Being True to Yourself

Above all, be true to yourself, and if you cannot put your heart in it, take yourself out of it.-Hardy D. Jackson

Accept everything about yourself--I mean everything, You are you and that is the beginning and
the end--no apologies, no regrets.--Clark Moustakas

Any life, no matter how long and complex it may be, is made up of a single moment--the
moment in which a man finds out, once and for all, who he is.--Jorge Luis Borges

At bottom, the heart that seeks to awaken, to live genuinely, is more real than anything. It is the
nameless drive that calls us to be who we most truly are.--Ezra Bayda (The Authentic Life)

Be not anxious about what you have, but about what you are.--Pope Gregory I

Be what you are. This is the first step towards becoming better than you are.--J. C. Hare & A. W.
Hare (Guesses at Truth: Second Series)

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter, and those who
matter don't mind.--Dr. Suess

Be yourself - not your idea of what you think somebody else's idea of yourself should be.--Henry
David Thoreau

Being born in a duck yard does not matter, if only you are hatched from a swan's egg.--Hans
Christian Andersen

A bird doesn't sing because it has an answer, it sings because it has a song.--Maya Angelou
(quoted in Mind Your Own Bizniche by Squire)

But an accurate definition of the self is impossible. You are more than you realize, more than
you can define. And the more time you spend trying to nail down the definition, the less time
you spend living right now. ... Your past is not your identity... You, living now, is your identity.-George Lawrence-Ell (The Invisible Clock)

But you are the only person alive who has sole custody of your life. Your particular life. Your
entire life. Not just your life at a desk, or your life on the bus, or in the car, or at the computer.
Not just the life of your mind, but the life of your heart. Not just your bank account, but your
soul.--Anna Quindlen (A Short Guide to a Happy Life)

By your own soul, learn to live

And if men thwart you take no heed.

If men hate you have no care.

Sing your song, dream your dream,
Hope your hope and pray your prayer.--Parkenham Beatty

Committing yourself is a way of finding out who you are. A man finds his identity by identifying.-Robert Terwilliger

Consult not your fears but your hopes and your dreams. Think not about your frustrations, but
about your unfulfilled potential. Concern yourself not with what you tried and failed in, but with
what it is still possible for you to do.--Pope John XXIII

Defining myself, as opposed to being defined by others, is one of the most difficult challenges I
face.--Carol Mosely-Braun

A desire to be in charge of our own lives, a need for control, is born in each of us. It is essential
to our mental health, and our success, that we take control.--Robert F. Bennett

Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you'll be criticized anyway. You'll be damned if
you do and damned if you don't.--Eleanor Roosevelt

Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the
world needs is people who have come alive.--Howard Thurman

Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one
it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones tend to take care of
themselves.--Dale Carnegie

Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got.--Janis Joplin

Don't listen to those who say, "It's not done that way." Maybe it's not, but maybe you will. Don't
listen to those who say, "You're taking too big a chance." Michelangelo would have painted the
Sistine floor, and it would surely be rubbed out by today. Most importantly, don't listen when
the little voice of fear inside of you rears its ugly head and says, "They're all smarter than you
out there. They're more talented, they're taller, blonder, prettier, luckier and have
connections" I firmly believe that if you follow a path that interests you, not to the exclusion of
love, sensitivity, and cooperation with others, but with the strength of conviction that you can
move others by your own efforts, and do not make success or failure the criteria by which you
live, the chances are you'll be a person worthy of your own respect.--Neil Simon

Each of us has a fire in our hearts for something. It's our goal in life to find it and to keep it lit.-Mary Lou Retton

The easiest thing to be in the world is you. The most difficult thing to be is what other people
want you to be.-Leo Buscaglia

Eriugena and other Celtic teachers speak of Christ as our memory, as the one who leads us to
our deepest identity, as the one who remembers the song of our beginnings.--John Philip
Newell (Christ of the Celts: the Healing of Creation)

