Zora Neale Hurston Quotes

I used to be weird about it, but I think sometimes you can learn from watching yourself and all the mistakes you make and try to continue growing. But I'm completely uncomfortable for sure.

'What am I missing?' is a much more important question than 'How cool am I?'

I resolve for 1920 to sit down all by myself and take a personal stock-taking once a month. To be no more charitable in viewing my own faults than I am an viewing the faults of others. To face the facts candidly and courageously. To address myself carefully, prayerfully, to remedying defects.

He that fancies himself very enlightened, because he sees the deficiencies of others, may be very ignorant, because he has not studied his own.

I don't pretend for a second that I'm that great of a person on a day-to-day basis. I'm a deeply flawed human.

whatever our ignorance left to itself, and whatever the wounds that other human beings are, we ought to study ourselves with a sort of devotion.

Progression, in my opinion, is often identifying shortcomings - whether it's views or the things you're doing in your life, your relationships - and trying to find the places where you improve on those.

It's rare for artists to really stare deeply at themselves in the mirror, literally, because there's constantly a mirror on you. But figuratively speaking, I'm really into growth, so when I look in the mirror, I see somebody who's just trying to get better everyday.

The first step to improvement, whether mental, moral, or religious, is to know ourselves - our weaknesses, errors, deficiencies, and sins, that, by divine grace, we may overcome and turn from them all.

Ask yourself this question everyday: What is it about me that other people would change if they could?

It is good to see ourselves as others see us. Try as we may, we are never able to know ourselves fully as we are, especially the evil side of us. This we can do only if we are not angry with our critics but will take in good heart whatever they might have to say.

Analyze thy life's experiences, see thy shortcomings, see thy virtues. Minimize those faults, magnify and glorify thy virtues.

You need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and not come away thinking, "Hey, there's something wrong with this mirror."

No man has a chance to enjoy permanent success until he begins to look in a mirror for the real cause of all his mistakes.

When you blame and criticize others, you are avoiding some truth about yourself.

You will never be an inwardly religious and devout man unless you pass over in silence the shortcomings of your fellow men, and diligently examine your own weaknesses.

Be sensitive to your mistakes. Put it on the wall for a couple of weeks. It may be that you can learn more from the study of your own work than from others.

If those persons, who fancy themselves gifted with both the power and the right to define and punish other men's vices, would but turn their thoughts inwardly, they would probably find that they have a great work to do at home; and that, when that shall have been completed, they will be little disposed to do more towards correcting the vices of others, than simply to give to others the results of their experience and observation.

Get to know yourself. Know your own failings, passions, and prejudices so you can separate them from what you see. Know also when you actually have thought through to the nature of the thing with which you are dealing and when you are not thinking at all... Knowing yourself and knowing the facts, you can judge whether you can change the situation so it is more to your liking. If you cannot--or if you do not know how to improve on things--then discipline yourself to the adjustments that will be necessary.

We are on a perilous margin when we begin to look passively at our future selves, and see our own figures led with dull consent into insipid misdoing and shabby achievement.

I wish I could say confidently that pacing remains my weak point, if you could talk about your own stuff without sounding like you're self-obsessed. But I think you kind of have to be.

We justify ourselves when we should judge ourselves. If we learned humility, it might spare us the humiliation.

Be an earnest student of yourself. Study your leading desires and tendencies.