Discovering who you are and what you deep down want out of life is not always an easy thing.
Expectations and goals of others like family, friends and society in general can confuse or lead you astray. Staying in your comfort zone for too much of your time will likely not help that much either.
But what can be helpful and inspire you to go on your own personal journey of self-discovery is the 125 quotes on knowing yourself in today’s post.
I hope you’ll find something motivating and illuminating here no matter if you want to know yourself better, find more inner peace or you need help to navigate after a breakup or other big life event.
And if you want even more inspiration to help you explore your inner self then check out this post with quotes on focusing on yourself for self-empowerment and this one filled with you are enough quotes.
Inspirational Quotes About Finding Yourself
“To find yourself, think for yourself.”
Socrates
“Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.”
Carl Jung
“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.”
George Moore
“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.”
E.E Cummings
“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”
Mahatma Gandhi
“Sometimes when you lose your way, you find yourself.”
Mandy Hale
“The quickest way to find your true self is to forget who you are.”
Marty Rubin
“The only journey is the journey within.”
Rainer Maria Rilke
“All men should strive to learn before they die what they are running from, and to, and why.”
James Thurber
“You will recognize your own path when you come upon it, because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need.”
Jerry Gillies
“When you devote your life to ‘finding yourself,’ you probably won’t.”
Laura Schlessinger
“There is no satisfaction that can compare with looking back across the years and finding you’ve grown in self-control, judgment, generosity, and unselfishness.”
Ella Wheeler Wilcox
“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.”
Aldous Huxley
“One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.”
Blaise Pascal
“It is the individual who knows how little they know about themselves who stands the most reasonable chance of finding out something about themselves before they die.”
S. I. Hayakawa
“Never allow someone to be your priority while allowing yourself to be their option.”
Mark Twain
“Each man’s life represents a road toward himself.”
Herman Hesse
“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.”
James A. Froude
“Know yourself. Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.”
Ann Landers
“Someday, somewhere anywhere, unfailingly, you’ll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.”
Pablo Neruda
“Finding oneself and one’s path is like waking up on a foggy day. Be patient, and presently the fog will clear and that which has always been there can be seen. The path is already there to follow.”
Rasheed Ogunlaru
“The only way to learn who you are is to leave home.”
Sana Krasikov
“It’s a life’s journey of finding ourselves, finding our power, and living for yourself, not for everyone else.”
Mariska Hargitay
“All scars bring us closer to our deeper self.”
Bert McCoy
“Why should we honor those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show as reckless a courage in entering into the abyss of himself.”
William Butler Yeats
“You can find a better you inside of you. Why don’t you search for that?”
Munia Khan
“For most men life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed.”
Clifton Fadiman
“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.”
Epictetus
“When you make the finding yourself even if you’re the last person on Earth to see the light you’ll never forget it.”
Carl Sagan
“You never find yourself until you face the truth.”
Pearl Bailey
“Resolve to be thyself; and know that he who finds himself, loses his misery.”
Matthew Arnold
“I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.”
Eleanor Roosevelt
“You’ve got to find yourself first. Everything else will follow.”
Charles De Lint
“The moment you know yourself, you have known the most precious thing in existence.”
Osho
“It‘s not about your wildest dreams coming true but being able to dream the wildest side of you.”
Talismanist Giebra
“It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most inconvenient one, too.”
H.W. Shaw
“Be who you are, and find yourself so you can be your own person and enjoy life with no regret.”
Bonnie Zackson Koury
“Most importantly, you must always have faith in yourself.”
Elle Woods
“One of the greatest regrets in life is being what others would want you to be, rather than being yourself.”
Shannon L. Alder
“What you discover on your own is always more exciting than what someone else discovers for you – it’s like the marriage between romantic love and an arranged marriage.”
Terrence Rafferty
“First find the man in yourself if you will inspire manliness in others.”
Amos Bronson Alcott
“One’s own self is well hidden from one’s own self; of all mines of treasure, one’s own is the last to be dug up.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart.”
Julien Green
“The well bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves.”
Oscar Wilde
“To discover who you really are you will need to get out of your comfort zone.”
Unknown
“One was a book I read by Mahatma Gandhi. In it was a passage where he said that religion, the pursuing of the inner journey, should not be separated from the pursuing of the outer and social journey, because we are not isolated beings.”
Satish Kumar
“Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.”
St. Augustine
“I was once afraid of people saying, ‘Who does she think she is?’ Now I have the courage to stand and say, ‘This is who I am.’”
Oprah Winfrey
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
Carl Jung
Quotes About Finding Yourself Again (After a Breakup or Big Life Event)
“People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.”
Thomas Szasz
“Your relationship with yourself sets the tone for every other relationship you have.”
Robert Holden
“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.”
Jean de La Fontaine
“Letting go doesn’t mean that you don’t care about someone anymore. It’s just realizing that the only person you really have control over is yourself.”
Deborah Reber
“Don’t worry about finding your soul mate. Find yourself.”
Jason Evert
“Owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that we’ll ever do.”
Brene Brown
“As I began to love myself, I found that anguish and emotional suffering are only warning signs that I was living against my own truth. Today, I know, this is authenticity.”
Charlie Chaplin
“It is so important to take time for yourself and find clarity. The most important relationship is the one you have with yourself.”
Diane Von Furstenberg
“Your real self may be hiding somewhere, look for it within, when you find yourself, you can freely be what you want to be.”
Michael Bassey Johnson
“It’s been a long time since I’ve been me.”
Fernando Pessoa
“All the wonders you seek are within yourself.”
Thomas Browne
“Whatever it takes to find the real you, don’t be daunted if the rest of the world looks on in shock.”
