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SELF-EXAMINATION
SELF-IMPROVEMENT -- SELF-INTEREST
SELF-KNOWLEDGE -- SELF-LOVE --- SELF-PITY
SELF-RESPECT -- SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS
SELF-SACRIFICE -- SELFISH
SELLING OUT
SEMANTICS

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SELF-EXAMINATION

see "KNOWING (ONESELF)"


I may not be totally perfect, but parts of me are excellent.
--Ashleigh Brilliant (1933— )
British-born American writer and artist.

When we see persons of worth, we should think of
equaling them; when we see persons of a contrary
character, we should turn inwards and examine
ourselves.
--Confucius (551—479 B.C.)
K'ung Ch'iu, Chinese philosopher.

The very purpose of existence is to reconcile the glowing
opinion we have of ourselves with the appalling things that
other people think about us.
--Quentin Crisp [Denis Pratt] (1908—1999)
English writer.
_How to Become a Virgin_ [1981], ch. 2

The profound thinker always suspects that he is superficial.
--Benjamin Disraeli (1804—1881)
British Tory statesman, novelist, and
Prime Minister [1868, 1874—1880].
_Contarini Fleming_ [1832], pt. IV, ch. 5

You've no idea of what a poor opinion I have
of myself — and how little I deserve it.
--W. S. Gilbert (1836—1911)
English writer of comic and satirical verse.
_The Mikado_ [1885]
_Ruddigore_ [1887], act 1

Be charitable and indulgent to every one but thyself.
--Joseph Joubert (1754—1824)
French philosopher.

It is always a mistake not to close one's eyes,
whether to forgive or to look better into oneself.
--Maurice Maeterlinck (1862—1949)
Belgium poet and playwright.
_Pellιas et Mιlisande_ [1892]

We can talk frankly about our defects only
to those who recognize our qualities.
--Andrι Maurois (1885—1967)
(pseudonym of Ιmile Salomon Wilhelm Herzog)
French author.

The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,
But in ourselves, that we are underlings.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Julius Caesar_ [1599], act 1, sc. 2, l. 138

Interviewer: "When was the last tournament that you won?
... I know it's been a while. I don't mean to bring up a sore
subject."
Watson: "That's all right. I'm not very good."
--Bubba Watson (1978— )
American professional golfer.
Interview during the 2007 U.S. Open in Oakmont, Pennsylvania.

There is luxury in self-reproach. When we blame ourselves,
we feel no one else has a right to blame us.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.

-

When fight begins within himself
A Man's worth something.
--anon.
In _The Public Schools from Within_ [1906]
"Discipline" by J.L. Paton.



SELF-IMPROVEMENT

.
.

see: "DISCIPLINE"
see: "KNOWING (ONESELF)"


If you don't like my opinion of you,
you can always improve.
--Ashleigh Brilliant (1933— )
British-born American writer and artist.

To reform a world, to reform a nation, no wise man
will undertake; and all but foolish men know, that
the only solid, though a far slower reformation,
is what each begins and perfects on *himself*.
--Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)
Scottish historian and political philosopher.
"Signs of the Times" [1829]

Self-knowledge is the beginning of self-improvement.
--Baltasar Graciαn (1601—1658)
Spanish Jesuit philosopher.
_The Art of Worldly Wisdom_ [1647]

There is nothing noble about being superior
to some other men. The true nobility is in
being superior to your previous self.
--Hindustani Proverb
In _A Conspectus of American Biography_, p. 726 [1906],
compiled by George Derby.

There's only one corner of the universe you can
be certain of improving, and that's your own self.
--Aldous Huxley (1894—1963)
English novelist {grandson of T.H. Huxley}.
_Time Must Have a Stop_ [1944]

Withdraw into yourself and look. And if you do not find yourself
beautiful yet, act as does the creator of a statue that is to be made
beautiful: he cuts away here, he smoothes there, he makes this line
lighter, this other purer, until a lovely face has grown upon his work.
So do you also: cut away all that is excessive, straighten all that is
crooked, bring light to all that is overcast, labor to make all one glow
with beauty and never cease chiseling your statue, until there shall
shine out on you the godlike splendor of virtue, until you shall see
the final goodness surely established in the stainless shrine.
--Plotinus (205—270)
Greek philosopher.
_The Enneads_

He that does good to another does good also to himself,
not only in the consequence, but in the very act; for the
consciousness of well-doing is in itself ample reward.
--Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B.C.— 65 A.D.)
Roman philosopher and poet.

