329 Self improvement Quotes

A man, as a general rule, owes very little to what he is born with - a man is what he makes of himself.

Try to be the best of what you are, even if what you are is no good.

Some books makes me want to go adventuring, others feel that they have saved me the trouble.

I'll give up my bad habits as soon as equally satisfying good habits become available.

My time is far too valuable for me to spend any of it trying to improve myself.

I've learned so much from my failures that I'm thinking of having some more.

You have to look at yourself objectively. Analyze yourself like an instrument. You have to be absolutely frank with yourself. Face your handicaps, don't try to hide them. Instead, develop something else.

Anything you're good at contributes to happiness.

What amazes me the most is to see that everyone is not amazed at his own weakness.

Psychologically, you have to have confidence in yourself and this confidence should be based on fact.

Character, not circumstances, makes the man.

I think I have learned that the best way to lift one's self up is to help someone else.

Faith is a state of mind that can be conditioned through self-discipline. Faith will accomplish.

Ever since I was a child I have had this instinctive urge for expansion and growth. To me, the function and duty of a quality human being is the sincere and honest development of one's potential.

At least half of my life's many mistakes can be safely put down to impetuosity: the other half derive from inertia.

To get what you want, STOP doing what isn't working.

Tomorrow is the day when idlers work, and fools reform.

To the rational being only the irrational is unendurable, but the rational is endurable.

Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else.

Nature hath given men one tongue but two ears, that we may hear from others twice as much as we speak.

Exceed due measure, and the most delightful things become the least delightful.

When we argue for our limitations, we get to keep them.

Virtue consists, not in abstaining from vice, but in not desiring it.

Perhaps the only true dignity of man is his capacity to despise himself.

Oh courage...oh yes! If only one had that...Then life might be livable, in spite of everything.

Everything I touch seems destined to turn into something mean and farcical.

The great secret of power is never to will to do more than you can accomplish.

My best friend is the one who brings out the best in me.

As long as habit and routine dictate the pattern of living, new dimensions of the soul will not emerge.

Much learning does not teach understanding.

Good character is not formed in a week or a month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed to develop good character.

Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.

No man is ever whipped until he quits in his own mind.

Experience is the name everyone gives to their mistakes.

Lord Illingworth: I am always astonishing myself. It is the only thing that makes life worth living.

The only thing that one really knows about human nature is that it changes. Change is the one quality we can predicate of it.

I've always wanted to make the world a more rational place. I'm still working on it.

Many receive advice, few profit by it.

By the data to date, there is only one animal in the Galaxy dangerous to man - man himself. So he must supply his own indispensable competition. He has no enemy to help him.

We disparage reason. But all the time it's what we're most concerned with. There's will as motor and there's will as brakes. Reason is, I suppose, the steering gear.

The grandest ambition that any man can possibly have, is to so live, and so improve himself in heart and brain, as to be worthy of the love of some splendid woman; and the grandest ambition of any girl is to make herself worthy of the love and adoration of some magnificent man.

The Quality, the arete he has fought so hard for, has sacrificed for, has never betrayed, but in all that time has never once understood, now makes itself clear to him and his soul is at rest.

Anxiety is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong you're afraid to do anything at all. It results from over motivation - leading to errors that lead to an underestimation of one's self. Work out your anxieties on paper and read. This calms the mind.

The place to improve the world is first in one's own heart and head and hands.

There are, strictly speaking, no enlightened people, there is only enlightened activity.

You should rather be grateful for the weeds you have in you mind, because eventually they will enrich your practice.

After you have practiced for a while, you will realize that it is not possible to make rapid, extraordinary progress. Even though you try very hard, the progress you make is always little by little. It is not like going out in a shower in which you know when you get wet. In a fog, you do not know you are getting wet, but as you keep walking you get wet little by little. If your mind has ideas of progress, you may say, 'Oh, this pace is terrible!' But actually it is not. When you get wet in a fog it is very difficult to dry yourself. So there is no need to worry about progress.

Hell is not punishment. It's training.

Our tendency is to be interested in something that is growing in the garden, not in the bare soil itself. But if you want to have a good harvest, the most important thing is to make the soil rich and cultivate it well.

Change your life today. Don't gamble on the future, act now, without delay.

Pride defeats its own end, by bringing the man who seeks esteem and reverence into contempt.

Most people grow old within a small circle of ideas, which they have not discovered for themselves. There are perhaps less wrong-minded people than thoughtless.

Lazy people are always looking for something to do.

To this end we now need many preparatory courageous human beings who cannot very well leap out of nothing - any more than out of the sand and slime of present-day civilization and metropolitanism: human beings who know how to be silent, lonely, resolute, and content and constant in invisible activities; human beings who are bent on seeking in all things for what in them must be overcome; human beings distinguished as much by cheerfulness, patience, unpretentiousness, and contempt for all great vanities as by magnanimity in victory and forbearance regarding the small vanities of the vanquished; human beings whose judgment concerning all victors and the share of chance in every victory and fame is sharp and free; human beings with their own festivals, their own working days, and their own periods of mourning, accustomed to command with assurance but instantly ready to obey when that is called for, equally proud, equally serving their own cause in both cases; more endangered human beings, more fruitful human beings, happier beings!

Be grateful