The highest courage is to dare to appear to be what one is.
—John Lancaster Spalding (1840–1916) American Catholic Clergyman, Educator, Essayist, Biographer
If you’re gonna be a failure, at least be one at something you enjoy.
—Sylvester Stallone (b.1946) American Actor, Film Director, Screenwriter
No man can produce great things who is not thoroughly sincere in dealing with himself.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
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
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
I believe in one God, and no more; and I hope for happiness beyond this life.
I believe in the equality of man; and I believe that religious duties consist in doing justice, loving mercy, and endeavoring to make our fellow-creatures happy.
But, lest it should be supposed that I believe in many other things in addition to these, I shall, in the progress of this work, declare the things I do not believe, and my reasons for not believing them.
I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit.
I do not mean by this declaration to condemn those who believe otherwise; they have the same right to their belief as I have to mine. But it is necessary to the happiness of man, that he be mentally faithful to himself. Infidelity does not consist in believing, or in disbelieving; it consists in professing to believe what he does not believe.
—Thomas Paine (1737–1809) American Nationalist, Author, Pamphleteer, Radical, Inventor
It is possible to be different and still be all right.
—Anne Wilson Schaef (1934–2020) American Clinical Psychologist
All men have happiness as their object: there are no exceptions. However different the means they employ, they aim at the same end.
—Blaise Pascal (1623–62) French Mathematician, Physicist, Theologian
Posterity weaves no garlands for imitators.
—Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) German Poet, Dramatist
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
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 Sexologist, Physician, Social Reformer
if I trim myself to suit others I will soon whittle myself away.
—Unknown
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
No man would, I think, exchange his existence with any other man, however fortunate. We had as lief not be, as not be ourselves.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Different men seek after happiness in different ways and by different means, and so make for themselves different modes of life and forms of government
—Aristotle (384BCE–322BCE) Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scholar
Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen.
—Martin Luther (1483–1546) German Protestant Theologian
The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.
—Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906–2001) American Aviator, Author
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
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
Let me listen to me and not to them.
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American Writer
Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he who finds himself, loses his misery.
—Matthew Arnold (1822–88) English Poet, Critic
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
Education should be the process of helping everyone to discover his uniqueness.
—Leo Buscaglia (1924–98) American Motivational Speaker
Men throw themselves on foreign assistances to spare their own, which, after all, are the only certain and sufficient ones.
—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
Somehow we learn who we really are and then live with that decision.
—Eleanor Roosevelt (1884–1962) American First Lady, Diplomat, Humanitarian
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
The great thing in the world is to know how to be sufficient unto oneself.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
A man must be obedient to the promptings of his innermost heart.
—Robertson Davies (1913–95) Canadian Novelist, Playwright, Essayist
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
All life is the struggle, the effort to be itself.
—Jose Ortega y. Gasset (1883–1955) Spanish Critic, Journalist, Philosopher
I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year’s fashions.
—Lillian Hellman (1905–84) American Playwright, Dramatist, Memoirist
We would have to settle for the elegant goal of becoming ourselves.
—William Styron (1925–2006) American Novelist, Essayist, Writer
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
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
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, Film Director, Screenwriter
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
A path is only a path, and there is no affront, to oneself or to others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you … Look at every path closely and deliberately. Try it as many times as you think necessary. Then ask yourself alone, one question … Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t it is of no use.
—Carlos Castaneda (1925–98) Peruvian-born American Anthropologist, Author
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
We are sure to be losers when we quarrel with ourselves; it is civil war.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
You have to deal with the fact that your life is your life.
—Alex Haley (1921–92) American Novelist, Biographer
Integrity simply means a willingness not to violate one’s identity.
—Erich Fromm (1900–80) German-American Psychoanalyst, Social Philosopher
All is disgust when one leaves his own nature and does things that misfit it.
—Sophocles (495–405 BCE) Ancient Greek Dramatist
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
We live counterfeit lives in order to resemble the idea we first had of ourselves.
—Andre Gide (1869–1951) French Novelist
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
Don’t compromise yourself, it’s all you’ve got.
—Janis Joplin (1943–1970) American Singer-songwriter
Learn what you are and be such.
—Pindar (c.518–c.438 BCE) Greek Lyric Poet
What’s a man’s first duty? The answer is brief: To be himself.
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906) Norwegian Playwright
The crow that mimics a cormorant gets drowned.
—Japanese Proverb