Quotes about Reflection

In literature, too, it is not great achievement to memorize what you have read while not formulating an opinion of your own.

For if we had any sense, what else should we do, both in public and in private, than sing hymns and praise the deity, and recount all the favours that he has conferred!

On the occasion of every accident (event) that befalls you, remember to turn to yourself and inquire what power you have for turning it to use.

I want to die, even though I don't have to.

Who is a friend? His answer was, a second self (alter ego).

Don't just say you have read books. Show that through them you have learned to think better, to be a more discriminating and reflective person. Books are the training weights of the mind. They are very helpful, but it would be a bad mistake to suppose that one has made progress simply by having internalized their contents.

We must consider what is the time for singing, what the time for play, and in whose presence: what will be unsuited to the occasion; whether our companions are to despise us, or we to despise ourselves: when to jest, and whom to mock at: and on what occasion to be conciliatory and to whom: in a word, how one ought to maintain one's character in society. Wherever you swerve from any of these principles, you suffer loss at once; not loss from without, but issuing from the very act itself.

Tis true I know what evil I shall do but passion overpowers the better council.

greatness of reason is measured not by height or length, but by the quality of its judgements.

Philosophy's purpose is to illuminate the ways our soul has been infected by unsound beliefs, untrained tumultuous desires, and dubious life choices and preferences that are unworthy of us. Self-scrutiny applied with kindness is the main antidote.

If you are praised by others, be skeptical of yourself.

If you are kissing your child or wife, say that it is a human being whom you are kissing, for when the wife or child dies, you will not be disturbed.