God helps those who help themselves.
--Algernon Sidney (1622—1683)
English Whig politician.
_Discourses Concerning Government_ [1698], Ch. 2

Who has a fiercer struggle than he who strives to
conquer himself? Yet this must be our chief
concern — to conquer self, and by daily growing
stronger than self, to advance in holiness.
--Thomas a' Kempis (1380—1471)
German ascetical writer.
_The Imitation of Christ_ [c. 1420],
Book 1, Chapter 3: "On The Teaching Of Truth"



SELF-INTEREST

.
.

We are all practical in our own interest
and idealists when it concerns others.
--Kahlil Gibran (1883—1931)
Lebanese poet.

Never appeal to a man's better nature. He may not have
one. Invoking his self-interest gives you more leverage.
--Robert Heinlein (1907—1988)
American science-fiction writer.

Fourteen heart attacks and he had
to die in my week. In MY week.
{when ex-President Eisenhower's death prevented her
photograph appearing on the cover of "Newsweek" - ODTQ}
--Janis Joplin (1943—1970)
American singer.
In "New Musical Express" [12 April 1969].

Men alter their demeanor and sentiments
just as fast as their interest changes.
--Arthur Schopenhauer (1788—1860)
German philosopher.
"Counsels and Maxims" in
_Essays of Arthur Schopenhauer_, tr. T. Bailey Saunders

We are now in the Me Decade — seeing the upward roll of
. . . the third great religious wave in American history . . .
and this one has the mightiest, holiest roll of all, the beat
that goes. . . Me. . . Me. . . Me. . . Me.
--Tom Wolfe (1931— )
American journalist and novelist.
_Mauve Gloves and Madmen_ [1976]

-----

potlatch (noun) ['pat-lζch]
A social event, especially one given to express the wealth and
generosity of the host in expectation of something in return.
The word is used mainly in the Northwestern U.S..



SELF-KNOWLEDGE

.
.

see "KNOWING (ONESELF)"



SELF-LOVE

.
.

see "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for related links


^^

Once when Noλl Coward was crossing from Britain to the United States
by ocean liner, the company in the cocktail lounge included a rather
pompous English gentleman who was complaining bitterly of a recent
occasion on which he had not been treated with the respect he clearly
felt he deserved. "They didn't seem to know who I was!' he protested.

'And who *were* you?' enquired Coward politely.

_The Folio Book of Humorous Anecdotes_
Introduced by Edward Leeson [2005], "Actors and the Theatre"

^^

If it is a virtue to love my neighbor as a human
being, it must be a virtue — and not a vice — to
love myself, since I am a human being too.
--Erich Fromm (1900—1980)
American philosopher and psychologist.
_The Art of Loving_ [1956]

A beautiful woman should break her mirror early
--Baltasar Graciαn (1601—1658)
Spanish Jesuit philosopher.

In jealousy there is more self-love than love.
--Franηois de La Rochefoucauld (1613—1680)
French classical author.
_Maxims_, #324 [1665]

He who is in love with himself has at least this
advantage — he won't encounter many rivals
in his love.
--Georg Christoph Lichtenberg (1742—1799)
German scientist and drama critic.

A town that boasts inhabitants like me
Can have no lack of good society!
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
"The Birds of Killingworth"
_Tales of a Wayside Inn_ [1863]

The affair between Margot Asquith and Margot Asquith
will live as one of the prettiest love stories in
all literature.
--Dorothy Parker (1893—1967)
American critic and humorist.
Review of _Lay Sermons_ [1927].

He fell in love with himself at first sight and
it is a passion to which he has always remained
faithful. Self love seems so often unrequited.
--Anthony Powell (1905—2000)
English novelist.

To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.
--Oscar Wilde (1854—1900)
Anglo-Irish dramatist and poet.
_An Ideal Husband_ [1895]

-----

narcissism [NAHR-suh-siz-em], noun:
Excessive love or admiration for oneself; in
psychoanalysis, gratification manifested in
admiration and love of oneself.
[From Greek Narkissos, beautiful youth in mythology
(Ovid, "Metamorphosis," iii.370) who fell in love with
his own reflection in a spring and was turned to the
flower narcissus.]



