The way we conduct ourselves says a lot about who we are, what we believe in, and what matters most to us. In life, actions always speak louder than words. These self reflection quotes will allow you to see deeper inside yourself to discover what makes you tick.
With the kind of life we live nowadays, it can be difficult to find time to understand our character, actions and motives. We are busy trying to earn a living and keeping up with our lifestyles that we hardly find time for introspection.
But despite how busy our lives might be, it’s important to make time for self-reflection because it’s a crucial ingredient of success. Famous athletes like Michael Jordan, successful TV personalities like Oprah Winfrey and even world re-known scholars all acknowledge the importance of self-reflection for a successful and happy life.
Being one with your thoughts helps you shift your mindset from negative to positive. Self-reflection helps you understand you response to various situations, allowing you to deal with them positively.
How do you reflect on yourself?
By self-reflecting, you get to process your thoughts and feelings and understand why you feel the way you do. Understanding and being in control of your thoughts and feelings is one of the ways you can change your behavior for the better and be able to achieve your goals.
To help ignite your future, below is our collection of inspirational, wise and thoughtful self reflection quotes, self reflection sayings, and self reflection proverbs, collected from a variety of sources over the years.
Don’t forget to also read our compilation of wise Ram Dass quotes as well as these future quotes for more inspiration.
Self Reflection Quotes to Ignite Your Future
1. ”The journey into self-love and self-acceptance must begin with self-examination… until you take the journey of self-reflection, it is almost impossible to grow or learn in life.” – Iyanla Vanzant
2. ”What we perceive about ourselves is greatly a reflection of how we will end up living our lives.” – Stephen Richards
3. ”Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.” – Carl Jung
4. ”It is always our own self that we find at the end of the journey. The sooner we face that self, the better.” – Ella Maillart
5. ”I visualize where I wanted to be, what kind of player I wanted to become. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I focused on getting there.” – Michael Jordan
6. ”The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face.” – William Makepeace Thackeray
7. ”Our self-image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.” —Maxwell Maltz
8. ”One of the greatest tragedies in life is to lose your own sense of self and accept the version of you that is expected by everyone else.” —K.L. Toth
9. ”The cosmos is evolving toward greater self-reflection, allowing us to open the eye of Spirit and see our source.” —Alex Grey
10. ”Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes.” —Lawrence Bossidy
Don’t forget to read these mirror quotes that will elevate your perspective.
Self reflection quotes to help brighten your future
11. ”If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.” —Marcus Garvey
12. ”The promises of this world are, for the most part, vain phantoms; and to confide in one’s self, and become something of worth and value is the best and safest course.” —Michel Angelo
13. ”You cannot have a meaningful life without having self-reflection.” —Oprah Winfrey
14. ”Honest self-reflection opens your mind to reprogramming, change, success and freedom.” —Unknown
15. ”Self-reflection is the school of wisdom.” – Baltasar Gracian
16. ”Doubt, not self-reflection, comes from a destructive energy, and when it rears its head, I talk to it like a lunatic.” —Gwyneth Paltrow
17. ”Women need real moments of solitude and self-reflection to balance out how much of ourselves we give away.” – Barbara De Angelis
18. ”There is one art of which people should be masters – the art of reflection.” – Samuel Taylor Coleridge
19. ”Friendship with one’s self is all important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.” —Eleanor Roosevelt
20. ”The people accusing me of being productive don’t know how hard it is for me to just bend my elbow sometimes.” – Lena Dunham
Also check out these one day at a time quotes and sayings to live by.
Self reflection quotes to help you grow
21. ”Self-reflection entails asking yourself questions about your values, assessing your strengths and failures, thinking about your perceptions and interactions with others, and imagining where you want to take your life in the future.” – Robert L. Rosen
22. ”Emotions are there to enjoy life; but they are not used in self-reflection because they inhibit a proper reflection. They gunk us up.” – Frederick Lenz
23. ”Difficulty creates the opportunity for self-reflection and compassion.” – Suzan-Lori Parks
24. ”Self-reflection is the gateway to freedom. It also brings greater appreciation and enjoyment. We begin to enjoy spending time with our own mind, and we enjoy reflecting on our experience of the teachings. Like the sun emerging from behind the clouds, the teachings of the dharma become clear.” – Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche
25. ”A worldview is probably an expression of self.” —Michael Leunig
26. ”It is great to be introspective, self-analysis can be useful, but only if it results in action.” —Joe Sacco
27. ”These years in silence and reflection made me stronger and reminded me that acceptance has to come from within and that this kind of truth gives me the power to conquer emotions I didn’t even know existed.” – Ricky Martin
28. ”Everyone and everything that shows up in our life is a reflection of something that is happening inside of us.” – Alan Cohen
29. ”Your self-esteem won’t come from body parts. You need to step away from the mirror every once in a while, and look for another reflection, like the one in the eyes of the people who love you and admire you.” – Stacy London
30. ”By three methods we may learn wisdom: First, by reflection, which is noblest; Second, by imitation, which is easiest; and third by experience, which is the bitterest.” – Confucius
Self reflection quotes for a healthy relationship with yourself
31. ”Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful.” – Margaret J. Wheatley
32. ”True self is non-self, the awareness that the self is made only of non-self-elements. “ —Nhat Nanh
33. ”Self-reflection is an important stage to diagnose, develop and strengthen your creativity.” —Pearl Zhu
34. ”The ultimate mystery is one’s own self.” —Sammy Davis
35. ”To realize the Self is to be still.” —Ramana Maharshi
36. ”The self is only that which it is in the process of becoming.” —Kirkegaard
37. ”Like water which can clearly mirror the sky and the trees only so long as its surface is undisturbed, the mind can only reflect the true image of the Self when it is tranquil and wholly relaxed.” —Indra Devi
38. ”We cannot see our reflection in running water. It is only in still water that we can see.” – Zen
39. ”Reflection is the lamp of the heart. If it departs, the heart will have no light.” – Abdullah ibn Alawi al-Haddad
40. ”Reflection on the infinite seems to call, almost by definition, for infinite reflection.” – Daniel Taylor
Have you seen these silence quotes on the importance of reflection?
