Norman Mailer Quotes

So, I guess we are who we are for a lot of reasons. And maybe we'll never know most of them.

Even a monotonously undeviating path of self-examination does not necessarily lead to self-knowledge. I stumble towards my grave confused and hurt and hungry.

Anxieties about ourselves endure. If our proper study is indeed the study of humankind, then it has seemed-and still seems-to many that the study is dangerous. Perhaps we shall find out that we were not what we took ourselves to be. But if the historical development of science has indeed sometimes pricked our vanity, it has not plunged us into an abyss of immorality. Arguably, it has liberated us from misconceptions, and thereby aided us in our moral progress.

Every intelligent individual wants to know what makes him tick, and yet is at once fascinated and frustrated by the fact that oneself is the most difficult of all things to know.

No one ever has time to examine himself honestly, and most people look no further than their neighbors' eyes, in which they may see their own reflection.

Who are you?" she inquired, as the cat passed by. I'm the cat that looked at a king," he replied. And I," she remarked with a toss of her head, "am the cow that jumped over the moon." Is that so?" said the cat. "Whatever for?" The cow stared. She had never been asked that question before. And suddenly it occured to her that there might something else to do than jumping over moons.

I'm insatiably curious about human nature.

At which point should we let go and do what we want to do, and when should we submit to rules? Coming to terms with our true natures and who we really are has always been a fascination to humans. I know it fascinates me.

We never completely comprehend ourselves, but we can do far more than comprehend.

I study myself more than any other subject. That is my metaphysics, that is my physics.

I have never seen a greater monster or miracle in the world than myself.

I was a little truth seeker as a child. I wanted more than anything to understand myself and also other people.

There is nothing deep down inside us except what we have put there ourselves.

One of my problems is to find the self.

Solitude shows us what should be; society shows us what we are.

No one has ever learned fully to know themselves.

I try to say something about the human condition whenever I can when I'm lucky.

Life is for each man a solitary cell whose walls are mirrors.

God, Nature, the wise, the world, preach man, exhort him both by word and deed to the study of himself.

People learn the most about themselves by confronting those with whom they deeply disagree..

Know thyself.

We saw in him what we seek in ourselves.

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

Poor soul, she always knew everything about her neighbors, but she never was very well acquainted with herself.

How embarrassing for man to be the greatest miracle on earth and not to understand it!