146 Self-Discovery Quotes to Help You Find Yourself

Do you feel as though you don't know who you are? These 146 quotes will enlighten you on the importance of self-discovery, and the things you can do to find yourself.

Self-discovery helps us gain more understanding of the role we play in the world. It leads us to interact with other people from a place of empathy and confidence.

When we ultimately reach a healthy level of confidence and comfort, we can begin to eliminate those who have a negative influence on our well-being. As we live our life from a place of wellness, we will ultimately become the people we envision ourselves to be.

If you're in need of some guidance on self-discovery, you've come to the right place! We've gathered the best bits of wisdom from experts far and wide to make your self-discovery journey a little easier. Here are 146 quotes to help you find yourself.

Rainer Maria Rilke's quote: “The only journey is the journey within." | Image: AmoDays

SELF-AFFIRMING QUOTES

“I was once afraid of people saying 'Who does she think she is?' Now I have the courage to stand and say, 'This is who I am.'” — Oprah Winfrey

“I feel the older I get, the more I’m learning to handle life. Being on this quest for a long time, it’s all about finding yourself.” — Ringo Starr

“We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started, and know the place for the first time.” — T.S. Elliot

“I long, as does every human being, to be at home wherever I find myself.” — Maya Angelou

“The longer I love, the more beautiful life becomes. If you foolishly ignore beauty, you will soon find yourself without it.” — Frank Lloyd Wright

Matthew Arnold's quote: “Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery.” | Image: AmoDays

“I learned that courage was not the absence of fear, but the triumph over it… The brave man is not he who does not feel afraid, but he who conquers that fear.” — Nelson Mandela

“I can’t change the direction of the wind, but I can adjust my sails to always reach my destination.” — Jimmy Dean

“When I discover who I am, I’ll be free.” — Ralph Ellison

“I have not failed. I’ve just found ways that won’t work.” — Thomas A. Edison

“I know well what I am fleeing from but not what I am in search of.” — Michel de Montaigne

“When I was years old, my mother always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down ‘happy’. They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t understand life.” — John Lennon

La Rochefoucauld's quote: “A man who finds no satisfaction in himself will seek for it in vain elsewhere.” | Image: AmoDays

SHORT SELF-DISCOVERY QUOTES

“To find yourself, think for yourself.” — Socrates

“The longest journey is the journey inward.” — Dag Hannarskjold

“Sometimes when you lose your way, you find yourself.” — Mandy Hale

“Whether you think you can or you think you can’t…you’re right.” — Henry Ford

“Don’t watch the clock. Do what it does. Keep going.” — Sam Levenson

Richard Wright's quote: “Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.” | Image: AmoDays

“A year from now you will wish you had started today.” — Karen Lamb

“Don’t count the days, make the days count.” — Muhammad Ali

“Know thyself.” — Socrates

“First find the man in yourself if you will inspire manliness in others.” — Amos Bronson Alcott

“I think you travel to search and you come back home to find yourself there.“ — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Joseph Campbell's quote: “We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” | Image: AmoDays

“Live out of your imagination, not your history.” — Stephen R. Covey

"'Know thyself,’ If I knew myself, I’d run away.” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

“You’ve got to know yourself so you can, at last, be yourself.” — D. H. Lawrence

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.” — Gandhi

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.” — Lao Tzu

Stephen R. Covey's quote: “Live out of your imagination, not your history.” | Image: AmoDays

“When you fight yourself to discover the real you, there is only one winner.” — Stephen Richards

“I wasn’t searching for something or someone….I was searching for myself.” — Carrie Bradshaw

“The only journey is the journey within." — Rainer Maria Rilke

“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” — Henry David Thoreau

“We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” — Joseph Campbell

Stephen Richards's quote: “When you fight yourself to discover the real you, there is only one winner .” | Image: AmoDays

“Men can starve from a lack of self-realization as much as they can from a lack of bread.” — Richard Wright

“A man who finds no satisfaction in himself will seek for it in vain elsewhere.” — La Rochefoucauld

“In suffering, we find our truest selves.” — Jessie Burton

“If you combine hard work, creativity, and self-determination, things start to happen.” — Sophia Amoruso

“Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery.” — Matthew Arnold

Henry David Thoreau's quote: “Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” | Image: AmoDays

“When you’re committed to something you accept no excuses only results!" — Kenneth H. Blanchard

“Step into the fire of self-discovery. This fire will not burn you.” — Mooji

“Self-discovery often happens when we move out of our comfort zone and change the norm.” — Fola O’Martins

“One’s destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things.” — Henry Miller

“Not until we are lost do we begin to understand ourselves.” — Henry David Thoreau

Carrie Bradshaw's quote: “I wasn’t searching for something or someone….I was searching for myself.” | Image: AmoDays

“Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm” — Winston Churchill

“You never find yourself until you face the truth." — Pearl Bailey

“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.” — Aristotle

“Each man’s life represents a road toward himself.” — Herman Hesse

“Don’t let the fear of losing be greater than the excitement of winning.” — Robert Kiyosaki

Jason Evert's quote: “Don’t worry about finding your soul mate. Find yourself." | Image: AmoDays

Go find yourself first So you can also find me.” — Rumi

“Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.” — Epictetus

“When you know yourself you are empowered. When you accept yourself you are invincible.” —Tina Lifford

“It’s not about finding a home so much as finding yourself.” — Jason Behr

“Too many of us are not living our dreams because we are living our fears.” — Les Brown

“We lose ourselves in things we love. We find ourselves there, too.” | Image: AmoDays

“It always seems impossible until it is done.” — Nelson Mandela

“Don’t worry about finding your soul mate. Find yourself." — Jason Evert

“The story ends up being a journey of self-discovery.” — Elijah Wood

“It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself but the most inconvenient one, too.” — H.W. Shaw

“We lose ourselves in things we love. We find ourselves there, too.” — Kristin Martz

Napoleon Hill's quote: “The starting point of all achievement is desire.” | Image: AmoDays

“The journey toward self-discovery is life’s greatest adventure.” — Arianna Huffington

“Remember to muster up your courage and silence your fear.” — Suze Orman

“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” — Buddha

“The well-bred contradict other people. The wise contradict themselves. “ — Oscar Wilde

Malebo Sephodi's quote: “Reinvent yourself over and over and over and over and over until you find home. There is no timeline for the soul.” | Image: AmoDays

“Your imagination is your preview of life’s coming attractions.” — Albert Einstein

“The starting point of all achievement is desire.” — Napoleon Hill

“Lose yourself wholly; and the more you lose, the more you will find.” — Catherine Of Siena

“It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” — E.E Cummings

“The pessimists are usually right, but it’s the optimists that change the world.” — Thomas Friedman

Suze Orman's quote: “Remember to muster up your courage and silence your fear.” | Image: AmoDays

“A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” — Jean de La Fontaine

“A man’s growth is seen in the successive choirs of his friends.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson

“There are three things extremely hard: steel, a diamond, and knowing one’s self.” — Benjamin Franklin

“What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise.” — Oscar Wilde

“The very nature of creativity is coming up with things that have never been tried before.” — Shelly Lazarus

Jean de La Fontaine's quote: “A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.” | Image: AmoDays

“You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search.” — Maxwell Maltz

“Sometimes we must lose ourselves to find ourselves.” — Sonny Long

“All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” — Walt Disney

“Discovering who you are today is the first step to being who you will be tomorrow.” — Destiny’s Odyssey

“Not all dreamers are winners, but all winners are dreamers.” — Mark Gorman

Maxwell Maltz's quote: “You can always find the sun within yourself if you will only search.” | Image: AmoDays

“All the wonders you seek are within yourself.” — Thomas Browne

“The man who has no imagination has no wings.” — Muhammad Ali

“You’ve got to find yourself first. Everything else will follow.” — Charles De Lint

“Find out who you are and do it on purpose.” — Dolly Parton

“Should we say the self, once perceived, becomes the soul?” — Theodore Roethke

Thomas Browne's quote: “All the wonders you seek are within yourself.” | Image: AmoDays

QUOTES TO MOTIVATE YOU TO FIND YOURSELF

“Whatever it takes to find the real you, don’t be daunted if the rest of the world looks on in shock.” — Stephen Richards

