Your readiest desire is your path to joy even if it destroys you.
—Holbrook Jackson (1874–1948) British Journalist, Writer, Editor
All is disgust when one leaves his own nature and does things that misfit it.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
It is possible to be different and still be all right.
—Anne Wilson Schaef (1934–2020) American Clinical Psychologist
The search for a new personality is futile; what is fruitful is the interest the old personality can take in new activities.
—Cesare Pavese (1908–50) Italian Novelist, Poet, Critic, Translator
Our concern must be to live while we’re alive… to release our inner selves from the spiritual death that comes with living behind a facade designed to conform to external definitions of who and what we are.
—Elisabeth Kubler-Ross (1926-2004) American Psychiatrist
Misfortunes occur only when a man is false… Events, circumstances, etc., have their origin in ourselves. They spring from seeds which we have sown.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
A wise man sees as much as he ought, not as much as he can.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
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
No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
I believe there’s an inner power that makes winners or losers. And the winners are the ones who really listen to the truth of their hearts.
—Sylvester Stallone (b.1946) American Actor, Screenwriter, Director
If you’re gonna be a failure, at least be one at something you enjoy.
—Sylvester Stallone (b.1946) American Actor, Screenwriter, Director
Choose always the way that seems best, however rough it may be, and custom will soon render it easy and agreeable.
—Pythagoras (570–495 BCE) Greek Philosopher
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
Philosophy is a purely personal matter. A genuine philosopher’s credo is the outcome of a single complex personality; it cannot be transferred. No two persons, if sincere, can have the same philosophy.
—Havelock Ellis (1859–1939) British Essayist, Physician
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
In the world to come they will not ask me, “Why were you not Moses?” They will ask me, “Why were you not Zusya?”
—Zusha of Hanipol (1718–1800) Ukrainian Hasidic Rabbi
You have to deal with the fact that your life is your life.
—Alex Haley (1921–92) American Novelist, Biographer
The white light streams down to be broken up by those human prisms into all the colors of the rainbow. Take your own color in the pattern and be just that.
—Charles Reynolds Brown (1862–1950) American Clergyman
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
Passions spin the plot: We are betrayed by what is false within.
—George Meredith (1828–1909) British Novelist, Poet, Critic
Every human being is intended to have a character of his own; to be what no other is, and to do what no other can do.
—William Ellery Channing (1780–1842) American Unitarian Theologian, Poet
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
The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
With begging and scrambling we find very little, but with being true to ourselves we find a great deal more.
—Rabindranath Tagore (1861–1941) Bengali Poet, Polymath
All life is the struggle, the effort to be itself.
—Jose Ortega y. Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish Critic, Journalist, Philosopher
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
What’s a man’s first duty? The answer is brief: To be himself.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
Learn what you are and be such.
—Pindar (c.518–c.438 BCE) Greek Lyric Poet
A happy life is one which is in accordance with its own nature.
—Seneca the Younger (Lucius Annaeus Seneca) (c.4 BCE–65 CE) Roman Stoic Philosopher, Statesman, Tragedian
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