Harold Kushner Quotes

So then, when I speak to you, I speak to myself. If I seem to warn or to rebuke you, it is not so much you, as myself, to whom the warning or the rebuke is addressed.

I think guilt is directional. You should get rid of it, but the way to get rid of it is not to get rid of the guilt feelings. It is to get rid of the wrong that you did that caused the guilt feelings.

I'm not saying I'm perfect. But I'm someone who analyses and reflects on what I do, whether it's in keeping with the ethics that I talk about in public. That's how I've been all my life.

I criticize myself ruthlessly, but never mention the faults of which I am truly ashamed.

I see what you mean. It must be a huge relief, and an easy way out, to think the devil is always outside of us. (…) we would stop looking for Sheitan outside and instead focus on ourselves. What we need is sincere self-examination. Not being on the watch for the faults of others.” (p. 257).

Were we to think more of our own mistakes and offences, we should be less apt to judge other people.

How could I be so immature to think you could replace the missing elements in me. How extremely lazy of me.

Each day look into your conscience and amend your faults; if you fail in this duty you will be untrue to the Knowledge and Reason that are within you. Keep a watchful eye over yourself as if you were your own enemy; for you cannot learn to govern yourself, unless you first learn to govern your own passions and obey the dictates of your conscience.

I'm highly critical of myself. There's not something someone else might say that makes me feel I need to be motivated in a different way. I'm a self-motivated guy.

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 am absolutely my own biggest critic.

As I matured, I became a smarter person, a more sensitive person, a more thinking person.

I wouldn't be the type of person to critique anybody. I've got to look at myself first, to be a better person.

I'm hard on myself, like, 'Oh, why did you say that?' But it helps me grow.

I'm the greatest critic of my work.

I think I am my own biggest critic, yeah.

I have realised it is easy to point fingers at others, but the moment you start questioning yourself, you become a better person.

I'm my biggest critic of myself when I make mistakes.

It is always good to self-analyse and be self-critical. That is how I've got through so far and improved.

I'm always my hardest critic.

I'm pretty self-aware, and I am an embarrassingly flawed human being in a ton of ways.

I am always analysing myself; I am always critical of myself and always trying to improve.

Because I have been so pigheaded and so selfish about so many things for so many years, I've spent a lot of time being, like, 'That person needs to change. This person needs to change.'

I believe my biggest critic is me only.

I'm super self-critical, which I think is good, because then I get exactly what I want. I'm critical of other people, too - I try not to be, though.