Jeff Vandermeer Quotes

How can you say something's important if you don't first withdraw and feel how rich you've become? That way you can become really generous. Otherwise, what do you give?

I think and that is all that I am.

The object of studying philosophy is to know one's own mind, not other people's.

I'm trying to make work that is reflective and is encouraging of reflection.

You can be self-empowered and still learning about how you think about things daily.

I think I tend to live in sort of a meta state of existence where I'm always analyzing and analyzing whatever I'm going through at any given moment, and a lot of times I'll reflect back on and go, 'Oh look at that - if I acted this way when that happened, I might not have thought of that that way.'

Doubt yourself and you doubt everything you see. Judge yourself and you see judges everywhere. But if you listen to the sound of your own voice, you can rise above doubt and judgment. And you can see forever.

Sometimes you need a humbling experience to think about a few things.

It turns out that our ability to connect with other people is driven by our ability to connect deeply with ourselves. And that can be just a few minutes sitting on your porch feeling the breeze against your face. That can be a few moments spent in meditation or in prayer or remembering three things you're grateful for.

A conscience is a troublesome thing at times. I woke up at 4 o'clock this morning and I spent the time feeling what a nothing I was, and wishing I was so very different. Then the morning's post brought me a letter from a friend, saying I was so this, so that - it made me really cry, I was so grateful.

An autobiography should give the reader opportunity to point out the author's follies and misconceptions.

I want to become acutely aware of all I've taken for granted.

We must discover how to ask simple questions of ourselves.

That state of mind - of being beside yourself - is wonderful. As you get older, you're just very aware of a sense of an ending. You're grateful for every day.

You'll consider what you did wrong & bookend your reflections with hunger - no supper, no breakfast.

I think, what has this day brought me, and what have I given it?

More than anything else, what differentiates people who live up to their potential from those who don't is a willingness to look at themselves and others objectively

Living consciously is seeking to be aware of everything that bears on our interests, actions, values, purposes, and goals. It is the willingness to confront facts, pleasant or unpleasant. It is the desire to discover our mistakes and correct them . . . it is the quest to keep expanding our awareness and understanding, both of the world external to self and the world within.

Be self aware, rather than a repetitious robot

Think about these once in awhile, and watch your answers change.

There is nothing we should be quite so grateful for as the last line of the poem that goes, 'When your own heart asks.

But the very act of pausing in a busy day to pray is an act of weakening pride in my life, acknowledging that I am a dependent creature. I am not self sufficient.

Let us look at our own faults, and not other people's. We ought not to insist on everyone following in our footsteps, nor to take upon ourselves to give instructions in spirituality when, perhaps, we do not even know what it is.

The best gift an educator can give is to get somebody to become self reflective.

In the absence of wake-up calls, many of us never really confront the critical issues of life.