Joseph Brodsky Quotes

It's more important to know your weaknesses than your strengths.

I spend half my time just living my life, and the other half analyzing it.

'What am I missing?' is a much more important question than 'How cool am I?'

But let's face it, I still have to look at my self and look at the things I've done down the stretch.

You have to attempt to be objective about yourself.

I think of myself as being a relatively intelligent man who is open to a lot of different things and I think that questioning our purpose in life and the meaning of existence is something that we all go through at some point.

Testing oneself is best when done alone.

The unexamined life is not worth living.

I don't choose to analyze what I have done and I think that is the right choice, because then I won't be spending my time creating.

I'm not good at watching myself.

It's a remarkable exercise to sit and look at your own work over the years.

Whenever you're talking about meaning, basically... I think a lot of the human experience has to do with trying to understand what things mean, and there's not really any tools to do that unless you're thinking about it in a more spiritual or philosophical realm.

It's hard listening to myself.

To learn to know oneself, to judge oneself with truth and impartiality, must be the great objects of one's exertion; they are only attainable by constant and cool self-examination.

I thought if I looked back and evaluated my life, it would help me in the future.

The biggest thing is I watch myself: What I need to improve on, what I can do different.

I think a lot about my own game.

I'm the greatest critic of my work.

I have taken a good look at myself loads of times.

I evaluate myself at the end of every year.

I'm always my hardest critic.

Before I go to bed, sometimes I'll just sit outside and philosophically assess the day.

I evaluate myself pretty tough.

I am my own biggest critic.

I always see what I did wrong, what I could do better.