“Someday, somewhere anywhere, unfailingly, you’ll find yourself, and that, and only that, can be the happiest or bitterest hour of your life.” — Pablo Neruda

“Follow your bliss and don’t be afraid, and doors will open where you didn’t know they were going to be.” — Joseph Campbell

“In the end, you don’t so much find yourself as you find someone who knows who you are.” — Robert Brault

“If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.” — Jim Rohn

Jesie Burton's quote: “In suffering, we find our truest selves.” | Image: AmoDays

“Be who you are, and find yourself so you can be your own person and enjoy life with no regret.” — Bonnie Zackson Koury

“The one who says it’s not possible should move out of the way of those doing it.” — Tricia Cunningham

“I think that somehow, we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.” — Eleanor Roosevelt

“Why should we honor those that die upon the field of battle? A man may show reckless courage in entering into the abyss of himself.” — William Butler Yeats

“Man never knows what he wants; he aspires to penetrate mysteries and as soon as he has, he wants to reestablish them. Ignorance irritates him and knowledge cloy.” — Henri Frederic Amiel

Sophia Amoruso's quote: “If you combine hard work, creativity, and self-determination, things start to happen.” | Image: AmoDays

“Sometimes you have to kind of die inside in order to rise from your own ashes and believe in yourself and love yourself to become a new person.” — Gerard Way

“You will recognize your own path when you come upon it because you will suddenly have all the energy and imagination you will ever need.” — Jerry Gillies

“Learn how to separate the majors and the minors. A lot of people don’t do well simply because they major in minor things.” — Jim Rohn

“There are two types of people who will tell you first find the man in yourself if you will inspire manliness in others.” — Amos Bronson Alcott

“Find the love you seek, by first finding the love within yourself. Learn to rest in that place within you that is your true home.” — Sri Sri Ravi Shankar

Lao-Tzu's quote: “Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” | Image: AmoDays

“You really have to look inside yourself and find your own inner strength and say, ‘I’m proud of what I am and who I am, and I’m just going to be myself.” — Mariah Carey

“There are two types of people who will tell you that you cannot make a difference in this world: those who are afraid to try and those who are afraid you will succeed.” — Ray Goforth

“It is the individual who knows how little they know about themselves who stands the most reasonable chance of finding out something about themselves before they die.” — S. I. Hayakawa

“Know thyself means this, that you get acquainted with what you know, and what you can do.” — Menander

“Somehow, we’ll find it. The balance between whom we wish to be and whom we need to be. But for now, we simply have to be satisfied with who we are." — Brandon Sanderson

Rasheed Ogunlaru's quote: “Finding oneself and one’s path is like waking up on a foggy day. Be patient, and presently the fog will clear and that which has always been there can be seen. The path is already there to follow.” | Image: AmoDays

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” — Aldous Huxley

“You find peace not by rearranging the circumstances of your life, but by realizing who you are at the deepest level.” — Eckhart Tolle

“Men go abroad to wonder at the heights of mountains, at the huge waves of the sea, at the long courses of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motions of the stars, and they pass by themselves without wondering.” — St. Augustine

“Have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.” — Steve Jobs

“If a man happens to find himself, he has a mansion which he can inhabit with dignity all the days of his life.” — James A. Michener

Carl Gustav Jung's quote: “Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” | Image: AmoDays

QUOTES ON HOW TO DISCOVER YOURSELF

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.” — Lao-Tzu

“It’s a life’s journey of finding ourselves, finding our power, and living for yourself, not for everyone else.” — Mariska Hargitay

“A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it.” — George Moore

“Your visions will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” — Carl Gustav Jung

“You have no need to travel anywhere. Journey within yourself, enter a mine of rubies, and bathe in the splendor of your own light.” — Rumi

Lykke Li's quote: “If you’re being ignored, that’s a good time to concentrate on finding yourself and creating your own mystery.” | Image: AmoDays

“One’s own self is well hidden from one’s own self; of all mines of treasure, one’s own is the last to be dug up.” — Friedrich Nietzsche

“There’s only so much you can do of trying, finding yourself very close to getting a part and then not getting it.” — Dominic Cooper

“One does not ‘find oneself’ by pursuing one’s self, but on the contrary, by pursuing something else and learning through discipline or routine… who one is and wants to be.” — May Sarton