SELF-PITY

.
.

see "EMOTIONS & FEELINGS" for related links
see "FAILURE" for related links


Quite often, people who mean well will inquire of
me whether I ever ask myself, in the face of my
diseases, "Why me?" I never do. If I ask "Why
me?" as I am assaulted by heart disease and
AIDS, I must ask "Why me?"about my blessings,
and question my right to enjoy them. The morning
after I won Wimbledon in 1975 I should have asked
"Why me?" and doubted that I deserved the victory.
If I don't ask "Why me?" after my victories, I cannot
ask "Why me?" after my setbacks and disasters.
--Arthur Ashe (1943—1993)
American tennis player and the first black winner of a
major men's single championship.
_Days of Grace: A Memoir by Arthur Ashe, Arnold Rampersad_, p. 326

The more we feel sorry for ourselves, the less sorry others will
feel for us. People don't waste their small store of sympathy
on those who can provide it so richly for themselves.
--Gerald Brenan (1894—1987)
British travel writer and novelist.
_Thoughts in a Dry Season: A Miscellany_ [1978]

-

When my mother died, I didn't understand death.
Couldn't feature it. What do you mean she's gone
forever? I was 15, living at a school for the blind
160 miles away from home. She was all I had in the
world.

No, she couldn't be dead. She'd be back tomorrow.
Or the day after. Don't tell me about no death.
Death can't take this woman. I need her. Can't
make it without her.

That's when I saw what everyone sees — you can't
make a deal with death. No, sir. And you can't make
a deal with God. Death is cold-blooded, and maybe
God is too.

So I'm alone, and I'm going crazy, until Ma Beck,
a righteous Christian lady from the little country
town where I grew up, wakes me and shakes me and
says, "Boy, stop feeling sorry for yourself. You
gotta carry on."

Made me realize I had to depend on me. No one was
going to do sh*t for me. You hear me? No one. I
could praise Jesus till I'm blue in the face. I
could fall on my knees and plead. Pray till the
cows come home. But Mama ain't coming back.

So if Mama gave me religion, the religion said,
"Believe in yourself."

--Ray Charles (1930—2004)
American pianist and soul singer.
_Brother Ray_ [2004], "The Last Days of Brother Ray"

-

Self-pity is our worst enemy, and if we yield to
it, we can never do anything wise in the world.
--Helen Keller (1880—1968)
American author and educator who was blind and deaf.

Everybody in the world ought to be sorry for everybody
else. We all have our little private hell.
--Bettina von Hutten (1874—1957)
_The Halo_ [1907]

-----

pule [PYOOL], intransitive verb:
To whimper; to whine.
Ex.: The first lady initially flourished as a wronged wife precisely
because she endured her humiliation so stoically; she did not
whine or pule or treat her pain as license to behave badly.
--Michelle Cottle, "God Almighty",
_New Republic_ [6 September 1999]



SELF-RESPECT

.
.

see "CHARACTER" for related links
see also: "SELF-ESTEEM"


That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to
displease the people by doing what you know is right,
than to temporarily please them by doing what you
know is wrong.
--Rev. William John Henry Boetcker (1873—1962)
German-born American minister and author.

I prefer to be true to myself, even at the
hazard of incurring the ridicule of others,
rather than to be false, and to incur my
own abhorrence.
--Frederick Douglass [Frederick Augustus Washington Bailey]
(c.1818—1895)
American abolitionist, reformer, and writer.

Regard not so much what the World thinks of thee,
as what thou thinkest of thyself.
--Thomas Fuller (1654—1734)
English writer and physician.
Comp., _Introductio ad Prudentiam_ [1731]

Self-respect is the fruit of discipline; the sense
of dignity grows with the ability to say No to
oneself.
--Abraham Joshua Heschel (1907—1972)
Jewish theologian and philosopher.
_The Insecurity of Freedom: Essays on Human Existence_ [1967], ch. 3

He that respects himself is safe from others;
he wears a coat of mail that none can pierce.
--Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (1807—1882)
American poet.
"Michael Angelo" [1872]

Self-respect: the secure feeling that
no one, as yet, is suspicious.
--H.L. (Henry Louis) Mencken (1880—1956)
American journalist and literary critic.
_A Book of Burlesques_ [1916], ch. 11

Polonius:
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.
--William Shakespeare (1564—1616)
English dramatist.
_Hamlet_, Act I, Scene iii.

