identity quotes from influential philosophers, authors and people
"Circumstances don't make the man, they only reveal him to himself."
"Through pride we are ever deceiving ourselves. But deep down below the surface of the average conscience a still, small voice says to us, something is out of tune."
"Opinion is like a pendulum and obeys the same law. If it goes past the center of gravity on one side, it must go a like distance on the other; and it is only after a certain time that it finds the true point at which it can remain at rest."
"A man's face as a rule says more, and more interesting things, than his mouth, for it is a compendium of everything his mouth will ever say, in that it is the monogram of all this man's thoughts and aspirations."
"The shoe that fits one person pinches another; there is no recipe for living that suits all cases."
"Our association of our true self with the constant voice in our head is an instance of mistaking the map (the voice) for the territory (who we really are)."
"The issue with any game - even this grand universe game - is that unless there is a possibility of defeat - and it has to be a 'real' defeat - there is no game. The grand game of all games is the game of life and death. If death didn't seem real, the game would be meaningless. Death seems like a real, genuine defeat because if it didn't, we would lose interest in the game."
"What if the way to 'win' the game of life is to discover experientially that it's all a game in the first place and that you are the creator of the game? I emphasize the experience of this discovery, and I suggest that this is what happened to the Buddha, Laotzu, and other ancient masters from the East so long ago. In their case, identification with the self collapsed, and so did all the mental suffering that went with it."
"If you want to have an infinite set of experiences, create fictitious egos that take themselves seriously and program them to always desire what they do not have."
"Why are you unhappy? Because 99.9 percent of everything you think, and of everything you do, is for yourself - and there isn't one."
"No man is happy who does not think himself so."
"As artists and professionals it is our obligation to enact our own internal revolution, a private insurrection inside our own skulls. In this uprising we free ourselves from the tyranny of consumer culture. We overthrow the programming of advertising, movies, video games, magazines, TV, and MTV by which we have been hypnotized from the cradle."
"Become who you are."
"The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are."
"At the center of your being you have the answer; you know who you are and you know what you want."
"When I let go of what I am, I become what I might be."
"Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner."
"The mirror is a worthless invention. The only way to truly see yourself is in the reflection of someone else’s eyes."
"You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. You're the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world."
"Hitting bottom isn't a weekend retreat. It's not a goddamn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go! LET GO!"
"Self improvement is masturbation. Now self destruction..."
"But I cannot forget that, at other times I have been deceived in sleep by similar illusions; and, attentively considering those cases, I perceive so clearly that there exist no certain marks by which the state of waking can ever be distinguished from sleep, that I feel greatly astonished; and in amazement I almost persuade myself that I am now dreaming."
"I know the feelings of my heart, and I know men. I am not made like any of those I have seen; I venture to believe that I am not made like any of those who are in existence. If I am not better, at least I am different. Whether Nature has acted rightly or wrongly in destroying the mould in which she cast me, can only be decided after I have been read."
"There are times when I am so unlike myself that I might be taken for someone else of an entirely opposite character."
"The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed."
"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. Not to dare is to lose oneself."
"Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are."
"Boredom is the root of all evil - the despairing refusal to be oneself."
"The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it."