90 Best Self-Reflection Quotes To Contemplate

According to the dictionary, 'self-reflection' means the examination of one's own thoughts and feelings.

To understand it more, a synonym for self-reflection would be self-awareness or self-consciousness both of which also mean self-examination. Self-reflection quotes are all about getting to know one's own mind and people, finding clarity in life and self-image.  

Self-reflection isn't as simple and easy it sounds. To self-reflect is to find a way to look in the mirror and ask the reflection the hardest questions from the book of life, in introspection to past thoughts, acceptance to future thoughts in one's mind.

Self-reflection is more necessary for everyone to practice and continue to see as a part of one's daily routine.

It is usually best to have daily short walks, exercise, and meditation on a regular basis, at least once a day is the best method to self-reflect to love yourself every step of the way and people around you more and more.

That's why we must take a step, learn to face the mirror, and read these quotes on self-reflection to get a jumpstart to the day. These also include growth quotes, and a reflection of yourself quotes.

If you like this, check out self-awareness quotes and focus on yourself quotes.

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Best Self-Reflection Quotes

These are the best reflection quotes for you to love yourself more.

1. "Self-reflection is the gateway to freedom."

-Dzigar Kongtrul Rinpoche.

2. "Your greatest self has been waiting your whole life; don’t make it wait any longer."

-Dr. Steve Maraboli.

3. "Honest self-understanding liberates us from our stuck emotions."

-C Terry Warner.

4. "The world is a looking glass and gives back to every man the reflection of his own face."

-William Makepeace Thackeray.

5. "There are three principal means of acquiring knowledge... observation of nature, reflection, and experimentation."

-Denis Diderot.

6. "Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is."

- Jean Paul Sartre.

7. "Don’t believe everything you think."

-Byron Katie.

8. "Self-reflection entails asking yourself questions about your values... and imagining where you want to take your life in the future."

- Robert L. Rosen.

9. "Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom."

-Aristotle.

10. "Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power."

-Tao Te Ching.

11. "Self-reflection reveals self in motion."

-Alex Gillespie, 'Becoming Other: From Social Interaction And Self-Reflection'.

12. "Self-reflection is a desire felt by the body, as well as the soul."

-Susan Griffin.

13. "It's not differences that divide us. It's our judgments about each other that do."

-Margaret J Wheatley.

14. "I doubt that any such reflexive, knowledgeable, self-attribution is non-empirical."

-Tyler Burge, 'Cognition Through Understanding'.

15. "Honest self-reflection opens your mind to reprogramming, change, success, and freedom."

-Unknown.*

16. "Reflection is one of the most underused yet powerful tools for success."

-Richard Carlson.

17. "What we fear doing most is usually what we most need to do."

-Ralph Waldo Emerson.

18. "Women need real moments of solitude and self-sacrifice to balance out how much of ourselves we give away."

-Barbara de Angelis.

19. "The most important of life’s battles is the one we fight daily in the silent chambers of the soul."

-David O. McRay.

20. "Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life."

-Golda Meir.

21. "Self-awareness takes effort, but the rewards are rich."

-Graham Gordon Ramsey and Holly Barlow Sweet, 'A Creative Guide To Exploring Your Life'.  

22. "Reflection… Looking back so the view looking forward is clearer."

-Unknown.*

Funny Self-Reflection Quotes

Some people love their self-reflection with a little humor, for those who must take some laughs in introspection, here's the list of funny reflecting on life quotes.

23. "You’re always with yourself, so you might as well enjoy the company."

-Diane von Furstenberg.

24. "Follow effective action with quiet reflection."

-Peter F. Drucker.

25. "I think everybody’s weird. We should all celebrate our individuality and not be embarrassed or ashamed of it."

-Johnny Depp.

26. "In self-reflection, 'self' becomes an object to self."

-Alex Gillespie, 'Becoming Other: From Social Interaction And Self-Reflection'.

27. "Don’t become too preoccupied with what is happening around you. Pay more attention to what is going on within you."