Every year I live I am more convinced that the waste of life lies in the love we have not given,
the powers we have not used, the selfish prudence that will risk nothing, and which shirking
pain, misses happiness as well. No one ever yet was the poorer in the long run for having once in
a lifetime "let out all the length of all the reins."--Mary Cholomondeley

Everybody thinks they want to be special, but when someone finds out how special he or she
really is, often he or she quickly discovers a great desire to be like everybody else.--Mark Mossa
(Already There: Letting God Find You)

Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for.--Earl Warren

The fact remains that the overwhelming majority of people who have become wealthy have
become so thanks to work they found profoundly absorbing.... The long term study of people
who eventually become wealthy clearly reveals that their "Luck" arouse from the accidental
dedication they had to an area they enjoyed.--Srully Blotnick

Fear is a question: What are you afraid of, and why? Just as the seed of health is in illness,
because illness contains information, our fears are a treasure house of self-knowledge if we
explore them.--Marilyn Ferguson

Feeding the poor and clothing the hungry are important ministries. But so is the ability to write a
moving eulogy or devotion, compose a beautiful hymn, or paint a glorious sunset. The ways in
which God gifts us with the talent to touch souls are as infinitesimal as he is.--Melanie Rigney
(Sisterhood of Saints: Daily Guidance and Inspiration)

Few are those who see with their own eyes and feel with their own hearts.--Albert Einstein

Find out who you are and do it on purpose.--Dolly Parton

Finding your calling in life ultimately comes down to finding the answer to the question: "How
can I help?"--Fr. Roderick Vonhogen (Geekpriest: Confessions of a New Media Pioneer)

The first question here, then, is not "What is best for my soul?" nor is it even "What is most
useful to humanity?" But--transcending both these limited aims--what function must this life
fulfill in the great and secret economy of God?--Evelyn Underhill (The Spiritual Life)

Flowers do not force their way with great strife. Flowers open to perfection slowly in the sun....
Don't be in a hurry about spiritual matters. Go step by step, and be very sure.--White Eagle

The greatest thing is, at any moment, to be willing to give up who we are in order to become all
that we can be.--Max De Pree

How are you going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued? Whether
you're going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over
people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth
about who you are.--Anne Lamott (in Starting Over)

How do the geese know when to fly to the sun? Who tells them the seasons? How do we,
humans, know when it is time to move on? As with the migrant birds, so surely with us, there is
a voice within, if only we would listen to it, that tells us so certainly when to go forth into the
unknown.--Elizabeth Kubler-Ross

I am still learning--how to take joy in all the people I am, how to use all my selves in the service
of what I believe, how to accept when I fail and rejoice when I succeed.--Audre Lorde

I believe a unique core self is born into every human being; the result of millennia of
environment adn heredity combined in an unpredictable way that could never happen before or
again.--Gloria Stienem ("A Balance Between Nature and Nuture" in This I Believe ed. by Allison
and Gediman)

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

I do not want to die...until I have faithfully made the most of my talent and cultivated the seed
that was placed in me until the last small twig has grown.--Kathe Kollwitz

I don't think there ever was a lazy man in this world. Every man has some sort of gift, and he
prizes that gift beyond all others. He may be a professional billiard-player, or a Paderewski, or a
poet--I don't care what it is. But whatever it is, he takes a native delight in exploiting that gift,
and you will find it is difficult to beguile him away from it. Well, there are thousands of other
interests occupying other men, but those interests don't appeal to the special tastes of the
billiard champion or Paderewski. They are set down, therefore, as too lazy to do that or do this-to do, in short what they have no taste or inclination to do. In that sense, then I am
phenomenally lazy. But when it comes to writing a book--I am not lazy. My family find it difficult
to dig me out of my chair.--Mark Twain

I have a basic philosophy that I've tried to follow during my coaching career. Whether you're
winning or losing, it's important to always be yourself. You can't change because of the
circumstances around you.--Cotton Fitzsimmons

