When you’re looking for the best self help quotes, sometimes it can be hit or miss. For instance, such a broad term can easily lead you down a path of superficial statements and simple “just think positively” mumbo jumbo.
How to Use Self Help Quotes for Personal Growth
Whether you’re looking for famous quotes or inspirational quotes, the Internet can often be challenging when it comes to pinpointing the perfect motivational message or heartfelt observation on the human condition. However, nothing is perfect and it would likely be much more challenging to come up with great self improvement gems by sifting through the self help section of your local bookstore. In that light, maybe the web isn’t so bad after all. Maybe it’s just what we need to pinpoint the self help quotes that restore our vitality and connectedness.
To begin, why don’t we take a look at some of the more revealing and thought provoking self help quotes? Of course, these are merely my suggested quotes and it is my hope that you will use them as a springboard in your continual self discovery and evolution. Now, let’s open the first of our self help quotes with a gem from the legendary comedian, George Carlin.
Speaking about the apparent contradiction of looking in books to improve oneself, Mr. Carlin remarked: “I went to a bookstore and asked the saleswoman, ‘Where’s the self help section?’ She said if she told me, it would defeat the purpose.”
This quote shines an interesting light on the notion that in most cases, less is more. For instance, it’s easy to end up in a philosophical cul-de-sac if all you’re doing is reading self help books or listening to endless tapes on how to “be here now.” However, don’t take this to mean that all articles and authors are meaningless; in fact, many of them have the potential to transform your life. It’s just very easy to get up in the cycle of looking for the next technique or self improvement shtick instead taking action right now. So, if you find yourself suffering from “paralysis by analysis”, immediate action can be a powerful antidote. For instance, just by using one of these self help quotes or one of your favorites, you can let the words inspire you and take action knowing that even the smallest of steps is still a step in the right direction.
To sum up this idea, a particular quote from the philosopher Alan Watts can help us: ”When you get the message, hang up the phone.” In other words, once you experience some insight and understanding, go and practice that philosophy and use the book or practice as a tool to help you grow and evolve. For instance, if you have a dream or talent you’re passionate about, do that. Make time for it. Turn off the television and pursue your passion.
Using Self Help Quotes to Explore Your Passions
By using your passion as a fire starter for self improvement, you won’t go wrong. As Henry Ford once put it, “Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.”
Sure, you can always find reasons to put off your dream or delay the process of taking that first step. But the key lies in moving forward irregardless. By taking action on a regular basis and focusing on your goal, your determination and confidence will harden to the point that not even the most distracting obstacles will be able to deter you from your goal.
If you consider yourself to be a spiritual seeker, then perhaps this quote from Eckhart Tolle may resonate with you: “Spiritual seekers look for self-realization or enlightenment in the future. To be a seeker implies that you need the future. If this is what you believe, it becomes true for you: you will need time until you realize that you don’t need time to be who you are.”
In other words, there’s nothing to do or become in a spiritual sense that will change what you already are. Don’t depend on time to bring you the answers. The ultimate question – or the “open secret” as some call it – can only be realized and experienced in the present moment. By simply allowing yourself to be as you are – and allowing everything else to be as it is – you’d be surprised how quickly your life, perception and experiences can be utterly transformed.
Finally, here are some more self help quotes to ponder. I hope you enjoy them.
“Very often the only way to get a quality in reality is to start behaving as if you had it already.” Quote by C. S. Lewis.
“The turning point in the process of growing up is when you discover the core of strength within you that survives all hurt.” Quote by Max Lerner.
“A man’s maturity consists in having found again the seriousness one had as a child, at play.” Quote by Friedrich Nietzsche.
“To live with fear and not be afraid is the final test of maturity.” Quote by Edward Weeks.
“He who sets a very high value upon himself has a less need to be esteemed by others.” Quote by Samuel Butler.
“Study the heart and the mind of man, and begin with your own. Agitation and reflection must lay the foundation of that knowledge, experience and practice must, and alone can, complete.” Quote by Lord Chesterfield.
“The purpose of life is undoubtedly to know oneself. We cannot do it unless we learn to identify ourselves with all that lives. The sum total of that life is God. The instrument of this knowledge is boundless, selfless service.” Quote by Mohandas Gandhi.
“God helps the sailor, but he must row.” German saying.
“Respect yourself if you would have others respective.” Quote by Baltasar Gracian.
“The hope of the world lies in what one demands, not of others, but of oneself.” Quote by James Baldwin.
“Hope begins and the dark, the stubborn hope that if you just show up and try to do the right thing, the dawn will come. You wait and watch and work: you don’t give up.” Quote by Anne Lamott.