Romain Rolland Quotes

Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.

We use books like mirrors, gazing into them only to discover ourselves.

We read books to find out who we are.

I discovered me in the library. I went to find me in the library.

I don't think we spend enough time in reflection and introspection. We don't know who we are as individuals in this culture anymore.

In order to find yourself, who you really are, you got to be with yourself; you got to hang out with yourself.

Our true birthplace is that in which we cast for the first time an intelligent eye on ourselves. My first homelands were my books.

In reality, every reader is, while reading, the reader of his own self.

Many of us knock on the door but remain outside, because knocking and entering are entirely different actions. Knocking is necessary, consisting of reading books, attending meetings, asking questions. But entrance requires much bolder action. It requires one to enter into himself, to uncover hidden motives, to see contradictions, and to realize his actual power for self-change.

Many a book is like a key to unknown chambers within the castle of one’s own self.

Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself.

You may go on reading any number of books on Meditation. They can only tell you ‘Realize the Self’. The Self cannot be found in books. You have to find it for yourself in yourself.

During really difficult times in my life when I start questioning why I am struggling with something, I often turn to books to understand myself better.

Each character represented a trait that resides in me.

I write to make sense of things that don't make sense to me.

A great reader seldom recognizes his solitude.

Prayer gives a man the opportunity of getting to know a gentleman he hardly ever meets. I do not mean his maker, but himself.

In the past, I've visited remote places - North Korea, Ethiopia, Easter Island - partly as a way to visit remote states of mind: remote parts of myself that I wouldn't ordinarily explore.

I think if a character appeals to you, there are certain parts of yourself will come to the fore and other parts that will play down.

Writing is how I find out what I believe and what I care most deeply about. It's how I sort through the mess of daily experience and try to make sense of it - by stepping out of it for a while. Writing is how I train a searchlight into the darker corners of my self and the world, as I'm sure I'd never do otherwise.

I write in order to find out what I truly know and how I really feel about certain things. Writing requires me to go much deeper into my thoughts and memories than conversation does. Writing provides the solitude necessary to reflect on being in this world.

I discovered myself!

Most adults, unlike most children, understand the difference between a book that will hold them spellbound for a rainy Sunday afternoon and a book that will put them in touch with a part of themselves they didn't even know existed.

At the typewriter you find out who you are.

The only journey is the one within.