I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man I've met.--Dwight Moody

I know this now. Every man gives his life for what he believes. Every woman gives her life for
what she believes. Sometimes people believe in little or nothing yet they give their lives to that
little or nothing. One life is all we have and we live it as we believe in living it. And then it is
gone. But to sacrifice what you are and live without belief, that's more terrible than dying.--Joan
of Arc

I often feel that our greatest individual challenge is to close the gap between our unflattering
self-concepts and the truth of our magnificence. To see ourselves through the eyes of those who
love us.--Jeff Brown (Ascending with Both Feet on the Ground: Words to Awaken Your Heart)

I think gardening is nearer to godliness than theology. True gardeners are both iconographers
and theologians insofar as these activities are the fruit of prayer without ceasing. Likewise, true
gardeners never cease to garden, not even in their sleep, because gardening is not just
something they do. It is how they live.--Vigen Guroian

I think the reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself.--Rita Mae Brown

I was once afraid of people saying, "Who does she think she is?" Now I have the courage to
stand and say, "This is who I am."--Oprah Winfrey

I will permit no man to narrow and degrade my soul by making me hate him.--Booker T.
Washington

I would be true, for there are those who trust me;

I would be pure, for there are those who care;
I would be strong, for there is much to suffer;
I would be brave, for there is much to dare.--Howard Arnold Walter ("I Would Be True")

If they give you ruled paper, write the other way.--Juan Ramon Jimenez

If you are what you should be, then you will set the world on fire.--St. Catherine of Siena

If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know its not your path. Your
own path you make with every step you take. Thats why its your path.-Joseph Campbell

If you're able to be yourself, then you have no competition. All you have to do is get closer and
closer to that essence.--Barbara Cook

The important thing is this: to be able at any moment to sacrifice what we are for what we could
become.--Charles Du Bos (Approximations)

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.--Thomas
Jefferson

It is a pathetic moment in the history of the human condition when the outside world tells us
who and what we are - and we start to believe it ourselves. Then, bent over from the weight of
the negativity, we start to wither on the outside--Joan Chittister (The Gift of Years: Growing
Older Gracefully)

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit. - Harry S. Truman

It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies.--Arthur Calwell

It is easier to fight for one's principles than to live up to them.--Alfred Adler

It is easy in the world to live after the world's opinion, it is easy in solitude to live after your own;
but the great man is he who, in the midst of the world, keeps with perfect sweetness the
independence of solitude.--Ralph Waldo Emerson

It is in vain to hope to please all alike. Let a man stand with his face in what direction he will, he
must necessarily turn his back on one half of the world.--George Dennison Prentice

It is never too late to be what you might have been.--George Eliot

It is not worth an intelligent man's time to be in the majority. By definition, there are already
enough people to do that.--G. H. Hardy

It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.--Desiderius Erasmus

It is the highest form of self-respect to admit our errors and mistakes and make amends for
them. To make a mistake is only an error in judgment, but to adhere to it when it is discovered
shows infirmity of character.--Dale Turner

It is very easy to conform to what your society or your parents and teachers tell you. That is a
safe and easy way of existing; but that is not livingTo live is to find out for yourself what is
true...--Jiddu Krishnamurti

It takes years to build up trust, but only seconds to destroy it.

You can get by on charm for about fifteen minutes.
After that you'd better know something.
Don't compare yourself to the best others can do,
But to the best you can do.
It's not what happens to people that's important.
It's what they do about it.
Always leave loved ones with loving words.
It may be the last time you see them.
You control your attitude or it controls you.
It isn't always enough to be forgiven by others.
Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.
Your background and circumstances may have influenced who you are,
But you are responsible for who you become.
Even if you do the right thing for the wrong reason,
It's still the wrong thing to do.--Anonymous

It's a dangerous thing to name yourself wrongly or to name yourself unjustly.--John O'Donohue
(Speaking of Faith interview, Feb. 28, 2008)

It's a funny thing about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the best you very often get it.-Somerset Maugham

