C. S. Lewis Quotes

If you can't forgive yourself, you think you're never going to be able to forgive yourself, and you repeat the same behavior.

That heart alone is hard which does not shudder at itself for not feeling its hardness.

Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice.

I don't even remember why I called myself an idiot. I can be very harshly critical of myself. It depends on my mood, and obviously it depends on where I am in my life. Yes, embracing myself - I'm working on that.

I have concluded through careful empirical analysis and much thought that somebody is looking out for me, keeping track of what I think about things, forgiving me when I do less than I ought. Giving me strength to shoot for more than I think I’m capable of. I believe they know everything that I do and think, and they still love me, and I’ve concluded, after careful consideration, that this person keeping score is me.

I am ashamed to be a member of the human race but I don't want to add any more to that shame, I want to scrape a little of it off.

Judging yourself to be full of virtue paralyses. Judging yourself to be full of guilt also paralyses.

I want a man who knows something about himself. And is appalled. And has to forgive himself to get along.

Forgive many things in others; nothing in yourself.

I've always been someone who is pretty hard on herself. But I've lightened up a lot.

I'm hard on myself, so I'm working on shifting perspective toward self-acceptance, with all my flaws and weaknesses.

I know I've done good things, I know I've done bad things.

Occupy yourself in beholding and bewailing your own imperfections rather than contemplating the imperfections of others.

It's not a gift of mine, but one given to me, to be able to criticise myself and not be crushed, by myself or by others.

I see myself capable of arrogance and brutality... That's a fierce thing, to discover within yourself that which you despise the most in others.

I'm my worst critic, and I like the fact that I can listen to myself now and make fun of myself, listen, make changes - 'Oh, man, that's messed up. Okay, I need to work on that; I need to work on this.'

Neither blame or praise yourself.

I see myself out of my own eyes, which means I have no idea what's going on the other way around. I just think I try to be a good person - and I fail.

I think I have a better sense of my weaknesses - being self-important, selfish and having a big ego probably triggers all the other stuff. I can see myself more clearly.

I kind of learned that I am way too tough of a critic on myself and that other people are not judging me as harshly as I judge myself, so I need to give myself a break.

If you don't understand yourself you don't understand anybody else.

I have a pretty clear picture of the whole weight of my life, and there are things that I've done that are good, and I'm proud of them. There are things that I'm really not proud of, and that they, you have to look at me with a perspective, and I try really hard to do that, to keep from thinking I'm cool and ever so smart.

And I had this big, long list of what I wanted in a guy but I realized I didn't stack up to the list myself.

There's something very touching to me about someone almost communicating to themselves in some way - trying to come to some deeper understanding of yourself and having compassion for yourself.

I don't feel like a very nostalgic person. I think about the past much more clinically. When I look back and wonder, 'Why was I doing that? Was it a waste of time?' I don't beat myself up. Instead, I say, 'I'm so glad I did that, because now I really know what matters to me.'