“Nothing can bring you peace but yourself.”
The sentence places lasting peace in self-command rather than approval, status, or external circumstances.
Essay “Self-Reliance.”
“A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds.”
Emerson attacks rigid consistency when it prevents people from revising judgment in the light of new thought.
Essay “Self-Reliance”; Emerson criticizes rigid adherence to past opinions when fresh judgment requires revision.
“Otherwise, a man is the slave of what other people are pleased to think.”
Dependence on approval can turn other people’s judgments into a form of control; self-respect requires allowing outside opinion to inform rather than govern one’s sense of worth.
The Wisdom of Life; the sentence appears in Schopenhauer’s criticism of giving excessive weight to reputation and social opinion.
“Have confidence in yourself, and believe that you are proceeding on the right path.”
Seneca makes self-confidence a condition of steadiness: tranquility depends partly on trusting a course that has been examined rather than continually surrendering judgment to outside pressure.
Of Peace of Mind, section II, Aubrey Stewart translation in Minor Dialogues Together with the Dialogue on Clemency (1889), cross-checked against Project Gutenberg #64576 and the complete Wikisource transcription. Seneca tells Serenus to have confidence in himself and believe he is proceeding on the right path while defining the steady condition he calls peace of mind.
“Look within. Within is the fountain of good, and it will ever bubble up, if thou wilt ever dig.”
Moral resources are pictured as something cultivated inwardly through continued examination rather than obtained only from external approval or circumstance.
Meditations, Book VII, section 59, George Long translation in Thoughts of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
“Above all, don’t lie to yourself.”
Self-deception is presented as especially damaging because it corrupts the person’s ability to recognize truth both inwardly and around them.
The Brothers Karamazov, Book II, Chapter 4, “A Lady of Little Faith,” Constance Garnett translation, verified against Project Gutenberg #28054 and Wikisource. Father Zossima tells the visitor, “Above all, don’t lie to yourself,” and develops the warning into an argument about self-deception, respect and love; this is fictional character counsel inside the novel.
“This above all: to thine own self be true.”
Polonius frames integrity as consistency between inward conviction and outward conduct, although the advice belongs to a fallible fictional counselor.
Hamlet, Act 1, Scene 3; Polonius gives Laertes this advice before Laertes leaves for France.