It's important that people should know what you stand for. It's equally important that they
know what you won't stand for.--Mary H. Waldrip

Josh Billings said, "It is not only the most difficult thing to know oneself, but the most
inconvenient one, too." Human beings have always employed an enormous variety of clever
devices for running away from themselves, and the modern world is particularly rich in such
stratagems.--John W. Gardner

The journey by which we discover God is also the journey by which we discover, or uncover, our
true self hidden in God. It is a journey that we all have to make.--Esther de Waal (Living with
Contradiction)

Just as you would not neglect seeds that you planted with the hope that they will bear
vegetables and fruits and flowers, so you must attend to and nourish the garden of your
becoming.--Jean Houston

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom.

Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.
If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.--Tao Te Ching

Learn to live with self and you will learn to live with others.--Edgar Cayce

Let yourself be silently drawn by the strange pull of what you really love. It will not lead you
astray.--Rumi

Let's dare to be ourselves, for we do that better than anyone else can.--Shirley Briggs

Life demands from you only the strength you posses. One one feat is possible -- not to have run
away.--Dag Hammarskjold

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all
confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing
must be attained.--Marie Curie

Life's challenges are not supposed to paralyze you, they're supposed to help you discover who
you are.--Bernice Johnson Reagon

Live your truth. Express your love. Share your enthusiasm. Take action towards your dreams.
Walk your talk. Dance and sing to your music. Embrace your blessings. Make today worth
remembering.--Steve Maraboli (Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human
Experience)

Man is not intended to see through the eyes of another, hear through another's ears nor
comprehend with another's brain. Each human creature has individual endowment, power and
responsibility in the creative plan of God.--Abdu'l-Baha

A man is not what he thinks he is, but what he thinks, he is.--Max R. Hickerson

A man must be obedient to the promptings of his innermost heart.--Robertson Davies (Your
Achievement Ezine - Issue No. 153)

The man who has no inner life is a slave of his surroundings, as the barometer is the obedient
servant of the air.--Henri F. Amiel

The man who lets a leader prescribe his course is a wreck being towed to the scrap heap.--Ayn
Rand

The mark of a true professional is giving more than you get.--Robert Kirby

Men make counterfeit money; in many more cases, money makes counterfeit men.--Sydney J.
Harris

The message we have internalized is clear - we are what we do and what we own, not what we
are inside ourselves. Where it counts!--Joan Chittister (The Gift of Years: Growing Older
Gracefully)

The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become - because He made us.
He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be...--C. S.
Lewis

Morning affirmation: I am in the right place, doing the right thing, achieving what I have
envisioned, and feeling fulfilled and complete.--Michael Rawls

The most vigilant self-criticism of course is necessary, but the time comes when the artist must
tell himself he is good or he will go under.--George Moore

My soul is from elsewhere, I'm sure of that, and I intend to end up there.--Rumi

Neither evil tongues,

Rash judgements, nor the sneers of selfish men,
Nor greetings where no kindness is, nor all
The dreary intercourse of daily life,
Shall e'er prevail against us.--William Wordsworth

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's
definition of your life, but define yourself.--Harvey Fierstein

Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world right in the eye.--Helen Keller

Never explain--your friends do not need it, and your enemies will not believe you anyway.-Elbert Hubbard

Never follow somebody else's path; it doesn't work the same way twice for anyone...the path
follows you and rolls up behind you as you walk, forcing the next person to find their own way.-J. Michael Straczynski

Ninety percent of the world's woe comes from people not knowing themselves, their abilities,
their frailties, and even their real virtues. Most of us go almost all the way through life as
complete strangers to ourselves.--Sydney J. Harris

No one is to be called an enemy, all are your benefactors, and no one does you harm. You have
no enemy except yourselves.--St. Francis of Assisi

No star is ever lost we once have seen,

We always may be what we might have been.--Adelaide A. Proctor

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more
money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually
works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order
to have what you want.--Margaret Young

