Elias Canetti Quotes

The philosophy of the wisest man that ever existed, is mainly derived from the act of introspection.

You know more about me than I do about myself, that's probably true.

I discovered myself!

Seriously, these days I tend to shut up in terms of external analysis and DO try to let things speak for themselves, while still trying to get some depth into them.

I'm quite influenced in this by one of my heroes, Montaigne, who thought a man's real task was to render as honest an account of himself as he could.

I've just tried to keep my eyes open, tried to read everything you can, and tried to see whether I see myself within it. If I do, then I can get excited about it.

I think I surprise myself.

Only the shallow know themselves.

We have to have a very clear understanding of ourselves.

Sometimes you watch yourself, and you think, 'Oh, wow.'

I once read that people who study others are wise but those who study themselves are enlightened.

The more you understand yourself, the more you will understand the world.

To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.

Explore thyself. Herein are demanded the eye and the nerve.

There's no journey worth taking except the journey through one's self. That's the most important journey you take. I found that out as I went around the world many times: I was learning about me.

How can one learn to know oneself? Never by introspection, rather by action.

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.

Half my life is an act of revision.

To travel is to take a journey into yourself.

Much of the time, we're transfixed by all of the ways we can reflect ourselves into the world. And we can barely find the time to reflect deeply back in on our own selves.

When I read profiles of myself, I sometimes think: 'I have spent my whole life struggling to understand my motivations and impulses, and I've never quite sorted them out.'

A great interpreter of life ought not himself to need interpretation.

A memoir forces me to stop and remember carefully. It is an exercise in truth. In a memoir, I look at myself, my life, and the people I love the most in the mirror of the blank screen. In a memoir, feelings are more important than facts, and to write honestly, I have to confront my demons.

I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.

It's not an epitaph. I felt I could look back at my life and get a good story out of it. It's a picture of somebody trying to figure things out. I'm not trying to create some impression about myself. That doesn't interest me.