The Enquiry

The unexamined life is not worth living.  Plato

To understand others is to have knowledge; to understand oneself is to be liberated.  Lao-tzu

What I call perfection of vision is not seeing others but oneself.  Chuang-tzu

Our self-knowledge is our beauty: in self-ignorance we are ugly.  Plotinus

You know the value of everything - except yourself! The vital problem is to discover whether you are vile or fortunate.  Rumi

If you want peace of mind and true unity of purpose, you must put all things behind you and look on yourself.  Thomas A'Kempis

It is an extraordinary blindness to live without investigating what we are.  Pascal

All Christian religion consists wholly in this, to learn to know ourselves, whence we come and what we are.  Boehme

To understand everything except yourself is very comical.  Kierkegaard

I will see if I have no meaning, while the houses and ships have meaning.  Whitman

Who is it that repeats the Buddha's name? We should try to find out where this who comes from and what it looks like.  Hsu-yun

Forgetfulness of the Self is the source of all misery.  Ramana Maharshi

What is the use of knowing about everything else when you do not yet know Who you are? Self-enquiry is the one infallible means, the only direct one, of realising the unconditioned, absolute Being you really are.  Ramana Maharshi

To be completely honest with oneself is the very best effort a human being can make.  Freud

No age has known so much, so many different things, about man; no age has known less than ours what man is.  Heidegger


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