Sophie Swetchine Quotes

The questions which one asks oneself begin, at least, to illuminate the world, and become one's key to the experience of others.

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

Those who write about life, reflect about life. you see in others who you are.

What is the good of experience if you do not reflect?

Writing is how I find out what I believe and what I care most deeply about. It's how I sort through the mess of daily experience and try to make sense of it - by stepping out of it for a while. Writing is how I train a searchlight into the darker corners of my self and the world, as I'm sure I'd never do otherwise.

Thought must be divided against itself before it can come to any knowledge of itself.

No man can know where he is going unless he knows exactly where he has been and exactly how he arrived at his present place.

Books can only reveal us to ourselves, and as often as they do us this service we lay them aside.

We have to have a very clear understanding of ourselves.

As an individual, I've learnt a lot about life - some things that proved to be helpful and some things I wish I never knew.

I've seen a lot of things and I've experienced a lot of things.

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

We forge gradually our greatest instrument for understanding the world - introspection. We discover that humanity may resemble us very considerably - that the best way of knowing the inwardness of our neighbors is to know ourselves.

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

He who knows others is clever; He who knows himself has discernment.

To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.

To know one’s own state is not a simple matter. One cannot look directly at one’s own face with one’s own eyes, for example. One has no choice but to look at one’s reflection in the mirror. Through experience, we come to believe that the image is correct, but that is all.

He who knows himself knows others.

If a man really knew himself he would utterly despise the ignorant notions others might form on a subject in which he had such matchless opportunities for observation.

We read books to find out who we are.

All knowledge leads to self-knowledge.

Knowledge come from looking around; wisdom comes from looking up.

Self examination is the key to insight, which is the key to wisdom

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

Experience is a dim lamp, which only lights the one who bears it.