Jamaica Kincaid Quotes

I learnt one thing in the past or in my life: the only person you can change is yourself, and it has to come from within.

But who are we, really? Just a bundle of good genes and bad genes mixed with good habits and bad habits. And since there's no gene for coolness or confidence, then being uncool and unconfident are just bad habits, which can be changed with enough guidance and will power.

Very often a change of self is needed more than a change of scene.

Before you can do something you must first be something.

I think a lot of people want people who actually have qualities they don't find attractive as a way of being able to change them. It's fascinating, because people think if they can change the other person, they can change themselves. It's a complex phenomenon. It's a fantasy that's actually about being able to come to terms with ourselves.

You may not seem able to change some outer circumstances but you can start by changing your inner experience of life and yourself.

Whoever comes to me finds me a mirror to whatever is in his heart. Thus, I try to help him to see qualities in himself that he needs to overcome.

As a human being, I'm work in process.

We grow neither better or worse as we get old, but more like ourselves.

Buddhism has turned me on to my humanness, and is challenging my humanness so that I can become more human.

My transformation represents more than what is just skin deep; it represents my motivation, drive, and willingness to constantly improve.

Getting to know myself changed everything. It's the best thing I've ever done.

I am never going to stop evolving and growing.

I believe that self-discovery is an ongoing thing.

I see myself as improving. I think I'm a very curious person, and I like that about myself .

I think that there is a tragic misfit at the core of me, and I've just done a lot of work on myself. I love a good self-help book; I've read a ton of them. I love self-help seminars and therapy and all that. I think that probably, at my core, if I had done no work on myself, I would probably be Laura from The Mysteries Of Laura, but I worked hard to be a more stable person because that's what I wanted out of my life.

I myself have noticed my growing resemblance to a daffodil.

Anyone who isn't embarrassed of who they were last year probably isn't learning enough.

Instead of looking for the right person become the right person.

For the wise have always known that no one can make much of his life until self-searching has become a regular habit, until he is able to admit and accept what he finds, and until he patiently and persistently tries to correct what is wrong.

We can drop the fundamental hope that there is a better "me" who one day will emerge. We can't just jump over ourselves as if we were not there.

Here's the thing: The book that will most change your life is the book you write.

Don't try to change people. It won't work, and they will end up resenting you. Only God can change people!

When a man starts out to build a world, He starts first with himself

The change we are looking for is always a change within ourselves. And the change will come. I've noticed that as long as I'm willing to be different, something or someone arrives to show me how.