81+ Quotes About Knowing Yourself That All Kids Should Read

Writvik Gupta
Dec 12, 2023 By Writvik Gupta
Originally Published on Mar 19, 2021
Edited by Isobel Murphy
Torn paper strip on a bright green background with the text KNOW YOURSELF
Age: 0-99
Read time: 9.4 Min

Knowing yourself isn't as easy as it seems.

Knowing yourself doesn't only involve knowing your favorite color and favorite food. It involves asking yourself all the deep and intricate questions to truly understand your own way of thinking.

Knowing yourself is pretty important because it is only when we know ourselves well that we can make the best choices for ourselves in our lives. Some people would argue that you can never truly know the self as all of our thoughts and emotions are so intricate. Perhaps it is not possible to truly know yourself inside out, however, that shouldn't stop us from putting in our best efforts on our self-discovery journey. With a lot of introspection, journaling, talking to others, and reading inspirational quotes like these, you'll learn more and more about yourself each day.

Below we have collected some inspirational quotes that might be able to guide you to get to know yourself better. If you like reading these quotes, you can also check out these know your worth quotes and quotes about maturity for more inspirational quotes to guide you in life.

Famous Quotes About Knowing Yourself

The inspirational quotes in this section are all about the mindset that we should know ourselves before knowing anyone else. This is important so that you stay true to yourself throughout your life. Why not read these famous quotes? They might just change your mind for the better and convince you to do better for yourself!

1. "The more you know yourself, the more patience you have for what you see in others."

- Erik Erikson.

2. "Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have."

- Doris Mortman.

3. "To find yourself, think for yourself."

- Socrates.

4. "The only journey is the journey within."

- Rainer Maria Rilke.

5. "I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination."

- Jimmy Dean.

6. "Be yourself. Everyone else is taken."

- Oscar Wilde.

7. "The self is not something ready-made, but something in continuous formation through choice of action."

- John Dewey.

8. "Self-discovery is the secret ingredient that fuels daring."

- Grace Lichtenstein.

9. "Don't get discouraged with your skin when it doesn't do what you want it to do... Give it some time. That's the only way to get to know yourself."

- SZA.

10. "Know yourself. Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful."

- Ann Landers.

11. "We have to wake up. We have to refuse to be a clone."

- Alice Walker.

12. "You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search."

- Maxwell Maltz.

Inspirational Quotes About Being Yourself

Being yourself is pretty important in this world. The quotes below will teach you and guide you to get to know yourself and they will also show why is it so important to be you. To want to do better for yourself is a truly inspirational goal, why not try to achieve it with the help of these inspirational quotes?

13. "The better you know yourself, the better your relationship with the rest of the world."

- Toni Collette.

14. "He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened."

- Lao Tzu.

15. "The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are."

- Carl Jung.

16. "Should we say the self, once perceived, becomes the soul?"

- Theodore Roethke.

17. "People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself."

- Thomas Szasz.

18. "Existence wants you to be you."

- Osho.

19. "There is no substitute for accurate knowledge. Know yourself, know your business, know your men."

- Lee Iacocca.

20. "We judge ourselves by what we feel capable of doing, while others judge us by what we have already done."

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.

21. "Be yourself, don’t take anything from anyone, and never let them take you alive."

- Gerard Way.

22. "There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and to know one’s self."

- Benjamin Franklin.

23. "Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness."

- Allen Ginsberg.

24. "The most important knowledge is understanding what you can't do."

- Bill Buford.

Quotes About Not Knowing Yourself Anymore

When you do not know yourself well enough, it can sometimes be difficult. The quotes below might be able to help you through it.

25. "Know yourself to improve yourself."

- Auguste Comte.

26. "No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself."

- Pythagoras.

27. "We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be."

- May Sarton.

28. "In the end, you don't so much find yourself as you find someone who knows who you are."

- Robert Brault.

29. "Doubt kills more dreams than failure ever will."

- Suzy Kassem.

30. "You must not be afraid of your uniqueness and you must care less and less what people think of you."

- Robert Greene.

31. "Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth."

- Alan Watts.

32. "I never regret anything. Because every little detail of your life is what made you into who you are in the end."

- Drew Barrymore.

33. "You cannot change what you are, only what you do."

- Philip Pullman.

34. "The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing."

- Walt Disney.

35. "It has often been said that a reformation should begin with each man reforming himself."

- Søren Kierkegaard.

36. "You've got to find yourself first. Everything else will follow."

- Charles De Lint.

Quotes About Knowing Your Worth

You are the true master of your life and so you get to decide your true worth. Here, you will find some inspirational quotes that remind you to know your worth.

37. "Know yourself; keep your circle tight. Keep your friends and your work circle tight."

- Rita Ora.

