If you want to remember yourself, the best thing is not to think about yourself. As long as you think about yourself, you will not remember yourself.
P.D. OuspenskyRead
You can understand other people only as much as you understand yourself and only on the level of your own being. This means you can judge other people's knowledge but you cannot judge their being. You can see in them only as much as you have in yourself. But people always make the mistake of thinking they can judge other people's being. In reality, if they wish to meet and understand people of a higher development than themselves they must work with the aim of changing their being.
Interpretation
What this quote means
True understanding of others stems from self-awareness and personal development.
This quote by P.D. Ouspensky emphasizes that our ability to comprehend others is limited by our own self-knowledge and personal growth. It suggests that while we can evaluate what others know, we cannot fully assess their essence or existence unless we actively strive to elevate our own being. The quote highlights the importance of introspection and the pursuit of self-improvement in our relationships with others.
Themes
UnderstandingSelf-AwarenessPersonal GrowthJudgmentDevelopment
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be shared in a personal development workshop to inspire attendees to reflect on their self-awareness.
More from P.D. Ouspensky
All quotes →I have become so accustomed to think "scientifically" that I am afraid even to imagine that there may be something else beyond the outer covering of life. I feel like a man condemned to death, whose companions have been hanged and who has already become reconciled to the thought that the same fate awaits him.
P.D. OuspenskyRead
Can one alter one´s chief feature?" asked someone else. First it is necessary to know it. If you know it, much will depend on the quality of your knowing. If you know it well, then it is possible to change it.
P.D. OuspenskyRead
People live in sleep, do everything in sleep, and do not know they are asleep.
P.D. OuspenskyRead
We often think we express negative emotions, not because we cannot help it, but because we should express them.
P.D. OuspenskyRead
When a man begins to know himself a little he will see in himself many things that are bound to horrify him. So long as a man is not horrified at himself he knows nothing about himself.
P.D. OuspenskyRead
Similar quotes
If I am against the condition of the world, it is not because I am a moralist - it is because I want to laugh more.
Henry MillerRead
A human life is a story told by God.
Hans Christian AndersenRead
People no longer try to decipher the mystery of life but choose instead to be a part of it.
Paulo CoelhoRead
All the fish needs is to get lost in the water. All man needs is to get lost in Tao.
ZhuangziRead
Your primary purpose is to be here fully, and to be total in whatever you do so that the preciousness of the present moment does not become reduced to a means to an end. And there you have your life purpose. That's the very foundation of your life.
Eckhart TolleRead
Idiots, the lame, the blind, the dumb, are men in whom the devils have established themselves: and all the physicians who heal these infirmities, as though they proceeded from natural causes, are ignorant blockheads.
Martin LutherRead