Literary notes about self (AI summary)
The word “self” in literature serves as a versatile marker of identity, intention, and emotional nuance. It is employed both to denote an internal state of being—illustrating introspection, self-critique, or self-realization as seen in discussions of self-critique of reason [1] and self-realization [2]—and to reflect external traits such as self-reliance, self-worship, or self-denial, evident in depictions of characters who possess self-mastery [3], exhibit self-respect [4, 5], or even fall victim to self-indulgence [6]. Authors across periods—from the reflective intimacies in Milton’s verse [7] to the candid personal narratives of later texts [8, 9]—indicate that “self” encapsulates both the construction and deconstruction of what it means to be an individual in a social context.
- I mean the self-critique of reason—nowadays sets out to talk man out of his present opinion of himself, as though that opinion had b
— from The Genealogy of Morals by Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche - I was overjoyed to perceive that he had developed highly in self-realization, and had been blessed by the vision of Divine Mother.
— from Autobiography of a Yogi by Paramahansa Yogananda - And as for actions of perfected self-mastery, what can theirs be? would it not be a degrading praise that they have no bad desires?
— from The Ethics of Aristotle by Aristotle - How could you keep your self-respect in such starvation and slavery?
— from Mrs. Warren's Profession by Bernard Shaw - ,’ said Mr. Micawber, behind his handkerchief, ‘this is an occupation, of all others, requiring an untroubled mind, and self-respect.
— from David Copperfield by Charles Dickens - It has been said that such an atmosphere makes for self-indulgence.
— from Some Jewish Witnesses For Christ by Aaron Bernstein - God therefore cannot hurt ye, and be just; Not just, not God; not feard then, nor obeid: Your feare it self of Death removes the feare.
— from Paradise Lost by John Milton - That’s a mode of self-torment I never was much addicted to.
— from The Tenant of Wildfell Hall by Anne Brontë - For a man cannot change, that is to say become another person, while he continues to obey the dictates of the self which he has ceased to be.
— from Swann's Way by Marcel Proust
