Being true to oneself

Explore 11 quotes about Being true to oneself

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

Hamlet

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Topic

Being true to oneself Authenticity Personal integrity

Speaker

Lord Polonius

Author

William Shakespeare

Source

Hamlet

Medium

Play

Genre

Tragedy (play)

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1616 1610s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies. London: Edward Blount and William and Isaac Jaggard, 1623, act 1, sc. 3.

Current Citation

Shakespeare, William. "Hamlet." The Norton Shakespeare, edited by Stephen Greenblatt, et al., 3rd ed., W. W. Norton & Company, 2015, act 3, sc. 4.

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.

Henry David Thoreau

Walden

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Topic

Being true to oneself Taking a different path Individual vs. the collective

Author

Henry David Thoreau

Source

Conclusion Walden

Genre

Autobiography and memoir

Language

English

Time

1854 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Conclusion." Walden; or, Life in the Woods. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854.

Current Citation

Thoreau, Henry David. "Conclusion." Walden and Civil Disobedience. Signet, 2012.

I'm gonna wave my freak flag high.

Jimi Hendrix

If 6 Was 9

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Topic

Being true to oneself

Speaker

Jimi Hendrix

Source

If 6 Was 9 Axis: Bold as Love

Medium

Song

Genre

Rock music

Language

English

Time

1967 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Hendrix, Jimi. "If 6 Was 9." Performed by The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Axis: Bold as Love. Track Records, 1967.

The Dude abides.

The Dude

The Big Lebowski

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Topic

Being true to oneself

Speaker

The Dude

Actor

Jeff Bridges

Source

The Big Lebowski

Medium

Film

Genre

Crime comedy (film) Comedy (film) Crime comedy Comedy

Language

English

Time

1998 1990s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

The Big Lebowski. Directed by Joel Coen and Ethan Coen, Working Title Films, 1998.

Be so true to thyself as thou be not false to others.

Francis Bacon

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Topic

Being true to oneself Personal integrity Authenticity False appearances

Author

Francis Bacon

Source

Of Wisdom for a Man's Self Essays or Counsels, Civil and Moral

Medium

Essay

Language

English

Time

1625 1620s 17th century

Era

European Renaissance

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Bacon, Francis "Of Wisdom for a Man's Self." Essayes or Counsels, Civill and Morall. London: John Haviland, 1625.

Current Citation

Bacon, Francis. "Essays, or Counsels, Civil and Moral (1625): Of Wisdom for a Man's Self." Francis Bacon: The Major Works, edited by Brian Vickers. Oxford University Press, 2008.

I have not loved the world, nor the world me;
I have not flattered its rank breath, nor bowed
To its idolatries a patient knee.

Lord Byron

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

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Topic

Being true to oneself Personal integrity

Author

Lord Byron

Source

Childe Harold's Pilgrimage

Medium

Poem

Language

English

Time

1818 1810s 19th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Lord Byron. Childe Harold's Pilgrimage. London: John Murray, 1812-1818, canto 3, st. 113.

Current Citation

Lord Byron. "Childe Harold's Pilgrimage." Lord Byron: The Major Works, edited by Jerome J. McGann. Oxford University Press, 2008, canto 3, st. 113.

To free us from the expectations of others, to give us back to ourselves—there lies the great, the singular power of self-respect. Without it, one eventually discovers the final turn of the screw: one runs away to find oneself, and finds no one at home.

Joan Didion

Vogue

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Topic

Self-respect Being oneself Being true to oneself Authenticity

Author

Joan Didion

Source

Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power Vogue

Medium

Essay Magazine

Language

English

Time

1961 1960s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Didion, Joan. "Self-respect: Its Source, Its Power." Vogue, 1 Aug. 1961.

Current Citation

Didion, Joan. "On Self-Respect." Slouching Towards Bethlehem. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968.

Resolve to be thyself: and know, that he
Who finds himself, loses his misery.

Matthew Arnold

More information about this quote

Topic

Being true to oneself Authenticity

Author

Matthew Arnold

Source

Self-Dependence

Medium

Poem

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1852 1850s 19th century

Authentication Score 3

Citation

Arnold, Matthew, [published as A]. "Self-Dependence." Empedocles on Etna, and Other Poems. London: B. Fellowes, 1852, l. 31.

Best advice I ever got was an old friend mine, a black friend, who said you have to go the way your blood beats. If you don’t live the only life you have, you won’t live some other life, you won’t live any life at all.

James Baldwin

More information about this quote

Topic

Following your heart Being true to oneself Authenticity Life

Speaker

James Baldwin

Source

Village Voice

Medium

Interview Newspaper

Statement Type

Advice

Language

English

Time

1984 1980s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Baldwin, James. Quoted in "Go the Way Your Blood Beats." Interviewed by Richard Goldstein. Village Voice, 26 June 1984.

Current Citation

Baldwin, James. "Go the Way Your Blood Beats." James Baldwin: The Last Interview and Other Interviews. Melville House, 2014.

I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use—silence, exile and cunning.

James Joyce

The Egoist

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Topic

Society and the individual Personal integrity Authenticity Self-expression Being true to oneself

Speaker

Stephen

Author

James Joyce

Source

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man The Egoist

Medium

Novel Magazine

Genre

Modernist literature

Language

English

Time

1915 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 2

Original Citation

Joyce, James. "A Portrait of the Artists as a Young Man." The Egoist. 2 Feb. 1914 - 1 Sept. 1915. Serial.

Current Citation

Joyce, James. A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, edited by John Paul Riquelme. W. W. Norton & Company, 2007, ch. 5.

I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult?

Hermann Hesse

Demian

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Topic

Being true to oneself Authenticity

Author

Hermann Hesse

Source

Demian

Medium

Novel

Genre

Coming of age story

Language

German

Time

1919 1910s 20th century

Authentication Score 3

Original Citation

Hesse, Herman. Die Geschichte von Emil Sinclairs Jugend [Demian: The Story of Emil Sinclair's Youth]. Fischer Verlag, 1919.

Current Citation

Hesse, Herman. Demian, translated by Damion Searls. Penguin Classics, 2013.