John Barth Quotes

Self knowledge begins with the neighbor, the mirror, and just the same with true self-love; that goes from the mirror to the matter.

The knowledge of self is the most important thing, because how are you going to know God if you don't know yourself? How are you going to know anything if you don't know yourself?

It is, I fear, but a vain show of fulfilling the heathen precept, ''Know thyself,'' and too often leads to a self- estimate which will subsist in the absence of that fruit by which alone the quality of the tree is made evident.

Self knowledge is the beginning of self improvement.

Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God Our wisdom, in so far as it ought to be deemed true and solid Wisdom, consists almost entirely of two parts: the knowledge of God and of ourselves. But as these are connected together by many ties, it is not easy to determine which of the two precedes and gives birth to the other.

Facts make you face stuff about yourself you'd rather not see.

The better you understand yourself the less cause you will find to love yourself.

The self-explorer, whether he wants to or not, becomes the explorer of everything else.

This precept descended from Heaven: know thyself.

Self knowledge puts us on our knees, and it is very necessary for love. For knowledge of God gives love, and knowledge of self gives humility

I believe in the importance of seeking self-knowledge. The more I know myself, the more I feel empowered.

How can we learn self-knowledge? Never by taking thought but rather by action. Try to do your duty and you'll soon discover what you're like.

To know yourself you have only to set down a true statement of those that ever loved or hated you.

A man may call to mind the face of his friend, but not his own. Here, then, is an initial difficulty in the way of applying the maxim, Know Thyself.

Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world

All ages have said and repeated that one should strive to know one's self. This is a strange demand which no one up to now has measured up to and, strictly considered, no one should. With all their study and effort, people are directed to what is outside, to the world about them, and they are kept busy coming to know this and to master it to the extent that their purposes require. . . . How can you come to know yourself? Never by thinking, always by doing. Try to do your duty, and you'll know right away what you amount to. And what is your duty? Whatever the day calls for.

One's own self is well hidden from one's own self; of all mines of treasure, one's own is the last to be dug up.

The news that reaches your consciousness is incomplete and often not to be relied on.... Turn your eyes inward, look into your own depths, learn first to know yourself!

Yes, know thyself: in great concerns or small, be this thy care, for this, my friend, is all.

The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end - you don't come to an achievement, you don't come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.

I've been living with myself all of my life, so I know all of me. So when I watch me, all I see is me. It's boring.

My personality doesn't interest me.

The ultimate mystery is one's own self.

No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.