Introspection

Explore 6 quotes about Introspection

The unexamined life is not worth living.

Socrates

Quoted in Apology, by Plato

Buy the Apology at Amazon Buy the Apology at Amazon
Read the Apology at MIT's classics department website

More information about this quote

Topic

Philosophy Introspection Self-criticism Self-knowledge Wisdom

Speaker

Socrates

Author

Plato

Source

Apology

Medium

Courtroom speech Speech

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

399 BC 390s BC 4th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Plato. Ἀπολογία Σωκράτους [Apology of Socrates]. Speech of legal self-defence which Socrates spoke at his trial for impiety and corruption. 399 BC, Athens, Greece.

Current Citation

Plato. "Apology." Plato: Euthyphro; Apology; Crito; Phaedo, translated by Christopher Emlyn-Jones and William Preddy. Harvard University Press, 2017.

Know thyself.

Thales

Quoted in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, by Diogenes Laërtius

Buy The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers at Amazon Buy The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers at Amazon
Read The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Introspection Self-knowledge Self-awareness Wisdom

Speaker

Thales

Author

Diogenes Laërtius

Source

The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers

Medium

Presocratic fragment Fragment

Genre

Philosophical literature

Statement Type

Advice

Language

Greek

Time

3rd century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Thales. Quoted in The Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laërtius. c. 240 AD, bk. 1, ch. 1.

Current Citation

Thales. Quoted in The Lives of Eminent Philosophers, written by Diogenes Laërtius, translated by Pamela Mensch, edited by James Miller. Oxford University Press, 2018, bk. 1, ch. 1.

I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

Buy Walden at Amazon Buy Walden at Amazon
Read Walden at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Simple living Introspection Life lessons Purpose of life

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Where I Lived, And What I Lived For Walden

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Where I Lived, And What I Lived For." Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Where I Lived, And What I Lived For." Walden and Civil Disobedience. Signet, 2012.

Rummaging in our souls, we often dig up something that ought to have lain there unnoticed.

Leo Tolstoy

Anna Karenina

Buy Anna Karenina at Amazon Buy Anna Karenina at Amazon
Read Anna Karenina at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-discovery Introspection

Speaker

Alexei Alexandrovich

Author

Leo Tolstoy

Source

Anna Karenina

Medium

Novel

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

Russian

Time

1877 1870s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Анна Каренина [Anna Karenina]. The Russian Messenger, 1875-1877. Serial.

Current Citation

Tolstoy, Leo. Anna Karenina, translated by Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky. Penguin Classics, 2014.

I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart: I am, I am, I am.

Sylvia Plath

The Bell Jar

Buy The Bell Jar at Amazon Buy The Bell Jar at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-knowledge Introspection

Speaker

Esther Greenwood

Author

Sylvia Plath

Source

The Bell Jar

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1963 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 0

Citation

Plath, Sylvia [published as Victoria Lucas]. The Bell Jar. William Heinemann, 1963.

Who has not sat nervously before the stage curtain of his heart?

Rainer Maria Rilke

More information about this quote

Topic

Introspection Vulnerability Fear

Author

Rainer Maria Rilke

Medium

Poem

Language

German

Time

1923 1920s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Rilke, Rainer Maria. "Die vierte Elegie [Fourth Elegy]." Duineser Elegien [Duino Elegies]. Insel-Verlag, 1923.

Current Citation

Rilke, Rainer Maria. Duino Elegies, translated by David Young. W. W. Norton & Company, 2006.