On this subject I do not which to think, or speak, or write, with moderation. No! No! Tell a man
whose house is on fire to give a moderate alarm; tell him to moderately rescue his wife from the
hands of the ravisher; tell the mother to gradually extricate her babe from the fire into which it
has fallen; but urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest; I will
not equivocate; I will not retreat a single inch; and I will be heard.--Lloyd Garrison (The
Liberator)

One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.--Helen Keller

One does not "find oneself" by pursuing one's self, but on the contrary by pursuing something
else and learning through discipline or routine who one is and wants to be.--May Sarton

One does what one can, not what one cannot.--Agatha Christie

The one person who most blocks you from a full, happy, and successful life is you. He is
therefore wise who makes himself an asset. We can be our won worst enemy or best friend. We
can be a source of trouble or a cure for trouble. So if you feel empty, as many do, start by
getting free from yourself as a first stop to vibrant living.--Norman Vincent Peale

One's philosophy is not best expressed in words; it is expressed in the choices one makes ... and
the choices we make are ultimately our responsibility.--Eleanor Roosevelt

The only one thing I can change is myself, but sometimes that makes all of the difference.-Anonymous

Only to the extent that someone is living out this self transcendence of human existence, is he
truly human or does he become his true self. He becomes so, not by concerning himself with his
self's actualization, but by forgetting himself and giving himself, overlooking himself and
focusing outward.--Viktor E. Frankl

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful
beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who
am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a
child of God! Your playing small doesn't' serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about
shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We were born to make manifest
the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our
own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are
liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.--Marianne Williamson
(A Return To Love)

Our dependency makes slaves out of us, especially if this dependency is a dependency of our
self-esteem. If you need encouragement, praise, pats on the back from everybody, then you
make everybody your judge.--Fritz Perls

People don't always have a choice in what they're going to do today. They don't always have a
choice in where they're going to go today. But I believe all human beings have a choice as to
who they're going to be today.--Judy Zarick (Moved by Faith)

People spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding excuses for
not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy putting themselves on the
line, growing out of the past, and getting on with their lives.--J. Michael Straczynski

People take different roads seeking fulfillment and happiness. Just because they're not on your
road doesn't mean they've gotten lost.--H. Jackson Brown

Perhaps nobody ever accomplishes all that he feels lies in him to do but nearly every one who
tries his power touches the walls of his being occasionally, and learns about how far to attempt
to spring.--Charles Dudley Warner ("Third Study" Backlog Studies)

Practice rather than preach. Make of your life an affirmation, defined by your ideals, not the
negation of others. Dare to the level of your capability then go beyond to a higher level.-Alexander Haig (in Success Secrets of Super Achievers by Stovall)

Put yourself in a state of mind where you say to yourself, "Here is an opportunity for you to
celebrate like never before, my own power, my own ability to get myself to do whatever is
necessary.--Anthony Robbins

Real confidence comes from knowing and accepting yourself--your strengths and your
limitations--in contrast to depending on affirmation from others.--Judith M. Bardwick

The roots of true achievement lie in the will to become the best that you can become.--Harold
Taylor

The search for self-worth begins by finding what is indestructible inside, then letting it be.-Prudence Kohl

Self-confidence is so relaxing. There is no strain or stress when one is self-confident. Our lack of
self-confidence comes from trying to be someone we aren't.--Anne Wilson Schaef

Self-conquest is really self-surrender. Yet before we can surrender ourselves we must become
ourselves. For no one can give up what he does not possess.--Thomas Merton

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted, but getting what you have, which
once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you
known.--Garrison Keillor

Sometimes the best way to figure out who you are is to get to that place where you don't have
to be anything else.--Unknown

Sometimes you have to be forced away from your work to realize youve made too much of it,
to remember it doesnt define you.--Rachel Held Evans ("13 Things I Learned Upon Spilling A
Chai Tea Latte on My Laptop and Thinking For 48-Hours I May Have Lost My Manuscript")

