Karl A. Menninger Quotes

Know thyself,’ said Socrates. Know thyself,’ said Sappho, ‘and make sure that the Church never finds out.

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.'

Know thyself? If I knew myself I would run away.

Know thyself.

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

A matter that becomes clear ceases to concern us.--What was that god thinking who counseled, "Know thyself!" Did he perhaps mean,"Cease to concern yourself! Become objective!"--And Socrates?--And "scientific men"?

This precept descended from Heaven: know thyself.

He who knows himself well is mean and abject in his own sight, and takes no delight in the vain praise of men.

A man may call to mind the face of his friend, but not his own. Here, then, is an initial difficulty in the way of applying the maxim, Know Thyself.

Make it thy business to know thyself, which is the most difficult lesson in the world

Yes, know thyself: in great concerns or small, be this thy care, for this, my friend, is all.

One of my problems is to find the self.

No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.

I think self-knowledge is the rarest trait in a human being.

I've always been interested in how the individual comes to know and accept him or herself, which I think has been hard for me.

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

There are times I can't even figure myself out.

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth.

Only the shallow know themselves.

Everyone should know yourself. It can be an insult, but know yourself is just it. It's exactly what it sounds like.

People seem to know more about me than I do.

There's only one person who knows me - and that's me.

Self-awareness is something that we actually actively avoid.

The better you understand yourself the less cause you will find to love yourself.

It is not only useless, it is harmful, to believe in oneself until one truly knows oneself. And to know oneself means to accept our moments of insanity, of eccentricity, of childishness and blindness.