38. "We must not be defined by what we do, but we must be what and who we are, then only happen to do what we do!"

- C. JoyBell C.

39. "Don't be confused between what people say you are and who you know you are."

- Oprah Winfrey.

40. "Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves."

- Henry David Thoreau.

41. "I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision."

- Eleanor Roosevelt.

42. "Don’t let other people decide who you are."

- Bob Goff.

43. "Everything’s a lot easier when you work with someone you know just about as well as you know yourself."

- Peter Farrelly.

44. "Take no thought of who is right or wrong or who is better than. Be not for or against."

- Bruce Lee.

45. "I don’t care what you think about me. I don’t think about you at all."

- Coco Chanel.

46. "Lose yourself wholly; and the more you lose, the more you will find."

- Catherine Of Siena.

47. "You eliminate competition by being yourself."

- Dan Go.

Be Yourself Quotes

Cheerful young african american lady makes air kiss and looks in reflection of round mirror.

No matter what happens, you should always be true to yourself. These quotes might be able to help you believe in yourself and take pride in being yourself.

48. "Trust your gut. You know yourself."

- Tatiana Maslany.

49. "One has to know the size of one's stomach."

- Friedrich Nietzsche, 'Ecce Homo'.

50. "Know thyself. If I knew myself, I'd run away."

- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

51. "Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly."

- Epictetus.

52. "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.

53. "You change the world by being yourself."

- Yoko Ono.

54. "The best teacher is self-reflection."

- Shane Parrish.

55. "It's all right for a woman to be, above all, human. I am a woman first of all."

- Anais Nin.

56. "God has given you one face, and you make yourself another."

- William Shakespeare.

57. "Sometimes when you lose your way, you find yourself."

- Mandy Hale.

58. "I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of."

- Michel de Montaigne.

The Best Quotes About Discovering Yourself

The quotes below might help you on the path of discovering yourself.

59. "At the end of the day, you know yourself best."

- Abigail Johnson.

60. "Know thyself and all will be revealed."

- Pamela Theresa Loertscher.

61. "All the wonders you seek are within yourself."

- Thomas Browne.

62. "When you fight yourself to discover the real you, there is only one winner."

- Stephen Richards.

63. "Never look back unless you are planning to go that way."

- Henry David Thoreau.

64. "When you see a mob doing something, it should make you less likely to do it yourself, not more likely."

- Paul Graham.

65. "No man is free who cannot command himself."

- Pythagoras.

66. "I paint self-portraits because I am so often alone because I am the person I know best."

- Frida Kahlo.

67. "There is nothing more awful, insulting, and depressing than banality."

- Anton Chekhov.

68. "A rebel is the one who lives totally according to his own light and risks everything else for his ultimate value of freedom."

- Osho.

69. "If you really want to know yourself, start by writing a book."

- Shereen El Feki.

More Quotes About Finding Oneself

Here, we have collected some of the best quotes about finding and understanding oneself.

70. "Don’t let somebody else tell you who you are."

- Tatiana Maslany.

71. "Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster."

- Sun Tzu.

72. "Thoughts don't become things; thoughts are things."

- Eric Micha'el Leventhal.

73. "But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates."

- Thomas Szasz.

74. "I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself."

- Maya Angelou.

75. "The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

- Mohandas Gandhi.

76. "Can you remember who you were before the world told you who you should be?"

- Charles Bukowski.

77. "The more you study, the more you know; how less you know."

- Imran Khan.

78. "All my games were political games; I was, like Joan of Arc, perpetually being burned at the stake."

- Indira Gandhi.

79. "Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another."

- Homer.

80. "You want to be uncommon amongst uncommon people. Period."

- David Goggins.

81. "The hardest thing is a man to truly know himself."

- Bangambiki Habyarimana.

82. "Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it."

- Buddha.

83. "If you don’t say what you think, then you kill your unborn self."

- Jordan Peterson.

Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly quotes for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for quotes about knowing yourself, then why not take a look at these [quotes about independence] or [quotes about living your best life] too?

We Want Your Photos!
We Want Your Photos!

We Want Your Photos!

Do you have a photo you are happy to share that would improve this article?
Email your photos

More for You

See All

Written by Writvik Gupta

Writvik Gupta picture

Writvik Gupta

A professional content writer hailing from Kolkata, India, with extensive experience in the corporate sector, Writvik Gupta has worked with several reputed companies, including ITC WelcomHotel Jodhpur, Bharti AXA Life Insurance, Aryan Imaging, and Eduquity. He also serves as a consultant for a startup based in Bangalore. With a passion for the outdoors, Writvik enjoys trekking and traveling to remote destinations. He also has a keen interest in exploring various cuisines and regularly volunteers for social causes.

Read full bio >