Personal growth

Explore 57 quotes about Personal growth

Whatever you are, try to be a good one.

William Makepeace Thackeray

Buy A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs at Amazon Buy A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs at Amazon
Read A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-improvement Personal growth

Speaker

William Makepeace Thackeray

Source

A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1897 1890s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Citation

Thackeray, William Makepeace. Quoted in A Boy I Knew and Four Dogs, written by Laurence Hutton. London: Harper & Brothers, 1898.

A man should never be ashamed to own he has been in the wrong, which is but saying, in other words, that he is wiser today than he was yesterday.

Alexander Pope

More information about this quote

Topic

Learning from mistakes Personal growth

Author

Alexander Pope

Source

Thoughts on Various Subjects

Language

English

Time

1727 1720s 18th century

Era

Age of Enlightenment

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Pope, Alexander. "Thoughts on Various Subjects." Swifts's Miscellanies. London, 1727, no. 11.

When we are no longer able to change a situation... We are challenged to change ourselves.

Viktor Frankl

Man's Search for Meaning

Buy Man's Search for Meaning at Amazon Buy Man's Search for Meaning at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Powerlessness Changing oneself Personal growth

Author

Viktor Frankl

Source

Man's Search for Meaning

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

German

Time

1946 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Frankl, Victor. …trotzdem Ja zum Leben sagen: Ein Psychologe erlebt das Konzentrationslager [Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy]. Verlag für Jugend und Volk, 1946.

Current Citation

Frankl, Victor. Man's Search for Meaning. Beacon Press, 2006.

It was one of those events which at a crucial stage in one's development arrive to challenge and stretch one to the limit of one's ability and beyond, so that thereafter one has a new standard by which to judge oneself.

Kazuo Ishiguro

The Remains of the Day

Buy The Remains of the Day at Amazon Buy The Remains of the Day at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Overcoming obstacles Personal growth

Author

Kazuo Ishiguro

Source

The Remains of the Day

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

1989 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Ishiguro, Kazuo. The Remains of the Day. Faber & Faber, 1989.

Not a having and a resting, but a growing and a becoming, is the character of perfection as culture conceives it.

Matthew Arnold

Culture and Anarchy

Buy Culture and Anarchy at Amazon Buy Culture and Anarchy at Amazon
Read Culture and Anarchy at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Personal growth

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Culture and Anarchy

Genre

Sociology

Language

English

Time

1869 1860s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Arnold, Matthew. "Sweetness and Light." Culture and Anarchy: An Essay in Political and Social Criticism. London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1869. Originally published in Cornhill Magazine, 1867–68.

The only way to be new is constantly to change yourself, and the only way to be original is to increase, enlarge, deepen your own personality.

W. Somerset Maugham

More information about this quote

Topic

Creativity Originality Self-improvement Personal growth

Author

W. Somerset Maugham

Source

Journals of W. Somerset Maugham

Medium

Personal journal

Language

English

Time

1949 1940s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Maugham, William Somerset. A Writer's Notebook. Greenwood Press, 1970.

Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that's something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we're just stuck with what we've got. We're on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn't it? And also—if this isn't too grand a word—our tragedy.

Julian Barnes

The Sense of an Ending

Buy The Sense of an Ending at Amazon Buy The Sense of an Ending at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Character Personal growth The human condition

Author

Julian Barnes

Source

The Sense of an Ending

Medium

Novel

Language

English

Time

2011 2010s 21st century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Barnes, Julian. The Sense of an Ending. Jonathan Cape/Alfred A. Knopf, 2011, ch. 2.

I find the great thing in this world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving. To reach the port of heaven, we must sail sometimes with the wind and sometimes against it,—but we must sail, and not drift, nor lie at anchor.

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Every Man His Own Boswell

Read The Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table at Project Gutenberg

More information about this quote

Topic

Personal growth Stagnation

Author

Oliver Wendell Holmes

Source

Every Man His Own Boswell The Atlantic

Medium

Magazine

Statement Type

Metaphor, analogy and simile

Language

English

Time

1858 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Holmes, Oliver Wendell, Sr. "Every Man His Own Boswell." The Atlantic Monthly. Boston: Phillips, Sampson and Company, Feb. 1858.

No man has ever been entirely and completely himself. Yet each one strives to become that-one in an awkward, the other in a more intelligent way, each as best he can.

