Have you ever wondered what exactly you want from life? Perhaps you’ve taken the first step towards finding yourself, but haven’t yet come across a path leading to self-discovery. We’ll be the first to admit, this isn’t an overnight process and requires quite a bit of soul searching.
It may seem self-centered to start a journey of self-discovery, but it is actually an unselfish process that helps the whole community. In order to be a valuable member of society, the best partner, parent, child, etc., we have to know who we are. Every person has to map their own journey and overcome unique challenges that reflect their talents, skills, and dreams. Here are 61 finding yourself quotes to aid you on your journey of self-discovery.
60+ Finding Yourself Quotes
1.“Somehow, we’ll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be. But for now, we simply have to be satisfied with who we are.” – Brandon Sanderson, The Hero of Ages
2.“People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.” – Thomas Szasz
3.“Not until we are lost do we being to understand ourselves.” – Henry David Thoreau
4.“I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
5.“One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.” – Blaise Pascal
6.“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” – Dolly Parton
7.“It’s not about finding a home so much as finding yourself.” – Jason Behr
8.“You’ve got to find yourself first. Everything else’ll follow.” – Charles de Lint
9.“We lose ourselves in things we love. We find ourselves there, too.” – Kristin Martz
10.“In the end, you don’t so much find yourself as you find someone who knows who you are.” – Robert Brault
11.“I suggest that the only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little further down our particular path than we have yet gone ourselves.” – E.M. Forster
12.“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.” – Lao Tzu
13.“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.” – Benjamin Franklin
14.“We often need to lose sight of our priorities in order to see them.” – John Irving
15.“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war, we find out who we are.” – Kristin Hannah
16.“We can’t be afraid of change. You may feel very secure in the pond that you are in, but if you never venture out of it, you will never know that there is such a thing as an ocean, a sea. Holding onto something that is good for you now, may be the very reason why you don’t have something better.” – C. JoyBell C
17.“Not until we are lost, do we begin to understand ourselves.” – Henry David Thoreau
18.“My advice to young people everywhere: Choose schools that encourage self-discovery early on. Don’t be afraid to buck convention. And when someone asks you what you want to do with the rest of your life, take the time to really think about it.” – Jedediah Bila
19.“Before you can be anything, you have to be yourself. That’s the hardest thing to find.” – E.L. Konigsburg
20.“Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.” – Shannon L. Alder
21.“Many men go fishing all of their lives without knowing that it is not fish they are after.” – Henry David Thoreau
22.“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” – Aldous Huxley
23.“I see my path, but I don’t know where it leads. Not knowing where I’m going is what inspires me to travel it.” – Rosalia de Castro
24.“The most satisfying journey is the journey you take inward with yourself.” – Nitin Namdeo
25.“Before looking for a soul mate you should look for your own soul.” – Nitin Namdeo
26.“The delights of self-discovery are always available.” – Gail Sheehy
27.“Don’t spend all of your time trying to FIND yourself. Spend your time CREATING yourself into a person that you’ll be proud of.” – Sonya Parker
28.“Your real self may be hiding somewhere, look for it within, when you find yourself, you can freely be what you want to be.” – Michael Bassey Johnson
29.“Be who you are, and find yourself so you can be your own person and enjoy life with no regret.” – Bonnie Zackson Koury
30.“When you fight yourself to discover the real you, there is only one winner.” – Stephen Richards
31.“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” – Carl Jung
32.“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.” Marcel Proust
33.“Self-discovery often happens when we move out of our comfort zone and change the norm.” Fola O’Martins
34.“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.” – James A. Froude
35.“It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too.” – H.W. Shaw
36.“You never find yourself until you face the truth.”- Pearl Bailey
37.“I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”- Maya Angelou
38.“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”- Aldous Huxley
39.“It’s a life’s journey of finding ourselves, finding our power, and living for yourself, not for everyone else.”- Mariska Hargitay
40.“Someday, somewhere – anywhere, unfailingly, you’ll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.”- Pablo Neruda
41.“There is no satisfaction that can compare with looking back across the years and finding you’ve grown in self-control, judgment, generosity, and unselfishness.”- Ella Wheeler Wilcox
42.“First keep peace with yourself, then you can also bring peace to others.” – Thomas Kempis
43.“A calm and modest life brings more happiness than the pursuit of success combined with constant restlessness.”- Albert Einstein
44.“The true source of happiness is within each of us.” – Chris Prentiss
45.“It is the individual who knows how little they know about themselves who stands the most reasonable chance of finding out something about themselves before they die.” – S. I. Hayakawa
46.“For most men, life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed.” – Clifton Fadiman
47.“A man who finds no satisfaction in himself will seek for it in vain elsewhere.” – La Rochefoucauld
48.“‘Know thyself?’ If I knew myself, I’d run away.” – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
49.“It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too.” – H.W. Shaw
50.“All wonders you seek are within yourself.” – Sir Thomas Browne
51.“Resolve to be thyself; and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery.” – Matthew Arnold
52.“Like an old gold-panning prospector, you must resign yourself to digging up a lot of sand from which you will later patiently wash out a few minute particles of gold ore.” – Dorothy Bryant
53.“Who in the world am I? Ah, that’s the great puzzle.” – Lewis Carroll, Alice in Wonderland
54.“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love we find out who we want to be; in war we find out who we are.” – Kristin Hannah, The Nightingale
55.“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” – Nelson Mandela
56.“A wise man travels to discover himself.” – James Russell Lowell
57.“Crises refine life. In them you discover what you are.” – Allen K. Chalmers
58.“The self must know stillness before it can discover its true song.” – Ralph Brum
59.“A mentor is someone who allows you to see the hope inside yourself.” – Oprah Winfrey
60.“Something we were withholding made us weak, until we found it was ourselves.” – Robert Frost
61.“All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.” – James Thurber
Best Video on Finding Yourself
What people seem to fear most are fault, rejection, and trouble. But what if, by learning how to grieve, you could learn to get on with life? Halle Richards explains how, instead of living in fear of imperfections, she chooses to embrace her flaws.
Summary
The path towards finding yourself is your own and it doesn’t happen overnight. In most cases, you already have a head start in the journey since you know a little bit about yourself. But it takes time, patience, and energy to dig deep. The process is very similar to getting to know someone else.
At the end of the day, you are in charge of the journey and where it leads. Don’t be afraid to make judgment calls and recalibrate the journey every now and then. We hope these quotes inspired you to take the next steps towards self-discovery. Stay tuned to this space for more quotes.
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I’m Alice Judy and AnQuotes is a fun hobby for me. We know that everyone loves a great quote and our mission here is simple – to be the best and most interesting quote site in the world! If you have quotes you would like us to cover, please contact us.