-Mary-Frances Winters.

28. "Be playful in your self-explorations."

-Graham Gordon Ramsey and Holly Barlow Sweet, 'A Creative Guide To Exploring Your Life'.

29. "Do what you feel in your heart to be right- you’ll be criticized anyway."

-Eleanor Roosevelt.

30. "He that knows himself, knows others."

- Charles Caleb Colton.

31. "It requires as much caution to tell the truth as to conceal it.”

-Baltasar Gracian.

32. "There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self."

-Aldous Huxley.

33. "Close your eyes and stare into the dark."

- Cecelia Ahern.

34. "I choose the term self-reflection because it foregrounds the self. "

-Alex Gillespie, 'Becoming Other: From Social Interaction And Self-Reflection'.

35. "Zen masters say you cannot see your reflection in running water, only in still water."

-Elizabeth Gilbert.

36. "Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom."

-Tao Te Ching.

37. "The cosmos is evolving toward greater self-reflection, allowing us to open the eye of Spirit and see our source."

-Alex Grey.

Famous Self-Reflection Quotes

These famous quotes about reflecting will inspire you to love success and freedom more in the world outside, these reflection quotes by famous and confident people will help you learn.

38. "Self-reflection is the school of wisdom."

-Baltasar Gracian.

39. "Since everything is a reflection of our minds, everything can be changed by our minds."

-Buddha.

40. "Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives."

-B. R. Ambedkar.

41. "The self that arises in self-reflection exists in duration, not in a pinpoint present."

-Alex Gillespie, 'Becoming Other: From Social Interaction And Self-Reflection.'

42. "Being cool is being your own self, not doing something that someone else is telling you to do."

-Vanessa Hudgens.

43. "Time spent in self-reflection is never wasted – it is an intimate date to yourself."

-Paul TP. Wong.

44. "We need to explore not only our own self-reflections but also the way others see us."

-Graham Gordon Ramsey and Holly Barlow Sweet, 'A Creative Guide To Exploring Your Life'.

45. "We know a lot about ourselves, for example, by making inductions from self-observation."

-Tyler Burge, 'Cognition Through Understanding'.

46. "This above all; to thine own self be true."

-William Shakespeare.

47. "People who have had little self-reflection live life in a huge reality blind-spot."

-Bryant McGill

48. "I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection."

-Leonardo da Vinci.

49. "One must find the source within one’s own Self, one must possess it."

-Hermann Hesse.

50. "Forgiveness is a reflection of loving yourself enough to move on."

-Dr. Steve Maraboli.

51. "Without deep reflection, one knows from daily life that one exists for other people."

-Albert Einstein.

52. "Self-reflection is constrained."

-Alex Gillespie,' Becoming Other: From Social Interaction And Self-Reflection.'

53. "Self-awareness gives you the capacity to learn from your mistakes as well as your successes."

-Lawrence Bossidy.

54. "Facing you, loving you and accepting you as you are can be painfully challenging but it’s so necessary."

-Dan Voire.

55. "I did not try to fit self-knowledge of sensations into a general account, because knowing that one’s sensations do not hinge on the specification of representational content."

-Tyler Burge, 'Cognition Through Understanding'.

56. "Friendship with one’s self is all-important because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world."

-Eleanor Roosevelt.

57. "The unexamined life is not worth living."

-Socrates.

58. "I think self-awareness is probably the most important thing towards being a champion."

-Billie Jean King.

59. "Self-love requires you to be honest about your current choices and thought patterns and undertake new practices that reflect self-worth."

-Caroline Kirk.

Self-Reflection Quotes About Growth

These quotes about self-reflection and growth will motivate you to do something in life, love your life and appreciate yourself more.

60. "If we don’t change, we don’t grow, we aren’t really living."

-Gail Sheehy.

61. "The journey into self-love and self-acceptance must begin with self-examination until you take the journey of self-reflection, it is almost impossible to grow or learn in life."

-Iyanla Vanzant.

62. "It was to show that anti-individualism and non-empirical types of self-knowledge are compatible."

