Voyage upon life’s sea,
To yourself be true,
And, whatever your lot may be,
Paddle your own Canoe.Sarah T. Bolton (1814-1893) American poet, women's activist (née Sarah Tittle Barrett)
“Paddle Your Own Canoe,” Harper’s New Monthly Magazine (May 1854)
Quotations about:
self
Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.
Self-made men are most alwus apt tew be a leetle too proud ov the job.
[Self-made men are almost always apt to be a little too proud of the job.]
Josh Billings (1818-1885) American humorist, aphorist [pseud. of Henry Wheeler Shaw]
Josh Billings’ Farmer’s Allminax for 1873, “05 – May,” “Kold Slau” (1873)
(Source)
“I quite agree with you,” said the Duchess; “and the moral of that is — ‘Be what you would seem to be’ — or, if you’d like it put more simply — ‘Never imagine yourself not to be otherwise than what it might appear to others that what you were or might have been was not otherwise than what you had been would have appeared to them to be otherwise.'”
Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) English writer and mathematician [pseud. of Rev. Charles Lutwidge Dodgson]
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, “The Mock Turtle’s Story” (1865)
Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882) American essayist, lecturer, poet
“Self-Reliance,” Essays: First Series (1841)
Do not worry about what others are doing. Each of us should turn the searchlight inward and purify his or her own heart as much as possible.
Mohandas Gandhi (1869-1948) Indian philosopher and nationalist [Mahatma Gandhi]
Speech, All-India Radio (1948-01-16)
(Source)
Two weeks before his death. In Louis Fischer, The Life of Mahatma Gandhi, Part 3, ch. 9 "The Last Fast" (1957).
We are interested in others when they are interested in us.
Publilius Syrus (d. 42 BC) Assyrian slave, writer, philosopher [less correctly Publius Syrus]
Sententiae [Moral Sayings], # 16 [tr. Lyman (1862)]
In the depth of winter, I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer.
Albert Camus (1913-1960) Algerian-French novelist, essayist, playwright
“Return to Tipasa,” Summer (1954)
Where so many hours have been spent in convincing myself that I am right, is there not some reason to fear I may be wrong?
A wise man turns Chance into good Fortune.
Thomas Fuller (1654-1734) English physician, preacher, aphorist, writer
Gnomologia: Adages and Proverbs, # 475 (1732)
(Source)
The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves — say rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
[Le suprême bonheur de la vie, c’est la conviction qu’on est aimé; aimé pour soi-même, disons mieux, aimé malgré soi-même.]
Victor Hugo (1802-1885) French writer
Les Misérables, Part 1 “Fantine,” Book 5 “The Descent,” ch. 4 (1.5.4) (1862) [tr. Wilbour (1862)]
(Source)
(Source (French)). Alternate translations:
The supreme happiness of life is the conviction of being loved for yourself, or, more correctly speaking, loved in spite of yourself.
[tr. Wraxall (1862)]
The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved -- loved for ourselves, or rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
[E.g. (1873)]
The supreme happiness of life consists in the conviction that one is loved; loved for one's own sake -- let us say rather, loved in spite of one's self.
[tr. Hapgood (1887)]
The supreme happiness in life is the assurance of being loved; of being loved for oneself, even in spite of oneself.
[tr. Denny (1976)]
The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved; loved for ourselves -- say rather, loved in spite of ourselves.
[tr. Wilbour/Fahnestock/MacAfee (1987)]
The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that you are loved, loved for yourself, better still, loved despite yourself.
[tr. Donougher (2013)]
Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)Walt Whitman (1819-1892) American poet
“Song of Myself,” sec. 51, ll. 1324-26, Leaves of Grass, Book 3 (1855)
(Source)
