Over the long centuries of human existence, manythe best and wisest of its representatives have accumulated in the collective consciousness a lot of amazingly accurate, precise and immortal phrases, which still serve as a source of knowledge for us, including about themselves. The statements about oneself, self-knowledge and inner content of our personality contain useful subjects, delving into which, we can tune into positive thinking, learn to achieve success, or just understand a lot about our own inner world. Moreover, acquaintance with such aphorisms is a direct way to the so-called moral knowledge. It, as Aristotle said, unlike ordinary knowledge, does not force us to establish facts, but puts us before moral truths or maxims that move us ourselves to some actions.
First of all, statements about oneself suggest that,that we know ourselves too little. Our self-esteem may be overstated or understated, but we rarely understand what treasures we have. Therefore, the Roman Stoic Publius points out to us that what is most important is not what the surrounding audience thinks we are, but what we really are. With the ancient Romans in this respect, poets and writers of later ages quite agree - Leo Tolstoy notices that often a man who considers himself a slave, penetrating into his essence, realizes that in fact, he is a king. And Omar Khayyam asserts that everything we need, we are able to find in ourselves: if we go in search of love, it means that we are already loved, and if we are looking for treasures, we need to look into the most secret mine.
It is interesting that such statements about oneselfare characteristic not only of ancient philosophers or masters of the word - they are quoted in parables and quotations from religious texts. It's not for nothing that the Gospel speaks about the Kingdom of God that is inside us, and Osho Rajneesh tells a parable about where God decided to hide, so that people would not get Him by prayers. He hides in the place where a person almost never peeps, in his own heart. Ukrainian wandering philosopher Grigory Skovoroda assures us that all our happiness, and paradise, and God will be with us and in our heart as long as we are with them.
Self-statements that can be read amongquotes and volatile phrases from the lips of great people, very often devoted to self-knowledge topics. Cicero and Marcus Aurelius call to know themselves, and in general to begin with this very process of cognition. But how to do that? Confucius warns us that this is not easy, because you can not believe your eyes, or rely on your heart. But the author of "Faust", the German classic Goethe, believes that self-knowledge is achieved only by fulfilling the duty, and the same Omar Khayyam assures that all our dreams of great accomplishments make no sense until we learn to control ourselves.
But to own oneself does not mean at allsuppress their impulses and keep their identity in check, - warn the great. The famous mocker Voltaire advises living in peace and getting along with himself. Interesting statements about themselves belong also to Stefan Zweig and Nikolai Chernyshevsky who agree that self-knowledge and inner peace help us not only to find a treasure that can not be lost but understand other people and their motives. So we can achieve very important things - to move from understanding ourselves to understanding others, to fall in love with them, and perhaps to come to changing ourselves, not humanity, as Leo Tolstoy advised. So we can achieve the greatest success in life.
Thus, beautiful statements about yourselfhelp us not only to understand our own essence and build relationships with other people, but even to think about complex things that are far from everyday life - who we are, where we are going, why we live in the world. Thus, we are approaching to comprehend eternal truths, enrich our personality and change even a small piece of the world around us. And there, who knows? Perhaps, with the help of such small steps, we will be able to locate the surrounding people and, at least, try to live freely and dignifiedly. That, as Camus said, have the strength and courage to choose what the soul is to, and not to give up on it.
