It's me who is my enemy
Me who beats me up
Me who makes the monsters
Me who strips my confidence.
——Paula Cole, "Me," This Fire
The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled. ——Andrew Carnegie
Life marks us all down, so it's just as well that we start out by overpricing ourselves. ——Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
A gold medal is a nice thing - but if you're not enough without it, you'll never be enough with it. ——From Cool Runnings
Don't let anyone steal your dream. It's your dream, not theirs. ——Dan Zadra
If I am not for myself, who will be? ——Pirke Avoth
All of us have wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them. ——Charles Dickens
Self-love seems so often unrequited. ——Anthony Powell
Once you become self-conscious, there is no end to it; once you start to doubt, there is no room for anything else. ——Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960
What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate. ——Henry David Thoreau
There are offences given and offences not given but taken. ——Izaak Walton
Men harm others by their deeds, themselves by their thoughts. ——Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827
A person can grow only as much as his horizon allows. ——John Powell
Plant your own garden and decorate your own soul, instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers. ——Veronica A. Shoffstall, "After a While," 1971
It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself. ——Epicurus
If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor. ——Nicholas de Chamfort
I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship. ——Louisa May Alcott
Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heart-ache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, to discover what is already there. ——Henry Miller, Sexus
Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic. ——Jean Sibelius
When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. ——African Proverb
The best way to gain self-confidence is to do what you are afraid to do. ——Author Unknown
Be humble, for the worst thing in the world is of the same stuff as you; be confident, for the stars are of the same stuff as you. ——Nicholai Velimirovic
Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither praise nor blame. ——Thomas à Kempis
Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people. ——André Dubus
Chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands. ——Francis Bacon
God wisely designed the human body so that we can neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily. ——Author Unknown
We probably wouldn't worry about what people think of us if we could know how seldom they do. ——Olin Miller
As soon
Seek roses in December, ice in June;
Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
Believe a woman or an epitaph,
Or any other thing that's false, before
You trust in critics.
——George Gordon, Lord Byron, "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers"
You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose. ——Lou Holtz and John Heisler, The Fighting Spirit
Self-assurance is contemptible and fatal unless it is self-knowledge. ——George Santayana, Character and Opinion in the United States, 1921
Mediocrity is a hand-rail. ——Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Mes pensées
All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do.... Build, therefore, your own world. ——Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature
Oliver Wendell Holmes once attended a meeting in which he was the shortest man present. "Dr. Holmes," quipped a friend, "I should think you'd feel rather small among us big fellows." "I do," retorted Holmes, "I feel like a dime among a lot of pennies." ——Author Unknown
The way you treat yourself sets the standard for others. ——Sonya Friedman
Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade us that we are nothing but acorns and that our greatest happiness will be to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns; but that is of interest only to pigs. Our faith gives us knowledge of something better: that we can become oak trees. ——E.F. Schumacher
Many men are like unto sausages: Whatever you stuff them with, that they will bear in them. ——Alexi Konstantinovich Tolstoy
Only as high as I reach can I grow,
Only as far as I seek can I go,
Only as deep as I look can I see,
Only as much as I dream can I be.
——Karen Ravn