May Sarton Quotes

Ambition is best tempered with self-knowledge!

I'm a real 'go, go' person... I'd make myself crazy by pushing too hard. It's important to pull pack the reins a little bit and get in touch with what's inside.

We demand too much of life, too little of ourselves.

We benefit, intellectually and personally, from the interplay between different selves, from the balance between long-term contemplation and short-term impulse. We should be wary about tipping the scales too far. The community of selves shouldn't be a democracy, but it shouldn't be a dictatorship, either.

It's all right letting yourself go, as long as you can get yourself back.

The secret of success is to be in harmony with existence, to be always calm to let each wave of life wash us a little farther up the shore.

I think we could all do better sometimes of not overextending ourselves as much.

A little more moderation would be good. Of course, my life hasn't exactly been one of moderation.

My expectations of other people, I double them on myself.

My biggest weakness is that I'm excessive. Fortunately for everyone concerned, I'm not as excessive as I used to be.

I don't want to be viewed as a womaniser or whatever. I don't like going crazy crazy, I like having fun but it's nice to wake up in your own bed, isn't it?

No one puts higher expectations on themselves than I do.

I know what I want from life and how to get it. That doesn't mean I'll go to any limits to get that. If I get it great, if I don't, it's still fine.

I'll never give myself an A since I ask a lot from myself.

I'm a guy who expects a lot from himself.

I ain't no perfect man I'm tryna do the best that I can with what it is I have.

Learning when 'enough is enough' is the discipline of a lifetime.

I am sensible that my keenness of temper, and a vanity to be distinguished for the day, make me too often splash in life.... I amresolved to restrain myself and attend more to decorum.

I don't really believe in regret or mistakes. I try to take everything as it is, be comfortable with myself.

As a teenager, I put a lot of pressure on myself, and a lot of that, for me, was about finding a moral high ground. As I've grown up, I've decided to abandon that because it made me judgmental and also stressed me out.

Ambition must be made to counteract ambition.

The keys to patience are acceptance and faith. Accept things as they are, and look realistically at the world around you. Have faith in yourself and in the direction you have chosen.

We distinguish the excellent man from the common man by saying that the former is the one who makes great demands on himself, and the latter who makes no demands on himself.

We can still do good for others and do good for ourselves. I would wither and die, truthfully. I need to be somewhere where the light's on me.

You learn to accept your own reality.