Knowing Yourself

When I had the phrase "I need to get to know myself" thrown at me during the process of separating from my ex, I questioned its meaning. I hate those words, they are nothing but a cop-out, in the same category with another meaningless phrase: "it's not you, it's me".

Yeah, I always thought "I need to get to know myself" was just a stupid thing to say. I mean, after 30 years of life, if you don't know who you are you must be braindead. Maybe you mean to say "I need to re-evaluate what I really want in my future", but certainly you must already know yourself.

I came across this quote on the Google personalized homepage literary quote of the day:

"Know thyself! A maxim as pernicious as it is ugly. Whoever observes himself arrests his own development. A catepillar who wanted to know itself well would never become a butterfly." -Andre Gide