Start doing the things you think should be done, and start being what you think society should
become. Do you believe in free speech? Then speak freely. Do you love the truth? Then tell it.
Do you believe in an open society? Then act in the open. Do you believe in a decent and humane
society? Then behave decently and humanely.--Adam Michnik

Story re-orders, sifts through experience, and allows others, young children and adults alike, to
hear what we think truly matters. We are constituted by the stories we tell ourselves and
others. Thus stories serve an ontological purpose. Story connects us with that which lies beyond
ourselves and this process makes us ask questions about the meanings of our lives. It is, in fact,
a way we can begin to define what we mean when we use the term "spirituality."--Barbara
Kimes Myers (Young Children and Spirituality)

Take care, don't fight, and remember: if you do not choose to lead, you will forever be led by
others. Find what scares you, and do it. And you can make a difference, if you choose to do so.-J. Michael Straczynski

Take your life in your own hands, and what happens? A terrible thing: no one to blame.--Erica
Jong

That you may retain your self-respect, it is better to displease the people by doing what you
know is right, than to temporarily please them by doing what you know is wrong.--William J. H.
Boetcker

There are many who are living far below their possibilities because they are continually handing
over their individualities to others. Do you want to be a power I the world? Then be yourself.-Ralph Waldo Trine

There is a road, no simple highway, between the dawn and the dark of night, and if you go, no
one may follow, that path is for your steps alone.--Jerry Garcia (Ripple)

There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action,
and because there is only one of you in all of time, this expression is unique. And if you block it,
it will never exist through any other medium and be lost.--Martha Graham

There is nothing with which every man is so afraid as getting to know how enormously much he
is capable of doing and becoming.--Soren Kierkegaard

There is only one you for all time. Fearlessly be yourself.--Anthony R

There is something in every one of you that waits and listens for the sound of the genuine in
yourself. It is the only true guide you will ever have. And if you cannot hear it, you will all of your
life spend your days on the ends of strings that somebody else pulls.--Howard Thurman

There's a period of life when we swallow a knowledge of ourselves and it becomes either good
or sour inside.--Pearl Bailey

There's always someone to tell you you have to. Wrong. Don't. Rather, spend time finding out
who you really are. Work on being more of that. A lot better than the futile "gotta change"
treadmill, which never really ends.--Shirley Jones (in Success Secrets of Super Achievers by
Stovall)

They will say you are on the wrong road, if it is your own.--Antonio Porchi

The thing that is really hard, and really amazing, is giving up on being perfect and beginning the
work of becoming yourself.--Anna Quindlen

Think about your future possibilities and the fact that your potential is virtually unlimited. You
can do what you want to do and go where you want to go. You can be the person you want to
be. You can set large and small goals and make plans and move step-by-step, progressively
toward their realization. There are no obstacles to what you can accomplish except the
obstacles that you create in your mind.--Brian Tracy

This is what I learned: that everybody is talented, original, and has something important to say.-Brenda Ueland

Those who know others are intelligent

Those who know themselves have insight.
Those who master others have force
Those who master themselves have strength.

Those who know what is enough are wealthy.

Those who persevere have direction.
Those who maintain their position endure.
And those who die and yet do not perish, live on.--Lao Tzu

Throughout the years of your life you will face many challenges, remember that you can climb
the highest mountain, drive through the roughest storm, soar across the bluest sky, or even sail
across the roughest waters. It is only destined by your attitude where you will end up in life. The
most important thing is don't let yourself get lost in the crowd.--Angela Duvall

To allow oneself to be carried away by a multitude of conflicting concerns, to surrender to too

many demands, to commit to too many projects, to want to help everyone in everything is itself
to succumb to the violence of our times.--Thomas Merton

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

To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life.-Baruch Spinoza

To do good thing in the world, first you must know who you are and what gives meaning to your
life.--Paula P. Brownlee

