Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.
It matters not what someone is born, but what they grow to be.
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
Sometimes I can hear my bones straining under the weight of all the lives I’m not living.
Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.
I took a deep breath and listened to the old brag of my heart. I am, I am, I am.
When I had nothing to lose, I had everything. When I stopped being who I am, I found myself.
Wanting to be someone else is a waste of the person you are.
There are moments when one has to choose between living one’s own life, fully, entirely, completely-or dragging out some false, shallow, degrading existence that the world in its hypocrisy demands.
Presume not that I am the thing I was.
My life is my message.
The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.
What does your conscience say? — 'You should become the person you are'.
We cannot think of being acceptable to others until we have first proven acceptable to ourselves.
I’m nobody! Who are you? Are you nobody, too? Then there ’s a pair of us – don’t tell! They ’d banish us, you know. How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog!
I try more and more to be myself, caring relatively little whether people approve or disapprove.
If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. Only by that, only by self-respect will you compel others to respect you.
You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!
There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.
The best day of your life is the one on which you decide your life is your own. No apologies or excuses. No one to lean on, rely on, or blame. The gift is yours – it is an amazing journey – and you alone are responsible for the quality of it. This is the day your life really begins.