An unguessed part of ourselves
The difficulty lies in learning that we ourselves encompass forces equally great. We say, “I will,” and “I will not,” and imagine ourselves (though we obey the orders of some prosaic person every day) our own masters, when the truth is that our masters are sleeping. One wakes within us and we are ridden like beasts, though the rider is but some hitherto unguessed part of ourselves.
Gene Wolfe. The Complete Book of the New Sun
Sometimes you are reading fiction and come across a passage that expresses an idea more clearly than any work of non-fiction. The Book of the New Sun is so full of ideas - this is barely scratching the surface. Similarly, our notion of ourselves is barely scratching the surface - much of our inner life is obscured to us - a point also beautifully made in this Max Langenkamp post about Heidegger:
