W. H. Auden Quotes

Human beings are unable to be honest with themselves about themselves. They cannot talk about themselves without embellishing

How easy it is to be "deep": all you have to do is let yourself sink into your own flaws.

Men must be honest with themselves before they can be honest with others. A man who is not honest with himself presents a hopeless case.

I am never more myself than in my self-betrayals.

Self-awareness involves deep personal honesty. It comes from asking and answering hard questions.

But we are such deceivers that we will not look at ourselves in relationship, because there the real face can be seen. So we close our eyes to relationship, and we go on thinking that something is going to be seen inside. You cannot see anything inside.

The most difficult secret for a man to keep is his own opinion of himself.

We cannot forever hide the truth about ourselves, from ourselves.

Balthazar Balsan is not a self-portrait. If he was, I'd have made the character more flattering.

Nothing is so difficult as not deceiving oneself

If there were a being in the world whose eyes could look into other people's hearts, very few men or women would be able to face up to it.

Every one speaks well of his own heart, but no one dares speak well of his own mind.

I'm not one of those people that pretends he doesn't watch himself.

It's really important to be honest to yourself.

The second you're not honest with yourself, you've lost everything.

What I've found in my research is that realism and self-honesty are the antidote to ego, hubris, and delusion.

When human beings distance themselves from their own inner truth and the truth around them, we can't see ourselves in our true light and that is to our detriment.

I try to be honest with myself.

I don't tell the truth any more to those who can't make use of it. I tell it mostly to myself, because it always changes me.

Start telling the truth now and never stop. Begin by telling the truth to yourself about yourself. Then tell the truth to yourself about someone else. Then tell the truth about yourself to another. Then tell the truth about another to that other. Finally, tell the truth to everyone about everything. These are the Five Levels Of Truth Telling. This is the five-fold path to freedom.

No matter how much we ask after the truth, self-awareness is often unpleasant. We do not feel kindly toward the Truthsayer.

Someone once said to me, 'Some of us choose to live with a lifeboat just a little bit out of our reach.' I'd like to reach a point where I no longer bullshit myself. I think that's the natural human condition - to lie to yourself. Because the truth is painful.

It's all very confusing. I think I'm very honest and candid, but I'm also proud of how honest and candid I am -- so where does that put me?

If your not honest with yourself, how the hell are you gonna be honest with me.

If we judge our lives by what we know or by what we say, we can easily deceive ourselves into thinking that we are something we are not; it is wiser to evaluate ourselves by the amount of truth we actually live. This is very humbling.