---
title: "2 Earth Self Quotes By Walker Percy"
description: "2 Earth Self quotes by Walker Percy. Plus more from Walker Percy and more Earth Self sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b2a/walker-percy-1958_cosmos_it-the-self-is-in-fact-the-only-alien-in_1156002.jpg"
---

> [“It, the self, is in fact the only alien in the entire Cosmos. The modern objective consciousness will go to any length to prove that it is not unique in the Cosmos, and by this very effort establishes its own…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/it-the-self-is-in-fact-the-only-alien-in-the-entire-cosmos-the-modern/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/b2a/walker-percy-1958_cosmos_it-the-self-is-in-fact-the-only-alien-in_1156002.jpg)

> [“The earth-self observing the Cosmos and trying to understand the Cosmos by scientific principles from which its self is excluded is, beyond doubt, the strangest phenomenon in all of the Cosmos, far stranger than the Ring Nebula in Lyra. It,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/the-earth-self-observing-the-cosmos-and-trying-to-understand-the/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a74/walker-percy-1958_cosmos_the-earth-self-observing-the-cosmos-and_2559987.png)

## More by Walker Percy

> [“Do you know what he told me after lying under a cliff for thirty six hours with two inches of his femur sticking out?…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/do-you-know-what-he-told-me-after-lying-under-a-cliff-for-thirty-six/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [Americans are the nicest, most generous, and sentimental people on earth. Yet Americans have killed more unborn children than any nation in history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/americans-are-the-nicest-most-generous-and-sentimental-people-on/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [“The real wonder is not that the Cosmos is now seen as wonderful but that it is not. Despite its inconceivable vastness, it is…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/the-real-wonder-is-not-that-the-cosmos-is-now-seen-as-wonderful-but/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [“Ours is the only civilization in history which has enshrined mediocrity as its national ideal. Others have been corrupt, but leave it to us…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/ours-is-the-only-civilization-in-history-which-has-enshrined/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [ \[In art\] you are telling the reader or the listener or the viewer something he already knows but which he doesn't quite know that… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/in-art-you-are-telling-the-reader-or-the-listener-or-the-viewer/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [“People usually told him the same joke two or three times.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/people-usually-told-him-the-same-joke-two-or-three-times/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [For the world is broken, sundered, busted down the middle, self ripped from self and man pasted back together as mythical monster, half angel,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/for-the-world-is-broken-sundered-busted-down-the-middle-self-ripped/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [Nobody but a Southerner knows the wrenching rinsing sadness of the cities of the North.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/nobody-but-a-southerner-knows-the-wrenching-rinsing-sadness-of-the/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [“For me, all signifiers fit me, one as well as another. I am rascal, hero, craven, brave, treacherous, loyal, at once the secret hero…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/for-me-all-signifiers-fit-me-one-as-well-as-another-i-am-rascal-hero/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [“But the expectation of the self, to be informed in its nothingness--if only I can get out of this old place and into the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/but-the-expectation-of-the-self-to-be-informed-in-its-nothingness-if/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [Nothing remains but desire, and desire comes howling down Elysian Fields like a mistral.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/nothing-remains-but-desire-and-desire-comes-howling-down-elysian/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [“A variant of the amnesic-plot device is the inadvertent return of the amnesiac to home territory, where he is welcomed by a lovely woman,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/a-variant-of-the-amnesic-plot-device-is-the-inadvertent-return-of-the/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [A novel is what you call something that won't sell if you call it poems or short stories.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/a-novel-is-what-you-call-something-that-won-t-sell-if-you-call-it/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [The search is what anyone would undertake if he were not sunk in the everydayness of his own life. To become aware of the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/the-search-is-what-anyone-would-undertake-if-he-were-not-sunk-in-the/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

> [“Am I, in my search, a hundred miles ahead of my fellow Americans or a hundred miles behind them? That is to say: Have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/walker-percy/am-i-in-my-search-a-hundred-miles-ahead-of-my-fellow-americans-or-a/)

[Walker Percy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/walker-percy/)

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