Inspirational Quotations

Inspirational Quotations on Being Ourselves

To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying “Amen” to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to keep your soul alive.
Robert Louis Stevenson (1850–94) Scottish Novelist

While you cannot resolve what you are, at last you will be nothing.
Martial (40–104) Ancient Roman Latin Poet

Let me listen to me and not to them.
Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer

The moment that any life, however good, stifles you, you may be sure it isn’t your real life.
A. C. Benson (1862–1925) English Essayist, Poet, Academic

Remember always that you have not only the right to be an individual; you have an obligation to be one. You cannot make any useful contribution in life unless you do this.
Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author

The highest courage is to dare to appear to be what one is.
John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) American Catholic Clergyman, Educator, Essayist, Biographer

A man must be obedient to the promptings of his innermost heart.
Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist

What’s a man’s first duty? The answer is brief: To be himself.
Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright

All life is the struggle, the effort to be itself.
Jose Ortega y. Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish Critic, Journalist, Philosopher

This above all—to thine own self be true; And it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man.
William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright

What does reason demand of a man? A very easy thing—to live in accord with his own nature.
Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian

Why feignest thou thyself to be another?
The Holy Bible Scripture in the Christian Faith

The great thing in the world is to know how to be sufficient unto oneself.
Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist

All is disgust when one leaves his own nature and does things that misfit it.
Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist

She lacks confidence, she craves admiration insatiably. She lives on the reflections of herself in the eyes of others. She does not dare to be herself.
Anais Nin (1903–77) French-American Essayist

Happiness, that grand mistress of the ceremonies in the dance of life, impels us through all its mazes and meanderings, but leads none of us by the same route.
Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist

No matter how ill we may be, nor how low we may have fallen, we should not change identity with any other person.
Samuel Butler

The crow that mimics a cormorant gets drowned.
Japanese Proverb

People often say that this or that person has not yet found himself. But the self is not something that one finds. It is something one creates.
Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) Hungarian-American Psychiatrist, Psychoanalyst

Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.
Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian

No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.
James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic

To be nobody-but-yourself—in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else—means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight, and never stop fighting.
e. e. cummings (1894–1962) American Poet, Writer, Painter

To aim at the best and to remain essentially ourselves is one and the same thing.
Janet Erskine Stuart (1857–1914) English Catholic Nun, Educationalist

It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.
Desiderius Erasmus (c.1469–1536) Dutch Humanist, Scholar

You have to deal with the fact that your life is your life.
Alex Haley (1921–92) American Novelist, Biographer

Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, “This is the real me,” and when you have found that attitude, follow it.
William James (1842–1910) American Philosopher, Psychologist, Physician

A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist

If you’re gonna be a failure, at least be one at something you enjoy.
Sylvester Stallone (b.1946) American Actor, Screenwriter, Director

We live counterfeit lives in order to resemble the idea we first had of ourselves.
Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist

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