Howard Jacobson Quotes

You can't know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.

The truth is, I've never fooled anyone. I've let men sometimes fool themselves.

Those who quit their proper character to assume what does not belong to them are, for the greater part, ignorant both of the character they leave and of the character they assume.

What does it mean to know and experience my own “nothingness?” It is not enough to turn away in disgust from my illusions and faults and mistakes, to separate myself from them as if they were not, and as if I were someone other than myself. This kind of self-annihilati on is only a worse illusion, it is a pretended humility which, by saying “I am nothing” I mean in effect “I wish I were not what I am.

I never had time to dream about being anyone else.

I think and that is all that I am.

What you are is a question only you can answer.

There's no reason to change what you are, but if you're not being you, then you need to acknowledge that.

One of the greatest moments in anybody's developing experience is when he no longer tries to hide from himself but determines to get acquainted with himself as he really is.

I've been through so much of my own self-search that I'm not as consumed with who I am as I used to be.

Self-exploration is very painful, but unless you do that, you will never know who you are and who you want to be.

The ego is only an illusion, but a very influential one. Letting the ego-illusion become your identity can prevent you from knowing your true self. Ego, the false idea of believing that you are what you have or what you do, is a backwards way of assessing and living life.

I want to show people that there's a side of myself other than just the outrageous comedian.

I want to challenge people to find out who they are.

I don't have dreams. How can I say it? I myself am a dream.

I don't think it's about entertainment. I think it's about being ourselves.

Transcendence constitutes selfhood.

Learn what you are and be such.

The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.

How could I have been anyone other than me?

One of my problems is to find the self.

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

To get what you want out of life, all you can really do is find out who you are, and do that.

I come out of real life.

We are all just little dolls of ourselves. Who occasionally pull back the curtains to reveal the real us.