Protagoras Quotes

Truth springs from argument amongst friends.

In my books I might hold the mirror to my own face. If others would like to borrow the mirror, they're welcome. The books aren't there to accuse others - merely to raise issues and keep the debates alive.

I look back on my liberal political beliefs with a sort of wonder - as another exercise in self-involvement - rewarding myself for some superiority I could not logically describe.

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

I'm not going to lie, there are more interesting ways to spend your time than answering questions about yourself. But if there were no questions to ask me, I might have a beef with that.

Look at the evidence and to be willing to question your own truths, and to be willing to scrutinize things that you hold dearly because that way, that transparency, that self-awareness, will protect you from ever becoming somebody that whose beliefs somehow make them have myopic vision about what could be.

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

Good-faith re-examination of a position you've held in the past should be seen as a virtue, not a vice.

It's not only the most difficult thing to know one's self, but the most inconvenient.

If we can't look at the good, bad and ugly of who we are, we are never going to progress as people - ever.

The greatest magnifying glasses in the world are a man's own eyes when they look upon his own person.

A vision of truth which does not call upon us to get out of our armchair - why, this is the desideratum of mankind.

I am not a self-help writer. I am a self-problem writer. When people read my books, I provoke some things. I cannot justify my work. I do my work; it is up to them to classify it, to judge.

I feel some need to represent where I'm from. But ultimately, I think my only real responsibility is to - as much as possible - interrogate my own truths. This is to say not merely writing what I think is true, but using the writing to turn that alleged truth over and over, to stress-test it, in the aim of producing something readable.

I don't think or write from big ideals.

I start asking a lot of questions about my own life, and it's not necessarily fun, but it's a good exercise.

For a memoir to really succeed, the author has to do such hard work before they come to the page. They have to do a brutal self-examination of everything they believe to be true.

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

We have to have a very clear understanding of ourselves.

It's funny because sometimes one doesn't actually consider these things for one's self until one's in a situation like this press conferece where one has to kind of think about it.

Education best serves students by helping them be more self-reflective.

Neither human applause nor human censure is to be taken as the best of truth; but either should set us upon testing ourselves.

You need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and not come away thinking, "Hey, there's something wrong with this mirror."

It takes tremendous discipline, takes tremendous courage, to think for yourself, to examine yourself.

Get to know yourself. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see. Know also when you actually have thought through to the nature of the thing with which you are dealing and when you are not thinking at all... Knowing yourself and knowing the facts, you can judge whether you can change the situation so it is more to your liking. If you cannot--or if you do not know how to improve on things--then discipline yourself to the adjustments that will be necessary.