Self–discovery is a process of understanding who you really are and becoming aware of your infinite potential, power, and purpose. In this article, we have collected 50 self-discovery quotes to inspire you on your journey to yourself.
50 Self-Discovery Quotes
#1
“Step into the fire of self-discovery. This fire will not burn you.” ~ Mooji
#2
“I have realized; it is during the times I am far outside my element that I experience myself the most. That I see and feel who I really am, the most! I think that’s what a comet is like, you see, a comet is born in the outer realms of the universe! But it’s only when it ventures too close to our sun or to other stars that it releases the blazing “tail” behind it and shoots brazen through the heavens! And meteors become sucked into our atmosphere before they burst like firecrackers and realize that they’re shooting stars! That’s why I enjoy taking myself out of my own element, my own comfort zone, and hurling myself out into the unknown. Because it’s during those scary moments, those unsure steps taken, that I am able to see that I’m like a comet hitting a new atmosphere: suddenly I illuminate magnificently and fire dusts begin to fall off of me! I discover a smile I didn’t know I had, I uncover a feeling that I didn’t know existed in me… I see myself. I’m a shooting star. A meteor shower. But I’m not going to die out. I guess I’m more like a comet then. I’m just going to keep on coming back.” ~ C. JoyBell C.
#3
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” ~ Aristotle
#4
“Outside, the ocean was crashing, waves hitting sand, then pulling back to sea. I thought of everything being washed away, again and again. We make such messes in this life, both accidentally and on purpose. But wiping the surface clean doesn’t really make anything neater. It just masks what is below. It’s only when you really dig down deep, go underground, that you can see who you really are.” ~ Sarah Dessen
#5
“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.” ~ Carl Jung
#6
“It is easier to live through someone else than to complete yourself. The freedom to lead and plan your own life is frightening if you have never faced it before. It is frightening when a woman finally realizes that there is no answer to the question ‘who am I’ except the voice inside herself.” ~ Betty Friedan
#7
“If I have learned anything in this long life of mine, it is this: in love, we find out who we want to be; in war, we find out who we are.” ~ Kristin Hannah
#8
“The most common ego identifications have to do with possessions, the work you do, social status and recognition, knowledge and education, physical appearance, special abilities, relationships, person and family history, belief systems, and often nationalistic, racial, religious, and other collective identifications. None of these is you.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
#9
“You’ll never be able to find yourself if you’re lost in someone else.” ~ Colleen Hoover
Self-Discovery Quotes
#10
“Your heart is the size of an ocean. Go find yourself in its hidden depths.” ~ Rumi
#11
“When I was little and running on the race track at school, I always stopped and waited for all the other kids so we could run together even though I knew (and everybody else knew) that I could run much faster than all of them! I pretended to read slowly so I could “wait” for everyone else who couldn’t read as fast as I could! When my friends were short I pretended that I was short too and if my friend was sad I pretended to be unhappy. I could go on and on about all the ways I have limited myself, my whole life, by “waiting” for people. And the only thing that I’ve ever received in return is people thinking that they are faster than me, people thinking that they can make me feel bad about myself just because I let them and people thinking that I have to do whatever they say I should do… I’m not waiting for anybody, anymore! I’m going to run as fast as I can, fly as high as I can, I am going to soar and if you want you can come with me! But I’m not waiting for you anymore.”
― C. JoyBell C.
#12
“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.” ~ Lao Tzu
#13
“One must still have chaos in oneself to be able to give birth to a dancing star.” ~ Friedrich Nietzsche
#14
“Self-observation is the first step of inner unfolding.” ~ Amit Ray
#15
“As a spiritual person, nature for me has always been a healing place. Going back all the way to my childhood on the farm, the fields and forests were places of adventure and self-discovery. Animals were companions and friends, and the world moved at a slower, more rational pace than the bustling cities where I’d resided my adult life.” ~ David Mixner
#16
“Do not limit yourself to your own preconceptions of yourself, but throw yourself out onto a blank page that you haven’t written on yet, and see what you find out about you, see what story unfolds, see what happens! I always do this, and sometimes it can be very frightening! To very often have a blank page with nothing written on it yet! I feel as though I am a soul with a single covering–my body of skin– and that’s the only thing between me on the inside and the rest of the world! It’s quite frightening to begin each day on a blank page, forgetting your own preconceptions of yourself and allowing your mind to embrace the new! It is like meeting yourself for the first time, over and over again!” ~ C. JoyBell C.