“You cannot dream yourself into a character; you must hammer and forge yourself one.” — James A. Froude

“Never give up on a dream just because of the time it will take to accomplish it. The time will pass anyway.” — Earl Nightingale

“Finding oneself and one’s path is like waking up on a foggy day. Be patient, and presently the fog will clear and that which has always been there can be seen. The path is already there to follow.” — Rasheed Ogunlaru

Walt Disney's quote: “All our dreams can come true if we have the courage to pursue them.” | Image: AmoDays

"One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life, and there is nothing better.” — Blaise Pascal

“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeing new landscapes but in having new eyes.” — Marcel Proust

“Your real self may be hiding somewhere, look for it within, when you find yourself, you can freely be what you want to be.” — Michael Bassey Johnson

“Reinvent yourself over and over and over and over and over until you find home. There is no timeline for the soul.” — Malebo Sephodi

Mandy Hale's quote: “Find yourself first — like yourself first — love yourself first & friendship & love will naturally find you.” | Image: AmoDays

“Without leaps of imagination or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” — Gloria Steinem

“Success does not consist in never making mistakes but in never making the same one a second time." — George Bernard Shaw

“Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” — Lao Tzu

“No one knows who Peter Parker is. People just know who Spider-Man is. When you get that in the mix of growing up and finding yourself, that’s more of a relatable tone than being Captain America and having the country’s weight on your shoulders." — Jacob Batalon

“The greatest discovery in life is self-discovery. Until you find yourself you will always be someone else. Become yourself.” — Myles Munroe

Ralph Marston's quote: "What you do today can improve all of your tomorrows.” | Image: AmoDays

“Once you’ve started down that road to self-discovery, no matter how treacherous the path before you, you can’t turn back. The universe doesn’t allow it.” — Lisa Unger

“Don’t spend all of your time trying to find yourself. Spend your time creating yourself into a person that you’ll be proud of." — Sonya Parker

“You learn to speak by speaking, to run by running, to work by working; and just so you learn to love… by loving.” — Francis De Sales

“For most men, life is a search for the proper manila envelope in which to get themselves filed.” — Clifton Fadiman

“Knowledge comes by taking things apart: analysis. But wisdom comes by putting things together.” — John A. Morrison

Thomas Szasz's quote: “People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.” | Image: AmoDays

“Know yourself. Don’t accept your dog’s admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful.” — Ann Landers

“Happiness is not something you postpone for the future; it is something you design for the present.” — Jim Rohn

“When we find a purpose that is bigger than ourselves, we become more powerful in our ability to create." — Jack Delosa

"What you do today can improve all of your tomorrows.” — Ralph Marston

“The man who views the world at fifty the same as he did at twenty has wasted thirty years of his life.” — Muhammad Ali

Tony Gaskins's quote: “If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to build theirs.” | Image: AmoDays

“At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want.” — Lao Tzu

“The greatest explorer on this earth never takes voyages as long as those of the man who descends to the depth of his heart.” — Julien Green

“People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something one finds, it is something one creates.” — Thomas Szasz

"Our greatest fear in life shouldn’t be of failure, but of succeeding at things that don’t really matter.” — Francis Chan

“If you don’t build your dream, someone else will hire you to build theirs.” — Tony Gaskins

Pearl Bailey's quote: “You never find yourself until you face the truth." | Image: AmoDays

“Finding your passion isn’t just about careers and money. It’s about finding your authentic self. The one you’ve buried beneath other people’s needs.” — Kristin Hannah

“People often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing that’s why we recommend it daily.” — Zig Ziglar

“Find yourself first — like yourself first — love yourself first & friendship & love will naturally find you.” — Mandy Hale

“If you’re being ignored, that’s a good time to concentrate on finding yourself and creating your own mystery.” — Lykke Li

“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

E.E Cummings's quote: “It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.” | Image: AmoDays

Whether you are thinking about beginning the journey to self-discovery or you're well on your way to achieving your highest potential, remain kind to yourself and others. This way, your life-long voyage will be filled with beautiful moments.

Finally, if you enjoyed these quotes, you might like this compilation to help you create stronger bonds.