Knowing Yourself

“Examine your own selves, whether you are in the faith. Test your own selves.”

“If he looks around with open eyes, and also studies himself at the same time, he will soon recognise that the faults which most disturb him in others are very strongly marked in himself and a cause of annoyance to his neighbours!”

“Behold, God's Kingdom is within you.”

“Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but don't consider the beam that is in your own eye?”

“Let each man direct himself first to what is proper, then let him teach others; thus a wise man will not suffer.”

“Only that which he himself enters into with his intuitive perception, thereby bringing it to personal experience within himself, will be useful to him in the maturing of his spirit.”

“The spirit of man is the LORD's lamp, searching all his innermost parts.”

“For now we see in a mirror, dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully, even as I was also fully known.”

“Unfortunately, however, man has acquired the morbid habit of always reaching beyond himself, because he imagines himself to be more than he actually is!”

“For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man looking at his natural face in a mirror; for he sees himself, and goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was.”

“He who knows other men is discerning; he who knows himself is intelligent.”

“Behold, you desire truth in the inward parts. You teach me wisdom in the inmost place.”

“The continued concentration of his thoughts upon himself is a form of self-torment.”

“I will give thanks to you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Your works are wonderful. My soul knows that very well.”

“If a man make himself as he teaches others to be, then, being himself well subdued, he may subdue (others); one's own self is indeed difficult to subdue.”

“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

“Since you have been precious and honored in my sight, and I have loved you.”

“The fact remains that a man who gets excited about this or that fault in another person is sure to have these same faults to a far greater extent within himself!”

“The LORD, your God, is among you, a mighty one who will save. He will rejoice over you with joy. He will calm you in his love. He will rejoice over you with singing.”

“See how great a love the Father has given to us, that we should be called children of God!”

“There are people who excuse many of their faults, even to themselves, as being due to their temperament! That is wrong!”

“But the very hairs of your head are all counted. Therefore don't be afraid. You are of more value than many sparrows.”

“Not the perversities of others, not their sins of commission or omission, but his own misdeeds and negligences should a sage take notice of.”

“For you formed my inmost being. You knit me together in my mother's womb.”

“All that a man does he does himself and of his own free will. Thus he is not being fettered, but he fetters himself.”

“Yet I will not forget you! Behold, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands.”

“Yes, I have loved you with an everlasting love. Therefore I have drawn you with loving kindness.”

“It is just in his so-called leisure hours that you can best recognise the real inner man, when his daily work is done and he has lost the outer hold on life provided by his special field of knowledge.”

“What is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that you care for him? For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and crowned him with glory and honor.”

“God created man in his own image. In God's image he created him; male and female he created them.”

“Only a man of cheerful volition who keeps his gaze freely concentrated upon a sublime goal, instead of continually focusing all his attention upon himself, only he will advance and ascend towards the Luminous Heights.”

“If a man hold himself dear, let him watch himself carefully.”

“The sage knows (these things) of himself, but does not parade (his knowledge); loves, but does not (appear to set a) value on, himself.”

“And one's own soul is not to be made unrespected in any mode, and is always to be kept in remembrance.”

“You have to grow from the inside out. None can teach you, none can make you spiritual. There is no other teacher but your own soul.”

“LORD, you have searched me, and you know me.”

“For I say through the grace that was given me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of yourself more highly than you ought to think; but to think reasonably, as God has apportioned to each person a measure of faith.”

“Intellect is the highest of what is earthly, and is meant to be the steering element through life on earth, whereas the driving power is the intuitive perception, which originates in the Spiritual World.”

“For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.”

“The wisdom of the prudent is to think about his way, but the folly of fools is deceit.”

“The basis of the intellect therefore is the physical body, but the basis of the intuitive perception is the spirit.”

“All the ways of a man are clean in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the motives.”

“If a man looks after the faults of others, and is always inclined to be offended, his own passions will grow, and he is far from the destruction of passions.”

“Every way of a man is right in his own eyes, but the LORD weighs the hearts.”

“Only certainty about the answer to that great question “What am I?” can lead to ascent!”

“Who can discern his errors? Forgive me from hidden errors.”

“But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”

“Only when man actually becomes what he should be and ceases to cling to what he wishes to be can he speak of a true humanity!”

“Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

“For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.”

“Fools of little understanding have themselves for their greatest enemies, for they do evil deeds which must bear bitter fruits.”

“Doing nothing through rivalry or through conceit, but in humility, each counting others better than himself.”

“The pictures of the intuitive perception are genuine and full of living power, while the pictures of the feeling, i.e., the imagination, are deceptions produced with borrowed power!”

“Let another man praise you, and not your own mouth; a stranger, and not your own lips.”

“He who displays himself does not shine; he who asserts his own views is not distinguished; he who vaunts himself does not find his merit acknowledged; he who is self-conceited has no superiority allowed to him.”

“Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will exalt you.”

“To carry the spirit within does not suffice to be a human being, for a creature does not become a human being unless it allows the spirit as such to work within!”

“So then each one of us will give account of himself to God.”

“Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him.”

“Whoever allows the spirit to come to activity within himself can only walk on the path to the Light. This will ennoble and uplift him ever more, so that finally wherever he goes he will spread blessing around him!”

“For with these animals does no man reach the untrodden country (Nirvana), where a tamed man goes on a tamed animal, viz. on his own well-tamed self.”

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”

“LORD, my heart isn't arrogant, nor my eyes lofty; nor do I concern myself with great matters, or things too wonderful for me.”

“Vanity has become the most powerful poison for the soul, because man has cherished it as a shield and mask for all his shortcomings.”

“You hypocrite! First remove the beam out of your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck out of your brother's eye.”