Carl Van Vechten Quotes

Few people even scratch the surface, much less exhaust the contemplation of their own experience.

I think that no matter how old you get, you are always learning about yourself.

How can one learn to know oneself? Never by introspection, rather by action.

If you really want to know yourself, start by writing a book.

Everyone needs solitude, especially a person who is used to thinking about what she experiences. Solitude is very important in my work as a mode of inspiration, but isolation is not good in this respect. I am not writing poetry about isolation.

When I'm out having the experiences, that's exactly what I'm doing: having the experiences. Then I can later reflect and write.

We have to have a very clear understanding of ourselves.

I think about my journey sometimes.

The more you understand yourself, the more you will understand the world.

a lesson must be lived in order to be learned and the clarity to see and stop this now that is what i've earned

And since you know you cannot see yourself, so well as by reflection, I, your glass, will modestly discover to yourself, that of yourself which you yet know not of.

How can we know ourselves? Never by reflection, but only through action. Begin at once to do your duty and immediately you will know what is inside you.

If you mean to know yourself, interline such of these aphorisms as affect you agreeably in reading, and set a mark to such as left a sense of uneasiness with you; and then show your copy to whom you please.

In an active life is sown the seed of wisdom; but he who reflects not, never reaps; has no harvest from it, but carries the burden of age without the wages of experience; nor knows himself old, but from his infirmities, the parish register, and the contempt of mankind. And age, if it has not esteem, has nothing.

If I do not understand myself, the whole complexity of myself, I have no basis for thinking.

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.

To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.

To know oneself is to study oneself in action, which is relationship.

Never lose sight of this important truth, that no one can be truly great until he has gained a knowledge of himself, a knowledge which can only be acquired by occasional retirement.

Never by reflection, but only by doing is self- knowledge possible to one.

A man may perform astonishing feats and comprehend a vast amount of knowledge, and yet have no understanding of himself. But suffering directs a man to look within. If it succeeds, then there, within him, is the beginning of his learning.

Writing in a journal reminds you of your goals and of your learning in life. It offers a place where you can hold a deliberate, thoughtful conversation with yourself.

I am still a person with a sense of superficiality that I'm trying to challenge.

I learned from my past.

When the traveler goes alone he gets acquainted with himself.