Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes

We forge gradually our greatest instrument for understanding the world - introspection. We discover that humanity may resemble us very considerably - that the best way of knowing the inwardness of our neighbors is to know ourselves.

Through my own observations. I am convinced that an absolutely honest and direct inquiry into oneself will lead to understanding.

All ages have said and repeated that one should strive to know one's self. This is a strange demand which no one up to now has measured up to and, strictly considered, no one should. With all their study and effort, people are directed to what is outside, to the world about them, and they are kept busy coming to know this and to master it to the extent that their purposes require. . . . How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to. And what is your duty? Whatever the day calls for.

Since we think about ourselves so much of the time, it is comforting to assume ... that we really know the score.... [But] this is not an easy assignment. [As] Santayana wrote, 'Nothing requires a rarer intellectual heroism than willingness to see one's equation written out.'

It's not only the most difficult thing to know one's self, but the most inconvenient.

There are moments when the inner life actually 'pays,' when years of self-scrutiny, conducted for no ulterior motive, are suddenly of practical use.

Self knowledge is always bad news.

A matter that becomes clear ceases to concern us.--What was that god thinking who counseled, "Know thyself!" Did he perhaps mean,"Cease to concern yourself! Become objective!"--And Socrates?--And "scientific men"?

He knows the universe and does not know himself.

People who do not understand themselves have a craving for understanding — a thing which is rather surmised and never spoken than known and clothed in words.

The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is.

Be conscious first of thyself within, then think and act.

Get to know yourself. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see. Know also when you actually have thought through to the nature of the thing with which you are dealing and when you are not thinking at all... Knowing yourself and knowing the facts, you can judge whether you can change the situation so it is more to your liking. If you cannot--or if you do not know how to improve on things--then discipline yourself to the adjustments that will be necessary.

The object of studying philosophy is to know one's own mind, not other people's.

I've always been a very self-aware person.

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

The more I talk about things, the more I understand myself.

I write in order to find out what I truly know and how I really feel about certain things. Writing requires me to go much deeper into my thoughts and memories than conversation does. Writing provides the solitude necessary to reflect on being in this world.

If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.

One of the things that I've come to understand is that as I talk a lot about Picard, what I find is that I'm talking about myself.

I start asking a lot of questions about my own life, and it's not necessarily fun, but it's a good exercise.

Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.

We have to have a very clear understanding of ourselves.

Really, when you take a step back and you really know yourself, you're able to make better decisions.

The exploration of oneself is usually also an exploration of the world at large, of other writers, a process of comparison with oneself with others, discoveries of kinships, gradual illumination of one's own potentialities.