Our Greatest Enemy

Posted on September 12, 2022 by mitchteemley

Our Greatest Enemy (mitchteemley.com)

Thought for the Week

Being your true self is a major contemporary cultural objective. But it’s almost always couched in terms of overcoming some kind of external pressure. True, outward adversaries are real. Yet the greatest challenge to knowing our selves has never been the armored warrior on the road before us, but the shriveled creature inside the armor we wear.

“What’s your name,’ Coraline asked the cat. ‘Cats don’t have names,’ it said. ‘Now you people have names. That’s because you don’t know who you are. We know who we are, so we don’t need names.’”
~Neil Gaiman

“You can fool yourself, you know. You’d think it’s impossible, but it turns out it’s the easiest thing of all.”
~Jodi Picoult

“The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love.”
~Fyodor Dostoevsky

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”
~C. G. Jung

“Give heed to yourself and to your teaching. For in so doing you will rescue not only yourself but those who hear you.”

~1 Timothy 4:16

φ

About mitchteemley

Writer, Filmmaker, Humorist, Thinker-about-stuffer
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23 Responses to Our Greatest Enemy

  1. Ana Daksina says:
    September 12, 2022 at 12:00 pm

    Beautiful post.

    Passing on your Dostoevsky quote to my readers, with thanks 🌹

    Reply
  2. Gracedxoxo says:
    September 12, 2022 at 12:38 pm

    We are our greatest enemy! ‘Tis true

    Reply
  3. Liz Gauffreau says:
    September 12, 2022 at 12:47 pm

    I particularly like the Dostoevsky quote.

    Reply
  4. walkingoffthechessboard says:
    September 12, 2022 at 1:38 pm

    Yes, indeed. We have met the enemy, and the enemy is us. Picoult’s quote really resonates.

    Reply
  5. Nancy E. Head says:
    September 12, 2022 at 2:20 pm

    Love Dostoevsky.

    Reply
  6. Abe Austin says:
    September 12, 2022 at 2:21 pm

    A very important lesson to learn. Realizing this fact about myself has helped me to start effecting actual change. Realizing this fact about others has helped me to stop worrying about changing them, since they have to do that for themselves.

    Reply
  7. Chaya Sheela says:
    September 12, 2022 at 3:39 pm

    Lovely post.

    Reply
  8. believe4147 says:
    September 12, 2022 at 8:08 pm

    Yes, it is important to give heed to what we are being taught by whom whether it is others or ourselves. It it is not truth, then we become a part of the lie.

    Reply
  9. D. Wallace Peach says:
    September 12, 2022 at 8:12 pm

    Excellent post and wise messages, Mitch.

    Reply
  10. landl30 says:
    September 12, 2022 at 9:54 pm

    Always thoughtful, always good Mitch. Thanks.
    Len

    Reply
  11. Debi Walter says:
    September 12, 2022 at 10:21 pm

    I love the subtlety of the quotes proclaiming truth. It is obvious to those who know, intriguing to those who want to know and a riddle to those who aren’t seeking.

    Reply
  12. peachandbatman says:
    September 13, 2022 at 1:45 am

    Priceless. Yes, the person we most lie to us ourselves I often think. Ouch.
    My favorite quotes are the ~Fyodor Dostoevsky one, and of course, the Timothy verse.

    Thank you for this!

    Reply
  13. Damyanti Biswas says:
    September 13, 2022 at 10:26 am

    Late to this lovely post! Needed a reminder like this today 😀

    Reply
  14. revruss1220 says:
    September 13, 2022 at 3:15 pm

    AMEN all the way! These are truths we need to hear at least every day. The Dostoevsky quote cut especially deep.

    Reply
  15. Michael E. Lynch says:
    September 15, 2022 at 11:26 pm

    All great quotes. I especially liked the one by Carl Jung. I think a lot of what we call “unconscious” or “subconscious” is really more “preconscious.” It’s just below the surface, if we’ll only pay attention. But until we notice it, we don’t realize how it’s affecting us, and that’s what makes it dangerous.

    Reply

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