Stephen Richards
“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.”
Lao Tzu
“You really have to look inside yourself and find your own inner strength, and say, ‘I’m proud of what I am and who I am, and I’m just going to be myself.”
Mariah Carey
“You cannot find yourself till you lose yourself.”
Abhijit Naskar
“Unlike many other journeys, when it comes to finding self and matters of the heart you’ll swiftly find yourself lost if you follow someone else’s”
Rasheed Ogunlaru
“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.”
Dolly Parton
“You can love them, forgive them, want good things for them … but still move on without them.”
Mandy Hale
“You don’t have to know where you’re going to get exactly where you need to go.”
Marilyn A. Hepburn
“You’ve got to know yourself so you can at last be yourself.”
D. H. Lawrence
“Don’t be afraid of who you’re not.. Be afraid of never knowing who you are. Defend your authentic self.”
Karen Laffey
“I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.”
Michel de Montaigne
“The woman who does not require validation from anyone is the most feared individual on the planet.”
Mohadesa Najumi
“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.”
Henry David Thoreau
“If you’re being ignored, that’s a good time to concentrate on finding yourself and creating your own mystery.”
Lykke Li
“Finding yourself is just the beginning. Making the best of what you find is the real challenge.”
Drishti Bablani
“When you know yourself you are empowered. When you accept yourself you are invincible.”
Tina Lifford
“Life is not about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.”
George Bernard Shaw
“Be who you are, and find yourself so you can be your own person and enjoy life with no regret.”
Bonnie Zackson Koury
“Find yourself; it’s worth the treasure.”
Amaranthine Poetry
“Every time you thought you couldn’t keep moving forward, you did. Take a moment to appreciate your strength.”
Karen Salmanson
“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self.”
Benjamin Franklin
“With movement comes identity.”
Karl Kristian Flores
Finding Happiness and Inner Peace Within Yourself Quotes
“It’s a helluva start, being able to recognize what makes you happy.”
Lucille Ball
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
Aristotle
“It takes courage…to endure the sharp pains of self-discovery rather than choose to take the dull pain of unconsciousness that would last the rest of our lives.
Marianne Williamson
“I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.”
Maya Angelou
“Stop living someone else’s definition of happiness and start living your own.”
David Paul Vosburg
“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”
Maya Angelou
“And into the forest, I go, to lose my mind and find my soul.”
John Muir
“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”
Lao Tzu
“Love the life you have while you create the life of your dreams.”
Hal Elrod
“I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.”
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
“Don’t spend all of your time trying to find yourself. Spend your time creating yourself into a person that you’ll be proud of.”
Sonya Parker
“When you combine hard work, creativity, and self-determination things start to happen.”
Sophia Amoruso
“If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.”
James A. Michener
“Of any activity you do, ask yourself: If I were the last person on earth, would I still do it?”
Steven Pressfield
“Until you value yourself, you won’t value your time. Until you value your time, you won’t do anything with it.”
M. Scott Peck
“Never be in a hurry; do everything quietly and in a calm spirit. Do not lose your inner peace for anything whatsoever, even if your whole world seems upset.”
St. Francis de Sales
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.”
Henry David Thoreau
“The pleasure which we most rarely experience gives us the greatest delight.”
Epictetus
“People have a hard time letting go of their suffering. Out of a fear of the unknown, they prefer suffering that is familiar.”
Thich Nhat Hanh
“True success is reaching our potential without compromising our values.”
Muhammad Ali
“If there’s no inner peace, people can’t give it to you. The husband can’t give it to you. Your children can’t give it to you. You have to give it to you.”
Linda Evans
“Find yourself and you will find your freedom.”
Gillian Duce
“Yesterday, I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today, I am wise, so I am changing myself.”
Rumi
“Peace comes from within. Do not seek it without.”
Buddha
“Set peace of mind as your highest goal, and organize your life around it.”
Brian Tracy
“Find the love you seek, by first finding the love within yourself. Learn to rest in that place within you that is your true home.”
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar
“Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.”
Richard Wright
“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.”
Eckhart Tolle
“Learning to ignore things is one of the great paths to inner peace.”
Robert J. Sawyer
“The greatest discovery in life is self-discovery. Until you find yourself you will always be someone else. Become yourself.”
Myles Munroe
“Lovely days don’t come to you, you should walk to them.”
Rumi
“He who lives in harmony with himself lives in harmony with the universe.”
Marcus Aurelius
“Happiness is within. It has nothing to do with how much applause you get or how many people praise you. Happiness comes when you believe that you have done something truly meaningful.”
Martin Yan
“How we perceive a situation and how we react to it is the basis of our stress. If you focus on the negative in any situation, you can expect high stress levels. However, if you try and see the good in the situation, your stress levels will greatly diminish.”
Catherine Pulsifer
“The simplification of life is one of the steps to inner peace. A persistent simplification will create an inner and outer well-being that places harmony in one’s life.”
Peace Pilgrim
“Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.”
Joseph Campbell
“When you do the right thing, you get the feeling of peace and serenity associated with it. Do it again and again.”
Roy T. Bennett
“I don’t have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness—it’s right in front of me if I’m paying attention and practicing gratitude.”
Brené Brown
“We can never obtain peace in the outer world until we make peace with ourselves.”
Dalai Lama
“Tension is who you think you should be. Relaxation is who you are.”
Chinese proverb
“To climb steep hills requires a slow pace at first.”
William Shakespeare
“Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?”
Rumi
Want even more motivation to help you with self discovery? Check out this post with timeless advice on knowing your true worth and value and also this one that’s filled to the brim with helpful quotes on finding inner peace.