To dream of the person you'd like to be, is a waste to the person you are.--Author unknown

To every man there openeth A way, and ways, and a way. And the high soul climbs the high way,
And the low soul gropes the low: And in between, on the misty flats, The rest drift to and fro.
But to every man there openeth A high way and a low, And every man decideth. The way his
soul shall go.--John Oxenham

To know oneself, one should assert oneself.--Camus

Today you are You,

that is truer than true.
There is no one alive
who is Youer than You.--Dr. Seuss

Too many people spend money they haven't earned, to buy things they don't want, to impress
people they don't like.--Will Rogers

Trust yourself. Think for yourself. Act for yourself. Speak for yourself. Be yourself. Imitation is
suicide.--Michael Rawls

The two important things I did learn were that you are as powerful and strong as you allow
yourself to be, and that the most difficult part of any endeavor is taking the first step, making
the first decision.--Robyn Davidson

Unless your heart, your soul, and your whole being are behind every decision you make, the
words from your mouth will be empty, and each action will be meaningless. Truth and
confidence are the roots of happiness.--Kathleen Pedersen

Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have.--Doris
Mortman

Use what talent you possess: The world would be very silent if no birds sang except those that
sang best.--Henry van Dyke

Walking your talk is a great way to motivate yourself. No one likes to live a lie. Be honest with
yourself, and you will find the motivation to do what you advise others to do.--Vince Poscente
(Invinceable Principles)

The way in which we think of ourselves has everything to do with how our world sees us and
how we can see ourselves successfully acknowledged by that world.--Arlene Raven

We are all born originals--why is it so many of us die copies?--Edward Young

We are like violins. We can be used as doorstops, or we can make music.--Barbara Sher

We are made in the image and likeness of God and God expects us to act accordingly.--Patricia
Cooney Hathaway (Weaving Faith and Experience: A Woman's Perspective)

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.--Kurt Vonnegut,
Jr.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then, is not an act, but a habit.--Aristotle.

We fail to see that we can control our destiny; make ourselves do whatever is possible; make
ourselves become whatever we long to be.--Orison Swett Marden

We must overcome the notion that we must be regular...it robs you of the chance to be
extraordinary and leads you to the mediocre.--Uta Hagen

We say we waste time, but that is impossible. We waste ourselves.--Alice Bloch

We should every night call ourselves to an account: what infirmity have I mastered to-day? what
passions opposed? what temptation resisted? what virtue acquired? Our vices will abate of
themselves if they be brought every day to the shrift.--Seneca

We think that the problems of the world and of ourselves can only be solved through "doing,"
not realizing that it is this focus on ceaseless activity that has created much of our present

imbalance. Rather than always asking, "What should I do?," we can learn to reflect, "How should
I be?"--Llewellyn Vaughan-Lee (The Return of the Feminine and the World Soul)

What another would have done as well as you, do not do it. What another would have said as
well as you, do not say it; what another would have written as well, do not write it. Be faithful to
that which exists nowhere but in yourself.--Andre Gide

What can we gain by sailing to the moon if we are not able to cross the abyss that separates us
from ourselves? This is the most important of all voyages of discovery, and without it, all the
rest are not only useless, but disastrous...--Thomas Merton

What I am thinking and doing day by day is resistlessly shaping my future--a future in which
there is no expiation except through my own better conduct. No one can live my life for me. If I
am wise I shall begin today to build my own truer and better world from within.--H. W. Dresser

What the world needs now is for each of us to be who we truly are, and to bring our gifts into
the world. Don't hold back any longer. Be Present, Be You. That is enough. Really it is.--Nancy
Bishop ("Getting To Know YOU")

Whatever you are by nature, keep to it; never desert your line of talent. Be what nature
intended you for, and you will succeed.--Sydney Smith

When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be.--Lao Tzu

When I say it's you I like, I'm talking about that part of you that knows that life is far more than
anything you can ever see or hear or touch. That deep part of you that allows you to stand for
those things without which humankind cannot survive. Love that conquers hate, peace that rises
triumphant over war, and justice that proves more powerful than greed.--Fred Rogers

