Here is a collection of quotes on self improvement from various sources. You can find many more inspiring quotes relating to self improvement and spiritual growth at the inspiring quotes page.

To benefit from the quotes on self improvement posted on this page, and from any other quotes, read each quote several times and meditate on it for a few moments to understand it deeply, and then think how you can use its wisdom in your life.

Self Imrovement Quotes

The safest principle through life, instead of reforming others, is to set about perfecting yourself.
B. R. Haydon

What we are today comes from our thoughts of yesterday, and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow: Our life is the creation of our mind.
Buddha

I cannot always control what goes on outside. But I can always control what goes on inside.
Wayne Dyer

Look within, for within is the wellspring of virtue, which will not cease flowing, if you cease not from digging.
Marcus Aurelius

Repeat anything often enough and it will start to become you.
Tom Hopkins

We must have courage to bet on our ideas, to take the calculated risk, and to act. Everyday living requires courage if life is to be effective and bring happiness.
Maxwell Maltz

If we wait for the moment when everything, absolutely everything is ready, we shall never begin.
Ivan Turgenev

You are today where your thoughts have brought you; you will be tomorrow where your thoughts take you.
James Allen

Begin to see yourself as a soul with a body rather than a body with a soul.
Wayne Dyer

Love is the great miracle cure. Loving ourselves works miracles in our lives.
Louise Hay

Self improvement is the name of the game, and your primary objective is to strengthen yourself, not to destroy an opponent.
Maxwell Maltz

It only takes one person to change your life – you.
Ruth Casey

How is it possible to focus the mind when it is so restless?

When you try to stop thinking, do really stop thinking, or do you just hold to the thought that you are not thinking, which is itself a thought?

Who and what it is that orders the mind to concentrate or get silent?

Can the mind concentrate itself, or is there something higher than the mind that focuses or silences it?

Concentration exercises and meditation eventually awaken something inside, some kind of silent consciousness, and it is this consciousness that focuses the mind on any chosen subject or object, and it is this consciousness that is able to cleanse the mind of thoughts and silence the mind.

This Consciousness-Awareness, Higher Consciousness is the Inner Self, and is beyond and above the mind. It is always here, but sort of hidden behind the thinking mind. There is too much focus on thoughts and sense impressions coming through the five senses, so that this Consciousness, “forgets” itself, and tend to “get involved” with the mind and the impressions coming through five senses. This is what makes it so difficult to focus the mind.

In time, as concentration gets stronger, one is able to cleanse the mind of thoughts, but this takes time and a lot of work. At this point you don’t say to yourself, “I am silencing my mind”, because this is itself a thought. You just stop thinking, but something else is there that stops the thinking. At this stage, when you stop thinking, there is no vacuum or the thought that “you are trying to stop thinking”. There is just Pure Consciousness, joy and inner peace.

From this perspective, concentration becomes simple and easy, and you are able to focus your mind easily on anything, a thought, a point on the wall, a flower, an inspiring quote, prayer, or on your work, studies, reading book or any other activity, or just enjoy being conscious, but without thoughts.