-Tyler Burge, 'Cognition Through Understanding'.

63. "Without reflection, we go blindly on our way, creating more unintended consequences, and failing to achieve anything useful."

-Margaret J. Wheatley.

64. "Honest self-understanding liberates us from our stuck emotions."

-C Terry Warner.

65. "People are sent into our lives to teach us things that we need to learn about ourselves."

-Mandy Hale.

66. "Its inability to account for logical, mathematical, and moral knowledge, and certain Cognito types of self-knowledge, seems to be clear."

-Tyler Burge, 'Cognition Through Understanding'.

67. "Every success story is a tale of constant adaption, revision, and change."

-Richard Branson.

68. "Unless you learn to face your own shadows, you will continue to see them in others, because the world outside you is only a reflection of the world inside you."

-Unknown*

69. "Life will give you whatever experience is most helpful for the evolution of your consciousness."

-Eckhart Tolle.

70.  "I focus on types of understanding, and types of non-empirical epistemic warrants, associated with self-knowledge, interlocution, reasoning, and reflection."

-Tyler Burge, 'Cognition Through Understanding'.

71. "The feeling of being ‘offended’ is a warning indicator that is showing you where to look within yourself for unresolved issues."

-Bryant McGill.

72. "At the point where we use reflection for the relevant sort of self-knowledge, the environment has inevitably already had its effect in making the psychological reflection of what they are."

-Tyler Burge, 'Cognition Through Understanding'.

73. "Life is growth. If we stop growing, technically and spiritually, we are as good as dead."

-Morihei Ueshiba.

74. "When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."

-Viktor E. Frankl.

75. "We don’t learn by doing, we learn by reflecting on what we’ve done. "

-Unknown.*

Self-Reflection Quotes From Movies And Series

These reflection quotes are from some of the most popular movies and series, these will help you relate to the character more.

76. "Don’t let anyone ever make you feel like you don’t deserve what you want.”

-Patrick, '10 Things I Hate About You'.

77. "Oh yes, the past can hurt. But you can either run from it or learn from it."

-Rafiki, 'The Lion King'.

78. "Hey. Don't ever let somebody tell you you can't do something. Not even me. All right?"

-Christopher Gardner, 'The Pursuit Of Happyness'.

79. "To see the world, things dangerous to come to, to see behind walls, to draw closer, to find each other, and to feel. That is the purpose of life."

-Walter Mitty, 'The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty'.

80. "Sometimes, it's the very people who no one imagines anything of who do the things no one can imagine."

-Alan Turing, 'The Imitation Game'.

81. "Your eyes see it but your head can't make no sense of it."

-Trini Garcia, 'Fury'.

82. "You'll have bad times, but it'll always wake you up to the good stuff you weren't paying attention to."

-Sean, 'Good Will Hunting'.

83. "In this life, you don’t have to prove nothin’ to nobody but yourself."

-Fortune, 'Rudy'.

84. "Doubt is useful, it keeps faith a living thing. After all, you cannot know the strength of your faith until it is tested."

-Pi Patel, 'Life Of Pie'.

85. "Never mind the maneuvers, just go straight at 'em."

-1st Lt. Tom Pullings, 'Master and Commander: The Far Side Of The World'.

86. "Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it."

-Ferris Bueller, 'Ferris Bueller's Day Off'.

87. "Life is not the amount of breaths you take. It’s the moments that take your breath away."

-Alex Hitchens, 'Hitch'.

88. "Sometimes there's so much beauty in the world I feel like I can't take it, and my heart is just going to cave in."

-Lester Burnham, 'American Beauty'.

89."Nothing happens to anyone that he is not fitted by nature to bear."

-Maximus, 'Gladiator'.

90. "We are who we choose to be."

-Green Goblin, 'Spider-Man'.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for self-reflection quotes then why not take a look at be true to yourself quotes, or find yourself quotes.

*Do you know where this quote originated? Please email us to let us know at hello@kidadl.com.