Hermann Hesse

Demian

Buy Demian at Amazon Buy Demian at Amazon

More information about this quote

Topic

Personal growth Authenticity

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Demian

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Language

German

Time

1919 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Herman. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend [Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth]. Fischer Verlag, 1919.

Current Citation

Hesse, Herman. Demian, translated by Damion Searls. Penguin Classics, 2013.

The soul's dark cottage, batter'd and decay'd,
Lets in new light through chinks that Time has made;
Stronger by weakness, wiser, men become
As they draw near to their eternal home.
Leaving the old; both worlds at once they view,
That stand upon the threshold of the new.

Edmund Waller

On the Divine Poems

More information about this quote

Topic

Personal growth Effects of time Acquiring wisdom

Author

Edmund Waller

Source

On the Divine Poems

Language

English

Time

1686 1680s 17th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Waller, Edmund. "On the Foregoing Divine Poems." Poetical Works of Edmund Waller and Sir John Denham. Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1857.

I'm using art as a means of changing myself, as a means of breaking out of a category.

Vito Acconci

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-expression Personal growth Art

Speaker

Vito Acconci

Source

Sexuality: Documents of Contemporary Art

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

1971 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 1

Original Citation

Acconci, Vito. Interviewed by Cindy Nemser. c. 1971.

Current Citation

Acconci, Vito. Sexuality: Documents of Contemporary Art, edited by Amelia Jones. Whitechapel Gallery/The MIT Press, 2014.

If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves.

Carl Jung

More information about this quote

Topic

Raising kids Parents and children Change starts at home Self-improvement Personal growth

Author

Carl Jung

Source

The Development of Personality

Genre

Psychological literature

Language

German

Time

1939 1930s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Jung, Carl. The Integration of Personality, translated by Stanley Dell. Farrar & Rinehart, 1939.

I believe that it's very important to experience a radical rupture, discontinuity or transformation of meaning during your life, but the earlier it happens the better.

Anri Sala

More information about this quote

Topic

Transformative experiences Paradigm shift Personal growth Experiences

Speaker

Anri Sala

Medium

Interview

Language

Albanian

Time

2006 2000s 21st century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Sala, Anri. Quoted in Anri Sala (Phaidon Contemporary Artists Series), written by Hans Ulrich Obrist. Phaidon Press, 2006.

In a dying culture, narcissism appears to embody-in the guise of personal "growth" and "awareness"-the highest attainment of spiritual enlightenment. The custodians of culture hope, at bottom, merely to survive its collapse.

Christopher Lasch

The Culture of Narcissism

More information about this quote

Topic

Decadence Personal growth

Author

Christopher Lasch

Source

The Culture of Narcissism

Genre

Sociology

Language

English

Time

1979 1970s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Lasch, Christopher. The Culture of Narcissism: American Life in an Age of Diminishing Expectations. W. W. Norton & Company, 1979, ch. 10.

Everyone has the potential for self-knowledge and sound thinking.

Heraclitus

More information about this quote

Topic

Self-knowledge Human potential Personal growth

Author

Heraclitus

Medium

Presocratic fragment Fragment

Genre

Philosophical literature

Language

Greek

Time

5th century BC

Era

Classical antiquity

Authentication Score 0

Original Citation

Xenophanes. Fragments. 5th century BC, F31 - DK22 B116.

Current Citation

Xenophanes. "Xenophanes of Colophon." The First Philosophers: The Presocratics and Sophists. Oxford World Classics, 2009, F31 - DK22 B116.

Though bitter, good medicine cures illness. Though it may hurt, loyal criticism will have beneficial effects.

Sima Qian

More information about this quote

Topic

Openness to criticism Criticism Personal growth

Author

Sima Qian

Source

Records of the Grand Historian

Genre

Historical literature

Language

Chinese

Time

109 BC 100s BC 2nd century BC

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Suma Quin. Written sometime around c. 110 BC.

Current Citation

Suma Qian. Records of the Grand Historian of China, translated by Burton Watson. Vol. 2, Columbia University Press, 1961, ch. 118.

I'm only trying to do what I can't do.

Lucian Freud

More information about this quote

Topic

Pushing one's limits Personal growth

Speaker

Lucian Freud

Source

Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere

Medium

Interview

Language

English

Time

20th century

Authentication Score 1

Citation

Freud, Lucian. Portraits: Talking with Artists at the Met, the Modern, the Louvre and Elsewhere. Interviewed by Michael Kimmelman. Random House, 1998, p. 109.