We must first look at God and his immeasurable glory, and then put the question: “What are Thou, and who am I?” We must speak with St. Augustine: “Could I but know Thee, I should know myself.” It is only in recognition of our metaphysical situation, only in awareness of our destiny and our vocation that we can become truly cognizant of ourselves. Only the light of God and His challenge to us can open our eyes to all our shortcomings and deficiencies, impressing upon us the discrepancy between what we ought to be and what we are. Contemplation of one’s own self in this light is animated by profound earnestness; it is vastly different from all species of neutral and purely psychological self-analysis.
— Dietrich von Hildebrand in Transformation in Christ