#17
“If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.” ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti
#18
“I think that’s the real loss of innocence: the first time you glimpse the boundaries that will limit your potential.” ~ Steve Toltz
Self-Discovery Quotes
#19
“The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the work of becoming yourself.” ~ Anna Quindlen
#20
“Finding happiness is like finding yourself. You don’t find happiness, you make happiness. You choose happiness. Self-actualization is a process of discovering who you are, who you want to be and paving the way to happiness by doing what brings you the most meaning and contentment to your life over the long run.” ~ David Leonhardt
#21
“A single event can awaken within us a stranger totally unknown to us.” ~ Antoine de Saint-Exupery
#22
“If you can go through life without experiencing pain you probably haven’t been born yet.” ~ Neil Simon
#23
“There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.” ~ Nelson Mandela
#24
“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
#25
“Your inner strength is your outer foundation.” ~ Allan Rufus
#26
“Self-transformation commences with a period of self-questioning. Questions lead to more questions, bewilderment leads to new discoveries, and growing personal awareness leads to transformation in how a person lives. Purposeful modification of the self only commences with revising our mind’s internal functions. Revamped internal functions eventually alter how we view our external environment.” ~ Kilroy J. Oldster
#27
“If you get the inside right, the outside will fall into place. Primary reality is within; secondary reality without.” ~ Eckhart Tolle
Self-Discovery Quotes
#28
“Courage doesn’t happen when you have all the answers. It happens when you are ready to face the questions you have been avoiding your whole life.” ~ Shannon L. Alder
#29
“Man has gone out to explore other worlds and other civilizations without having explored his own labyrinth of dark passages and secret chambers, and without finding what lies behind doorways that he himself has sealed.” ~ Stanislaw Lem
#30
“It is quite a revelation to discover that the place you wanted to escape to is the exact same place you escaped from. That the prison wasn’t the place, but the perspective.” ~ Matt Haig
#31
“I am proud that I defy your categories. I am proud that I don’t fit easily into any box. I am proud of all the things I am and all the things I can be. Question yourself every time you think you only see one thing in me.” ~ David Levithan
#32
“Spending time looking for what is missing in your life is futile; if you fail to look within yourself. When we challenge everything we believe we are, we reveal that which we never knew about our own selves.” ~ Nicolas G. Janovsky
#33
“The need to prove who you are will vanish once you know who you are.” ~ Danielle Pierre
#34
“I also believe that when people are going through difficult situations in life… it causes them to search a lot more. They search life and search their soul. When you’re searching, you’re suddenly a lot more open to the world around you, to the possibilities, to things you never thought about before. — When you’re happy, you don’t question the world so much. When you’re lost, you question everything. The very reason why it is so essential to human self-discovery.” ~ Cecelia Ahern
#35
“I count him braver who overcomes his desires than him who conquers his enemies, for the hardest victory is over self.” ~ Aristotle
#36
“It is only when you accept how different you all are, that you will be able to see how much the same you all are. Don’t expect anybody to be the same as you, then you will see that you are in many ways the same as everybody.” ~ C. JoyBell C.
Self-Discovery Quotes
#37
“The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours – it is an amazing journey – and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.” ~ Bob Moawad
#38
“It is when you lose sight of yourself, that you lose your way. To keep your truth in sight you must keep yourself in sight and the world to you should be a mirror to reflect to you your image; the world should be a mirror that you reflect upon.” ~ C. JoyBell C.
#39
“You find out who you are by figuring out who and what you’re not.” ~ Kelly Cutrone
#40
“People say you’re born innocent, but it’s not true. You inherit all kinds of things that you can do nothing about. You inherit your identity, your history, like a birthmark that you can’t wash off. … We are born with our heads turned back, but my mother says we have to face into the future now. You have to earn your own innocence, she says. You have to grow up and become innocent.” ~ Hugo Hamilton
#41
“Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” ~ Carl Jung
#42
“Self-discovery is the most empowering time of your life, you remember who you are and you become the best version of yourself but what they forget to tell you is, to get to a point of pleasure you must face the pain.” ~ Nikki Rowe
#43
“The most adventurous journey to embark on; is the journey to yourself, the most exciting thing to discover; is who you really are, the most treasured pieces that you can find; are all the pieces of you, the most special portrait you can recognize; is the portrait of your soul.” ~ C. JoyBell C.
#44
“After all these years, I am still involved in the process of self-discovery. It’s better to explore life and make mistakes than to play it safe. Mistakes are part of the dues one pays for a full life.” ~ Sophia Loren
#45
“Why escape your intended purpose by copying and trying to be someone else? You will discover who you were meant to be only after you have shown confidence being yourself.” ~ Suzy Kassem
Self-Discovery Quotes
#46
“Without self-knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave.” ~ G.I. Gurdjieff
#47
“The delights of self-discovery are always available.” ~ Gail Sheehy
#48
“I think self-discovery is the greatest achievement in life, because once you discover yourself and accept what you are, then you can fulfill your true potential and be happy.” ~ Marco Pierre White
#49
“It’s asking that never-ending question, ‘Who am I?’ which motivates me and takes me on a constant journey of self-discovery that teaches me so much. Will Everest make me more cautious? In reality, probably not.” ~ Ant Middleton
#50
“Self-discovery is above all the realization that we are alone: it is the opening of an impalpable, transparent wall – that of our consciousness – between the world and ourselves.” ~ Octavio Paz
We hope you are inspired by these self-discovery quotes as much as we are!