of other people · Introductory Discourse, A Series of Plays, 1798

• Humanity
• Observation
• Self Knowledge

“There are wells of hate in one which are terrifying, and wells of suspicion and even malice.”

A frank admission of interior darkness behind his public charity · Letter to Michal Williams, about 1939

• Hatred
• Honesty
• Self Knowledge

“I am ready for perfection, yet I am consumed by pride.”

Original: Je suis prêt pour la perfection... Orgueil. — Rimbaud immediately undercuts his claim to perfection by recognising the pride behind it. · A Season in Hell, Night in Hell, 1873 (French)

• Perfection
• Pride
• Self Knowledge

“To build character necessitates a constant watch upon ourselves.”

Defining character as the result of continuous self-observation · Essay, Concentration

• Character
• Discipline
• Self Knowledge

“There is a poverty of mind in always agreeing with oneself.”

Original: Il y a de la pauvreté d'esprit à être toujours d'accord avec soi-même. — Intellectual growth requires the willingness to question one's own conclusions. · Mauvaises pensées et autres (French)

• Doubt
• Intelligence
• Self Knowledge

“I have tried to analyze my feelings toward children, and I think I discover that I love them, in so far as I can make pets of them.”

Combines affection, self-awareness and humour in describing his relationship with children. · Auto-Analysis

• Children
• Humour
• Self Knowledge

“The intelligence is the faculty of recognising one's own stupidity.”

Original: L'intelligence est la faculté de reconnaître sa sottise. — Self-awareness and the ability to recognise one's limitations become the mark of intelligence. · Cahiers (French)

• Humility
• Intelligence
• Self Knowledge

“I am not making a book that will live or a book that will die. I have no thought whether it will live or die. I am for my own sake manifesting myself, looking at myself, encouraging and criticising myself.”

Writing treated as self-examination rather than a bid for immortality · Prelude to Confessional, The Poems of Max Ehrmann

• Honesty
• Self Knowledge
• Writing

“Everything you say speaks about you, especially when you speak about someone else.”

Original: Tout ce que tu dis parle de toi; surtout quand tu parles d'un autre. — Judgements of other people can reveal more about the speaker than about their supposed subject. · Mauvaises pensées et autres (French)

• Judgement
• Self Knowledge
• Speech

“The first study of the man who wants to be a poet is his own complete knowledge of himself.”

Original: La première étude de l’homme qui veut être poète est sa propre connaissance, entière. — Rimbaud links poetic ambition with an uncompromising investigation of the self. · Letter to Paul Demeny, 15 May 1871 (French)

• Knowledge
• Poetry
• Self Knowledge

“Seek to be worthy of your own highest commendation.”

Encouraging self-respect based on one's own highest standards · Essay, The Heart of the New Thought

• Integrity
• Self Knowledge
• Standards

“You will be beautiful or ugly, wise or ignorant, fortunate or unfortunate, according to what use you make of yourself here and now.”

Arguing that personal development depends upon how one's capacities are used · Essay, Thought Force

• Character
• Choice
• Self Knowledge

“Countée Cullen's chief problem has been that of reconciling a Christian upbringing with a pagan inclination. His life so far has not convinced him that the problem is insoluble.”

A wry self-portrait of faith set against appetite and classical feeling · Third-person biographical note, Caroling Dusk, 1927

• Desire
• Faith
• Self Knowledge

“It opened up for me Soul windows which had been closed; it threw a noble and evident light on what I had begun to believe, because of what the world believes, ignoble and unnatural.”

On reading Carpenter's Ioläus and finding honour in a love the world called shameful · Letter to Alain Locke, 3 March 1923

• Books
• Love
• Self Knowledge

“Sometimes I am tempted to believe I am half a woman.”

On the feminine nature he felt within himself · Letter, later 1890s

• Gender
• Identity
• Self Knowledge

“Today I climbed the highest mountain in this region, not improperly called Ventosum. My only motive was the wish to see what so great a height had to offer.”

Original: Altissimum regionis huius montem, quem non immerito Ventosum vocant, hodie, sola videndi cupiditate ductus, ascendi. — The opening of a famous letter that turns a climb into an examination of the inner life. · Letter to Dionigi di Borgo San Sepolcro on the ascent of Mont Ventoux, Familiares IV, 1 (Latin)

• Curiosity
• Nature
• Self Knowledge

“As soon as he knows it, he must cultivate it.”

Original: Sitôt qu’il la connaît, il la cultive! — Self-knowledge becomes valuable only when it is actively developed through practice. · Letter to Paul Demeny, 15 May 1871 (French)

• Growth
• Practice
• Self Knowledge

“But remember if your phrenologist tells you that you have a weak will, it does not mean that you must necessarily always have a weak will.”

Arguing that perceived limitations need not become permanent limitations · A Woman of the World

• Change
• Self Knowledge
• Will

“I had several events this month that flattered my pride, so I experienced several moments of happiness. Admit that it is a wretched life that finds happiness in such things.”

Original: Miałem w tym miesiącu kilka zdarzeń pochlebiających mojej dumie, więc doznałem kilka chwil szczęścia, wyznajcie, że nędzne to życie, co w tym szczęścia szuka! — He recognises the emptiness of confusing wounded pride with genuine happiness. · Letter to his mother, December 1832 (Polish)

• Happiness
• Pride
• Self Knowledge

“It is what I carry that is unknown to myself that makes me myself.”

Original: C'est ce que je porte d'inconnu à moi-même qui me fait moi. — Identity is presented as containing an irreducible element that remains mysterious even to oneself. · Monsieur Teste (French)

• Identity
• Mystery
• Self Knowledge

“He searches his soul, inspects it, tests it, learns it.”

Original: Il cherche son âme, il l’inspecte, il la tente, l’apprend. — The poet is presented as an explorer whose territory is consciousness itself. · Letter to Paul Demeny, 15 May 1871 (French)

• Discovery
• Poetry
• Self Knowledge

“What good is it to teach others if you do not first listen to yourself?”

Original: A che ti giova insegnare agli altri, se intanto tu per primo non ascolti te stesso? — A rebuke of the admired Cicero that turns moral authority inward. · Letter to Cicero, Familiares XXIV, 3 (commonly given in Italian from the Latin original)

• Advice
• Authors
• Self Knowledge

“If you will study your own spirit and its limitless powers, you will gain a greater secret than any alchemist ever held.”

Presenting self-knowledge as more valuable than material transformation · Essay, Let the Past Go

• Discovery
• Self Knowledge
• Spirit

“I am an honest man; I mean that I approve of most of my actions.”

Original: Je suis un honnête homme, je veux dire que j'approuve la plupart de mes actions. — Valéry gives honesty an inward and pragmatic definition rather than a conventional moral one. · Tel quel (French)

• Honesty
• Integrity
• Self Knowledge