When I'm trusting and being myself as fully as possible, everything in my life reflects this by
falling into place easily, often miraculously.--Shakti Gawain

When people are free to do as they please, they usually imitate each other. Originality is
deliberate and forced, and partakes of the nature of a protest--Eric Hoffer (The Passionate State
of Mind)

When you acknowledge the less than perfect parts of yourself, something magical begins to
happen. Along with the negative, you'll also begin to notice the positive, the wonderful aspects
of yourself that you may not have given yourself credit for, or perhaps even been aware of.-Richard Carlson (Don't Sweat the Small Stuff)

When you examine the lives of the most influential people who have ever walked among us, you
discover one thread that winds through them all. They have been aligned first with their
spiritual nature and only then with their physical selves.--Albert Einstein

When you take charge of your life, there is no longer need to ask permission of other people or
society at large. When you ask permission, you give someone veto power over your life.-Geoffrey F. Abert

Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.--Mark Twain

Wherever you are, whatever your circumstances may be, whatever misfortune you may have
suffered, the music of your life has not gone. It's inside you--if you listen to it, you can play it.-Nido Qubein

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster.
And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.--Friedrich
Nietzsche

Why be afraid of what people will say? Those who care about you will say, "Good luck!" and
those who care only about themselves will never say anything worth listening to anyway.--J. Z.
Knight

Why not be oneself? That is the whole secret of a successful appearance. If one is a greyhound
why try to look like a Pekinese?--Edith Sitwell

Women are always being tested ... but ultimately, each of us has to define who we are
individually and then do the very best job we can to grow into it.--Hillary Rodham Clinton

The world needs people like you to dream of something great and then pursue it with all your
heart.--Chris Widener

You are obligated to understand that you are unique in the world. There has never been anyone
like you because, of there were, there would be no need for you to exist. You are an utterly new
thing in creation. Your life goal is to realize this uniqueness.--Aaron Perlow (Itturay Torah)

You cannot take the mild approach to the weeds in your mental garden. You have got to hate
weeds enough to kill them. Weeds are not something you handle; weeds are something you
devastate.--Jim Rohn (Jim Rohn's Weekly E-zine - May 11, 2004)

You got to sing like you don't need the money

Love like you'll never get hurt
You got to dance like nobody's watchin'
It's gotta come from the heart
If you want it to work.--Susanna Clark & Richard Leigh

You have a masterpiece inside you, you know. One unlike any that ahs ever been created, or
ever will be. If you go to your grave without painting your masterpiece, it will not get painted.
No one else can paint it. Only you.--Gordon MacKenzie

You have to have confidence in your ability, and then be tough enough to follow through.-Rosalynn Carter

You must constantly ask yourself these questions: Who am I around? What are they doing to
me? What have they got me reading? What have they got me saying? Where do they have me
going? What do they have me thinking? And most important, what do they have me becoming?
Then ask yourself the big question: Is that okay?--Jim Rohn (Jim Rohn's Weekly E-zine, July 21,
2003)

You need to claim the events of your life to make yourself yours. When you truly possess all that
you have been and done, which may take some time, you are fierce with reality.--Florida Scott
Maxwell

You really have to look inside yourself and find your own inner strength, and say, "I'm proud of
what I am and who I am, and I'm just going to be myself."--Mariah Carey

You will make a lousy anybody else, but you will be the best "you" in existence.--Zig Ziglar (Zig
Ziglar's Little Book of Big Quotes)

Your problem is how you are going to spend this one and precious life you have been issued.
Whether youre going to spend it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have
power over circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it and find out the truth
about who you are.--Anne Lamott

Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions
drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart
and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is
secondary.--Steve Jobs

Your vision will become clear only when you look into your heart. Who looks outside, dreams.
Who looks inside, awakens.--Carl Jung