Our ideals are our better selves. [ A. Bronson Alcott ]

Men may rise on steppingstones
Of their dead selves to higher things. [ Tennyson ]

Politeness is the curb that holds our worser selves in check. [ Mme. de Bassanville ]

We deceive and flatter no one by such delicate artifices as we do our own selves. [ Schopenhauer ]

If the eye were so acute as to rival the finest microscope, and to discern the smallest hair upon the leg of a gnat, it would be a curse, and not a blessing to us; it would make all things appear rugged and deformed; the most finely polished crystal would be uneven and rough; the sight of our own selves would affright us; the smoothest skin would be beset all over with rugged scales and bristly hair. [ Bentley ]