W. H. Auden Quotes

Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.

I don't see myself as having a dark side.

You can't know your real mind as long as you deceive yourself.

I think I am one of those who can manage not to take on a completely different appearance under their own glance.

I have not thought too much about the psychology or life of the character Jonas in some time.

I learned quite early on in life that we are all two people. And one of those people none of us will ever know.

Nothing is stranger to man than his own image.

My unconscious knows more about the consciousness of the psychologist than his consciousness knows about my unconscious.

I am not really a problem personality.

I am not I. I am this one walking beside me whom I do not see, whom at times I manage to visit, and whom at other times I forget; who remains calm and silent while I talk, and forgives, gently, when I hate, who walks where I am not, who will remain standing when I die.

Fighting your ego is a melodrama of the ego.

I was constantly watching myself, my secret self, as dependent on my actions as my own personality

Man is not what he believes himself to be in his conscious decisions.

It is myself I have never met whose face is pasted on the underside of my mind

In each of us there is another whom we do not know. He speaks to us in dreams and tells us how differently he sees us from the way we see ourselves. When, therefore, we find ourselves in a difficult situation to which there is no solution, he can sometimes kindle a light that radically alters our attitude - the very attitude that led us into the difficult situation.

Whatever we refuse to recognize about ourselves has a way of rearing its head and making itself known when we least expect it.

What you don't want to know about yourself wants to be known, which is why it keeps 'showing up' at your door unannounced!

Man is very well defended against himself... The actual fortress is inaccessible, even invisible to him, unless his friends and enemies play the traitor and conduct him in by a secret path.

But when I call for a hero, out comes my lazy old self; so I never know who I am, nor how many I am or will be. I'd love to be able to touch a bell and summon the real me, because if I really need myself, I mustn't disappear.

The unconscious is the true accumulation of your history. It can be accepted or rejected but it can't fundamentally be altered.

Very unconscious people experience their own ego through its reflection in others. When you realize that what you react to in others is also in you (and sometimes only in you), you begin to become aware of your own ego.

We all have within us a centered place of wisdom, harmony, and balance.

No matter where you go, you always see yourself in the rearview mirror.