Parker Palmer Quotes

One of the key elements is the ability to be honest with yourself.

Actually, when I look at my old notebooks, I think I have been a bit self-indulgent and have given myself too much time to meander in my discursive thoughts. I could have cut through sooner. Yet it is good to know about our terrible selves, not laud or criticize them, just acknowledge them. Then, out of this knowledge, we are better equipped to make a choice for beauty, kind consideration and clear truth. We make this choice with our feet firmly on the ground. We are not running wildly after beauty with fear at our backs.

At 30 a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities, know how far he can go, foretell his failures - be what he is. And, above all, accept these things.

I am deeply in tune with my heart and core, and it's made me a better writer, artist, and most of all woman. It's made me more myself.

I want to take the time to think through how I feel and why I feel. I don't want to feign expertise on matters I know nothing about for the purpose of offering someone else my immediate reaction for their consumption.

To explore different parts of yourself and different emotional lives... not to hide from who you are but to actually explore who you are.

If you can understand the inner life, then you can wear the uniform, the tattoos, or whatnot and realize that the things that are different about us become superficial.

One of my problems is to find the self.

You can know what's in your life when you know what's in your heart.

Most of us don't spend any time knowing ourselves. We just keep reacting.

Self-awareness is not self-centeredness, and spirituality is not narcissism. 'Know thyself' is not a narcissistic pursuit.

If we are not regularly deeply embarrassed by who we are, the journey to self-knowledge hasn’t begun.

You get to a point where you get tired of being stupid and selfish and not being honest with yourself.

All the work I do is personal, so the good stuff and the bad stuff that you see in there is all good stuff and bad stuff that I have, and part of the journey, for me, has been to embrace these things that I find embarrassing about myself: my stubbornness, my ego, my maudlin-ness - these things that I see myself do, and I go, 'Oh, David, stop that!'

I'm a deep person. I'm not a superficial person at all.

The most important thing about a person is that you know who you are and what you want. You should be capable of introspection and evaluate yourself.

Self-awareness is something that we actually actively avoid.

I try to be honest with myself.

We must at times search our own souls and discover what we really are. Our real character, much as we would wish, cannot be hidden.

The true cure for self-righteousness is self-knowledge.

Poor soul, she always knew everything about her neighbors, but she never was very well acquainted with herself.

I see the ups and downs. I see the mistakes I've made. I see a funny person. I see a serious person. I see a diamond. I see the good times. I see the bad times. And I see knowledge of self. I see knowledge of self. I know who I am. When I look in the mirror, I see me.

There are moments when the inner life actually 'pays,' when years of self-scrutiny, conducted for no ulterior motive, are suddenly of practical use.

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

I think the better you know yourself as a person, the better an actor you can be.