Being Oneself Quotes

“Omigosh—I'm a squash!”
― Dave Horowitz, The Ugly Pumpkin

“After they see me, when their mothers are feeding them all that cashmere sweater and girdle ----- [expletive deleted by the New York Times], maybe they'll have a second thought - that they can be themselves and win.”
― Janis Joplin

“It is much more important to be oneself than anything else.”
― Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“you must find yourself before you can know where you belong, yet to find yourself first you must know who you are. However, you will never really know who you are if you are always allowing other people to define who you should be, so be yourself and if you are still unsure of who you are then reinvent yourself.”
― Andrew James Pritchard, Smoke and Mirrors

“You cannot be who you are not.
Simply rest, sit still and unknot.
You may even try to emulate and inspire,
But it's the inner self that you'll transpire.”
― Ana Claudia Antunes, The DAO (Dancing As One) Workbook Illustrated

“Life becomes much more easier when we do what we say and when we say what we do. Having courage to be ourselves is a gateway to freedom and happiness.”
― Raphael Zernoff

“That was the beginning of a bad time. Where I was not myself. Actually, no. I don’t like putting it that way — you’re never not yourself. You’re always you. It’s just, sometimes, who you are… who you are is a shitty person.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

“Don’t ”be yourself”, but work on yourself. Don’t ”be who you are”, but be who you ought. Don’t ”follow your dreams”, but face your realities. And don’t ”live your life”, but live a respectable life. Then you will find out that you cannot do everything, but at least you have to do something.”
― Jakub Bożydar Wiśniewski

“In sex, in towel wringing, in dishwashing, as in everything else, he was exactly himself. If being exactly yourself meant you had to suffer the loneliness of being unlike anyone else, he seemed not to mind. The insularity of his lifestyle cradled him.”
― Ling Ma, Bliss Montage

“Es absolutamente precisa la guarda y conservación del propio carácter, el cultivo de las buenas cualidades que poseemos (...). De nada sirve obrar en desacuerdo con la naturaleza y perseguir objetivos que nos son inaccesibles. (...) Nada es más conveniente que obrar siempre en consonancia con el propio carácter, y esto no se puede alcanzar si, imitando el carácter de los demás, renunciamos al propio. (...) Que cada persona conozca bien su propia índole y juzgue con rigor lo que tiene de bueno y de malo. (...)”
― Marco Tulio Cicerón

“Reporters & fathers call your generation “the worst.”

Which really means “queer kids who could go online & learn that queer doesn’t have to mean disaster.”

Or dead.

Instead, queer means, splendiferously, you.”
― Chen Chen

“I zdarza się, że dwie drogi przebiegają blisko siebie i na jednej słychać westchnienie złamanego serca dobiegające z drugiej drogi, albo z jednej drogi pada na drugą cień złamanego człowieka. Wtedy błądzący człowiek myśli, że to jakieś dzikie zwierzę zaryczało albo cień dzikiej bestii padł na jego drogę. I błądzący człowiek ze strachu ucieka.”
― Perec, החיים הוראות שימוש

“– Tu fais partie des plus courageuses d'entre nous.
– J'ai vécu cette vie parce que c'était la seule que je pouvais vivre. Je n'ai jamais eu l'impression d'avoir le choix.”
― Marcel Shorjian, La montagne entre nous