John D. MacDonald Quotes

Always search for your innermost nature in those you are with, as rose oil imbibes from roses.

The more that we self-analyze ourselves, the nicer we are to people and to ourselves, and the more we understand each other.

I observe myself and I come to know others.

In learning to know other things, and other minds, we become more intimately acquainted with ourselves, and are to ourselves better worth knowing.

We know others to the extent that we know ourselves.

If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.

Stories teach us empathy. They reveal to us ourselves in the skins of others.

The true cure for self-righteousness is self-knowledge.

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.

They say: 'If a man knew himself, he would know all mankind.' I say: 'If a man loved mankind, he would know something of himself.

It is wisdom to know others. It is enlightenment to know oneself.

There’s nothing to it. All you have to do is take a close look at yourself and you will understand everyone else. We’re in no way different ourselves... You show me someone who can’t understand people and I’ll show you someone who has built up a false image of himself.

To know anything about oneself one must know all about others.

I was a self-centered bore. I was masochistic, and only thought I was happy. When I woke up and said, "there must be something wrong with me", I grew up. Because I never understood myself, how could I hope to understand anyone else? That's why I can truly say that now I can give a woman love for the first time in my life, because I can understand her.

And he who does not know himself does not know others, so it may be said with equal truth, that he who does not know others knows himself but very imperfectly.

Intelligent people know others. Enlightened people know themselves.

To the extent to which you know yourself, and we are all more alike than different, you can know others. When you love yourself, you will love others. And to the depth and extent to which you can love yourself, only to that depth and extent will you be able to love others.

Most of your suffering comes from the lack of understanding of yourself and others.

You don’t learn about yourself by being alone, you learn about yourself from other people.

People are people, and they want to know about their own experiences.

The ideal way to approach a character is to find something in yourself that relates in some way.

In every person, you have a world of personalities and souls, a world of perspectives that you can share. You can get into anyone's shoes. You've got to be willing to stare at the ugliest part of yourself and deal with it.

I learned so much about life and other human beings - then about myself.

My experience is that the universal is the personal. If you can get past your navel-gazing into the deepest part of yourself as a writer, you find everyone - we're all there.

I'm trying to use myself and my own flawedness as a metaphor for general human experience. I'm trying to 'stand next to' a subject, whether it's Bobby Knight or Vince Carter, and use that subject to meditate on both him and me.