Stanislaw Lem Quotes

However fascinating you may think you are, there is a limit to what you can know about yourself.

I am gone quite mad with the knowledge of accepting the overwhelming number of things I can never know, places I can never go, and people I can never be.

If man should commence by studying himself, he would see how impossible it is to go further.

I'm not a prophet or a stone aged man, just a mortal with potential of a superman. I'm living on.

If man made himself the first object of study, he would see how incapable he is of going further. How can a part know the whole?

I feel very much that I am a human being, with human limitations, and I need to respect that.

I always had a repulsive need to be something more than human.

Everybody lives for something better to come. That's why we want to be considerate of every man— Who knows what's in him, why he was born and what he can do?

A man's got to know his limitations.

You - and I have to remind myself of this - are capable beyond your wildest imagination.

I know what I know, and what I don't know, I'm willing to admit.

For me, I'm not going to be hitting the ball out of the ballpark. I know that.

We can't all wake up and know everything.

The view which regards man as a well, a reservoir full of possibilities, I call the romantic; the one which regards him as a very finite and fixed creature, I call the classical.

The very purpose of religion is to control yourself, not to criticise others.

Nature has not been lavish in her endowments, but each person has his or her own potential in terms of achievement and service. The awareness of that potential is the discovery of purpose; the fulfillment of that potential is the discovery of strength.

Each of us has much more hidden inside us than we have had a chance to explore. Unless we create an environment that enables us to discover the limits of our potential, we will never know what we have inside of us.

No matter where you live, the biggest defect we human beings have is our shortsightedness. We don't see what we could be.

I've accepted the fact that because I'm human, I'm terrific in one thing, good at some, mediocre at a bit more, and terrible at others. And if you're human, you are too. You'll have to discover the one thing that you are good at and major in it.

Learn to be comfortable with the concept of infinity, and see yourself as an infinite being.

It is consciousness that sets all limits of life, if there are any limits.

It is not your duty or responsibility to change the minds of other people. The nature of their thinking is advanced or limited by their experience. In your presence, they have an opportunity to learn about you and, perhaps, to grow.

Nobody else can really begin to sort out for you what to accept and what to reject in terms of what wakes you up and what makes you fall asleep. No one else can really sort out for you what to accept - what opens up your world - and what to reject - what seems to keep you going round and round in some kind of repetitive misery.

... consciousness is an ever-unfolding, deepening, and expanding process with no end point. We are infinite and complex beings, and our human journey involves not just a spiritual awakening, but the development of all levels of our being - spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical - and the integration of all these aspects into a healthy and balanced daily life.

When we turn our attention away from ourselves, our potential is limitless.