Benjamin Hoff Quotes

Every one is least known to himself, and it is very difficult for a man to know himself.

There's only one person who knows me - and that's me.

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.

It's important to be self-aware about what people are saying about you, but even more so, be very aware of who you actually are, and to have that be the main priority.

Look inside yourself for the answers - you're the only one who knows what's best for you. Everybody else is only guessing.

Knowing yourself has to always come from within. The outside can inspire or guide you, but knowing has to come from within you.

No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.

There is no self-knowledge except historical self-knowledge.

We're not the best about knowing what's the most interesting about ourselves.

People seem to know more about me than I do.

Self knowledge begins with the neighbor, the mirror, and just the same with true self-love; that goes from the mirror to the matter.

Rather than being taught to ask ourselves who we are, we are schooled to ask others. We are, in effect, trained to listen to others’ versions of ourselves.

It's been one of the most important tools for me in personal growth for understanding myself, how I am, and what effect I do have on other people.

Why do you want to read others' books when there is the book of yourself?

I like when people know exactly, have a good sense of themselves, and know exactly what's good for them, I admire that, but I don't have anywhere near that kind of perspective on my own.

We often do not know ourselves the grounds On which we act, though plain to others.

When you try to understand everything, you will not understand anything. The best way is to understand yourself, and then you will understand everything.

Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.

There’s nothing to it. All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else. We’re in no way different ourselves... You show me someone who can’t understand people and I’ll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself.

To know yourself you have only to set down a true statement of those that ever loved or hated you.

A man may call to mind the face of his friend, but not his own. Here, then, is an initial difficulty in the way of applying the maxim, Know Thyself.

No, Cassius; for the eye sees not itself, But by reflection, by some other things.

I think that's foolishness on the part of the playwright to write about himself. People don't know anything about themselves.

I must first know myself, as the Delphian inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my concern, while I am still in ignorance of my own self, would be ridiculous. And therefore I bid farewell to all this; the common opinion is enough for me. For, as I was saying, I want to know not about this, but about myself: am I a monster more complicated and swollen with passion than the serpent Typho, or a creature of a gentler and simpler sort, to whom Nature has given a diviner and lowlier destiny?

Discover yourself, otherwise you have to depend on other people's opinions who don't know themselves.