Afdal

al-Din Kashani: To know oneself is to know the everlasting reality that is consciousness, and to know it is to be it. Strive and become near to whatever you know to be better for self, and flee and seek distance from everything you recognize is bad for self. No matter how clear things can appear to be, the self is clearer than the things.

Quotes and Reflections by Eminent Authors

Aldous Huxley: If most of us remain ignorant of ourselves, it is because self-knowledge is painful and we prefer the pleasures of illusion.

Alexander Pope: Know then thyself, presume not God to scan, the proper study of Mankind is Man. Ancient Egypt: Man, know thyself, and thou shalt know the Gods. Ancient Egyptian Sayings: The body is the temple of the God within you; therefore it is said, Man: know thyself. Coffin Texts: You are one who knows yourself. 1
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Attar of Nishapur: If while living you fail to find your self, to know your self, how will you be able to understand the secret of your existence when you die? Bayazid Bastami: Twelve years I have been smith of myself, until I have made of myself a clear mirror.

Benjamin Franklin: There are three Things extremely hard, Steel, a Diamond, and to know ones self. Observe all men; thy self most. Bernard Berenson: Yet, who is the real I, where does he hide from ME? I know who he is not, but how and what and if at all HE is, I have never discovered although for more than seventy years I have been looking for him. 2

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 Bernard of Clairvaux: In spirit is my true self to be found. Bhagavad-Gita: Wake up! Be thyself! The glory of the Self is beheld by few. The Self is unmanifested, beyond all thought, beyond all change. This is true knowledge, to seek the Self as the true end of wisdom always. To seek anything else is ignorance.

Confucius: When we seen men of a contrary character, we should turn inwards and examine ourselves. Deepak Chopra: Who am I? is the only question worth asking and the only one never answered.

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 Epictetus: Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly. In contemplating thyself, never include the body that surrounds you. Poor wretch, you carry about a god within you, and know nothing of it.

Erasmus: The crown of wisdom is that you know yourself. F.W. Boreham: Your pearl is you yourself.

Finley Peter Dunne: People tell me to be frank, but how can I when I dont dare to know myself? Francios Villon: I know all except myself. 4
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 Geoffrey Chaucer: The remedy for Pride is Humility or true self-knowledge. George Gurdjieff: Know thyself. These words, which are generally ascribed to Socrates, actually lie at the basis of many systems and schools far more ancient than the Socratic. The first reason for mans inner slavery is his ignorance of himself. Without self-knowledge, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave. This is why in all ancient teachings the first demand at the beginning of the way to liberation was: Know thyself.

George Sand: Can one know oneself? Is one ever somebody? Hans Christian Andersen: What a mystery I am to myself! 5

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 Heraclitus of Ephesus: All men have the capacity of knowing themselves. Ibn Arabi: When you enter into His Paradise you enter into yourself. My voyage was only in myself, and only pointed to myself. This is a journey to increase knowledge and open the eye of understanding.

Jalalludin Rumi: Who am I in the midst of all this thought traffic

Koran: And do thou, O Muhammad, remember thy Lord within thyself.

Lao Tsu: Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.

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 Lewis Carroll: Who in the world am I? Ah, thats the great puzzle. Lord Chesterfield: Study the heart and the mind of man, and begin with your own. Meher Baba: To know reality is to become it. According to the law that governs the universe, all sufferings are your labor of love to unveil your real self. The I has to get rid of the falseness before it can realize who it is in reality. The mind creates false impressions and makes the real I think itself false. When you surrender all falseness you inherit the Truth that you really are. Michel de Montaigne: If the soul knew anything, it would first of all know itself. If I study, it is for no other science than which deals with the knowledge of myself. 7

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 Nazarius of Valaam: Pride settles into a man when he does not yet know himself perfectly. Oscar Wilde: Know Thyself was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, Be Thyself shall be written. The message of Christ to man was simply Be Thyself. That is the secret of Christ. Paracelsus: Our uncertainty about ourselves is at the base of our uncertainty of all things. Peter Ouspensky: To know oneselfthis was the first principle and the first demand of old psychological schools. We still remember these words, but have lost their meaning. We think that to know ourselves, means to know our peculiarities, our desires, our tastes, our capacities and our intentions. The most fundamental thing is to know oneself, although if certain things do not change you cannot know yourself. To know oneself is a long process. First we must study. Very soon after starting to observe himself, a man will begin to distinguish useful features and harmful features in himself, that is, useful or harmful 8
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from the point of view of his possible self-knowledge, his possible awakening, his possible development. He will see sides of himself, which can become conscious, and sides which cannot become conscious and must be eliminated.

Petrarch: I shall be content, if I succeed in knowing myself. To reach this end I strain my eyes. I never loose sight of it, nor do I cease praying the Gods, that they may teach me toknow myself, and grant, as the wise ought to desire, that I always be mindful of my goal.

Pindar: Learn what you are, and be such.

Plato:

The essence of knowledge is self-knowledge. I must first know myself, as the Delphian inscription says; to be curious about that which is not my concern, while I am still in ignorance of my own self would be ridiculous. I may be a simpleton, but in my opinion, only that knowledge which is of being and of the unseen, can make the soul look upwards. If mans attention is centered on appetite all his thoughts are bound to be mortal and he can hardly fail to become entirely mortal. In every man there is an eye of the soul, which is more precious than ten thousand bodily eyes.
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Prophet Muhammad: Whoever knows himself knows God.

Rainer Maria Rilke: I have an inner self of which I was ignorant. Ralph Waldo Emerson: Wherever we go, whatever we do, self is the sole subject we study and learn. Richard of Saint Victor: The high peak of knowledge is perfect self-knowledge. Rodney Collin: There is a statelike that of a small child or a shipwrecked man washed up naked on an island. In trying to answer the question: Who am I?, one may come to certain answers which produce almost the same effect.

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 Sir Joshua Reynolds: 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. Socrates: The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. I am not yet able, as the Delphic inscription has it, to know myself; so it seems to me ridiculous, when I do not yet know that, to investigate irrelevant things. Care first about the greatest perfection of the soul. What I want to discover at present is the art which devotes its attention to precision, exactness, and the fullest truth. Thales: The most difficult thing in life is, to know yourself. Upanishads: Katha Upanishad: The Self lies beyond the senses and can only be understood by him who knows It is. Katha Upanishad: Those who realize the Self are forever free from the jaws of death. 11
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A sage withdrew his senses from the world Of change and, seeking immortality, Looked within and beheld the deathless Self. The Self is the goal of life; attain this goal. Those who know the Self become the Self. Walt Whitman: When shows break up what but Ones Self is sure? What you are picks its way. William Shakespeare: Of all knowledge, the wise and good seek most to know themselves. Thou sleepst: awake, and see thyself. The fool doth think he is wise, but the wise man knows himself to be a fool. This above all: to thine own self be true, And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man Zen Masters and Proverbs: The Self is the goal of life; attain this goal. Those who know the Self become the Self.

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