Self-respect is to the soul as oxygen is
to the body. Deprive a person of oxygen
and you kill his body; deprive him of self-
respect and you kill his spirit.
--Thomas Szasz (1920— )
American psychiatrist.
"Social Relations" in _The Second Sin_ [1973]



SELF-RIGHTEOUSNESS

.
.

see: "CONCEIT"
see: "HYPOCRISY"
see: "MORAL CERTAINTY"


Cant is the twin sister of hypocrisy.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister;
[brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.]

[T]he greatest menace to our civilization today is the conflict between
giant organized systems of self-righteousness — each system only too
delighted to find that the other is wicked — each only too glad that
the sins give it the pretext for still deeper hatred and animosity. The
effect of the whole situation is barbarizing.
--Herbert Butterfield (1900—1979)
British historian and religious thinker.
_Christianity, Diplomacy and War_, p. 43 [1953]

Cant is the voluntary overcharging or prolongation of a real
sentiment; hypocrisy is the setting up a pretension to a feeling
you never had and have no wish for.
--William Hazlitt (1778—1830)
English essayist.

Self-righteousness is a manifestation of self-contempt.
--Eric Hoffer (1902—1983)
American longshoreman, philosopher,
and author who received the Presidential
Medal of Freedom in 1982.
_The Ordeal of Change_ [1964], ch. 11



SELF-SACRIFICE

.
.

If [Sydney Carton] had given any utterances to his
[last thoughts], . . . they would have been these: . . .
'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have
ever done; it is a far, far better rest that I go to
than I have ever known.
--Charles Dickens (1812—1870)
English novelist.
Closing words of _A Tale of Two Cities_ [1859].



SELFISH

.
.

see "GREED"


Selfishness is that detestable vice which no one will
forgive in others, and no one is without in himself.
--Henry Ward Beecher (1813—1887)
American Congregational minister;
[brother of Harriet Beecher Stowe, son of Lyman Beecher.]

We are all selfish and I no more trust
myself than others with a good motive.
--Lord Byron [George Gordon Byron] (1788—1824)
English Romantic poet and satirist.
Letter to Lady Melbourne [28 September 1813].

A man is called selfish not for pursuing his own
good, but for neglecting his neighbor's.
--Richard Whately (1787—1863)
English philosopher and theologian.



SELLING OUT

.
.

see "DECEPTION" for related links
see "IMMORALITY" for related links


Most people sell their souls, and live with
a good conscience on the proceeds.
--Logan Pearsall Smith (1865—1946)
American-born man of letters.
_Afterthoughts_ [1931], "Other People"

-----

venal [VEE-nuhl], adjective:
1. Capable of being bought or obtained for money or other valuable
consideration; held for sale; salable; purchasable.
2. Capable of being corrupted.
3. Marked by or associated with bribery and corrupt dealings.



SEMANTICS

.
.

see "LANGUAGE" for related links


I used to think I was poor. Then they told me I
was not poor, I was needy. They told me it was
self-defeating to think of myself as needy, I was
deprived. They told me underprivileged was overused.
I was disadvantaged. I still do not have a dime but
I have a great vocabulary.
--Jules Feiffer (1929— )
American cartoonist and author.

-----

euphemism (noun) ['yu-fκ-mi-zm]
A less offensive word substituted for an offensive one.
janitor = custodian
crippled = impaired


end page



| SACRED - SANTA CLAUS | SARCASM - SCHOOL | SCIENCE - SCULPTURE | SEA (THE) - SEEING | SELF - SELF-ESTEEM | SELF-EXAMINATION - SEMANTICS | SENATE (THE U.S.) - SERIOUSNESS | SEX | SEX SYMBOLS - SHEEP | SHIPS - SILENCE | SILLINESS - SINGING | SINGLE-MINDEDNESS - SKY | SLANDER - SMILES | SMOKING - SOCIETY | SOLDIERS - SOPHISTICATION | SORROW - SOUTH SEA | SPACE - SPEAKING | SPEECH - SPENDTHRIFTS | SPIDERS - SPY | SPORTS & SPORTSMANSHIP | STAGE (THE) - STERILIZATION | STOCK MARKET - STRANGERS | STRENGTH - SUBURBS | SUCCESS | SUFFERING - SUPREME COURT | SURPRISE - SYSTEM (THE) |
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