Self reflection quotes to give you inspiration and motivation
41. “Reflection is one of the most underused yet powerful tools for success.” – Richard Carlson
42. “Reflection can transform something familiar.” – Diane L. Dunton
43. “We have so committed ourselves in different ways that we have hardly any time for self-reflection, to observe, to study.” —Jiddu Krishnamurti
44. “Your greatest self has been waiting your whole life; don’t make it wait any longer.” —Dr. Steve Maraboli
45. “We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.” – John Dewey
46. “No matter where you are in life right now, no matter who you are, no matter how old you are – it is never late to be who you are meant to be.” – Esther and Jerry Hicks
47. “If you are not evolving, you are dying.” – Marcus Lemonis
48. “Unless you learn to face your own shadows, you will continue to see them in others, because the world outside you is only a reflection of the world inside you.” – Unknown
49. “People who have had little self-reflection live life in a huge reality blind-spot.” – Bryant McGill
50. “You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company.” – Diane von Furstenberg
Quotes about self reflection to make you a better person
51. “Examining your thoughts is an important part of the practice of self-reflections” —Ryuho Okawa
52. “Engaging in meditative self-reflection and gaining increased control of inner experiences provides a person with a sense of control over fear and trembling and the chaos of life.” —Kilroy J. Oldster
53. “We don’t realize that, somewhere within us all, there does exist a supreme self who is eternally at peace.” —Elizabeth Gilbert
54. “Self-reflection is a desire felt by the body, as well as the soul.” —Susan Griffin
55. “True freedom is the capacity for acting according to one’s true character, to be altogether one’s self, to be self-determined and not subject to outside coercion.” —Corliss Lamont
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of character quotes about the power of integrity.
56. “To achieve happiness I advocate four major principles, the principles of love, wisdom, self-reflection, and progress.” —Ryuho Okawa
57. “When the mind is still, the beauty of the self is seen reflected in it.” –B.K.S Iyengar
58. “Time spent in self-reflection is never wasted – it is an intimate date to yourself.” —Paul T.P. Wong
59. “One must find the source within one’s own Self, one must possess it.” —Hermann Hesse
60. “When your higher self is present, it always promotes peace.” —Wayne Dyer
61. “We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”— May Sarton
62. “Self-reflection is a kind of self-judgment. The difference is just this – the former is positive and the latter is negative.” —Balroop Singh
63. “There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” — Aldos Huxley
64. “Remind yourself that you cannot fail at being yourself.” — Wayne Dyer
65. “Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water.” – Elizabeth Gilbert
Self reflection quotes to elevate your mind
66. “I’m a work in progress, and I hope I will never be complete.”― Nick Frost
67. “Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” – Aristotle
68. “Examination of our past is never time-wasting. Reverberations from the past provide learning rubrics for living today.”― Kilroy J. Oldster
69. “When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” — Paulo Coelho
70. “We are chained by our own control. Life is nothing more than finding the key that unlocks every part of our soul.”― Shannon L. Alder
71. “There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self.” — Ernest Hemingway
72. “During self-reflection, the realization came that revolution begins within.”― Amanda Mosher
73. “It is not as much about who you used to, as it is about who you choose to be.” — Sanhita Baruah
74. “There is no greater journey than the one that you must take to discover all of the mysteries that lie within you.” – Michelle Sandlin
75. “The unexamined life is not worth living.” — Socrates
More self reflection quotes and sayings
76. “I had the urge to examine my life in another culture and move beyond what I knew.” – Frances Mayes
77. “Knowledge of the self is the mother of all knowledge. So it is incumbent on me to know myself, to know it completely.” – Kahlil Gibran
78. “Close your eyes and stare into the dark.” – Cecelia Ahern
79. “It’s not the plan that is important, it’s the planning.” – Graeme Edwards
If you’re enjoying these quotes, make sure to read our collection of planning quotes to help you take control of your life.
80. “Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are.” – Brene Brown
81. “Don’t bother just to be better than your contemporaries or predecessors. Try to be better than yourself.” – William Faulkner
82. “Without deep reflection one knows from daily life that one exists for other people.” – Albert Einstein
83. “He that knows himself, knows others.” – Charles Caleb Colton
84. “Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be?” – Charles Bukowski
85. “Blessed are those who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.” – Anonymous
Which of these self reflection quotes was your favorite?
It is almost impossible to succeed in life without taking time to reflect on your actions. At first, self-reflection may feel like a task but with time, you will be used to it and you’ll look forward to it.
By knowing you are you, you will accept yourself more and know your strengths and your weaknesses. This is a crucial step in being successful. So create time to self-reflect and you’ll be amazed by how your life changes. Let the above quotes guide and inspire you to succeed.
Did you enjoy these self reflection quotes? Which of the quotes resonated with you best? Let us know in the comment section below.
