Quotes About Authenticity

One of the things about Ike that makes him so indisputably a hero is that he doesn't leave his own contradictions to the effete disputations of armchair scholars. He grapples with them himself, in his own lifetime.

If we all shift to the simulacrum, then the simulacrum, for all practical purposes, becomes the real.

The only response to adversity or misunderstanding is to be more completely who we are—to share ourselves more.

quiet pain that comes from not honoring what we know to be true, even if all we know to be true are the questions we are asking.

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

When feeling badly about ourselves, we often try on other skins rather than understand and care for our own.

Within Young Leaves Wrapped within young leaves: the sound of water. —SOSEKI This delicate observation by this Japanese poet is filled with the quiet hope that embedded in our nature, even as we begin, is our gift already unfolded. Embedded in the seed is the blossom. Embedded in the womb is the child fully grown. Embedded in the impulse to care is the peace of love realized. Embedded in the edge of risk and fear is the authenticity that makes life worth living.

So, if you can, give up the want of another and be who you are, and more often than not, love will come at the precise moment you are simply loving yourself.

It is this courage to be authentic that keeps us strong enough to withstand the heartbreak through which enlightenment can occur. And it is by honoring how life comes through us that we get the most out of living, not by keeping ourselves out of the way. The goal is to mix our hands in the earth, not to stay clean.

I had tried so hard to please that I never realized no one was watching.

over time, staying real becomes the work of keeping our actions in the world connected to the truth of our inner being, allowing our True Self to see the light of day.

I tried so hard to please that I never realized no one is watching.

Grateful and awake, ask what you need to know now. Say what you feel now. Love what you love now.

So what does it mean to be a spiritual warrior? It is far from being a soldier, but more the sincerity with which a soul faces itself in a daily way. It is this courage to be authentic that keeps us strong enough to withstand the heartbreak through which enlightenment can occur. And it is by honoring how life comes through us that we get the most out of living, not by keeping ourselves out of the way. The goal is to mix our hands in the earth, not to stay clean.

When we cease to surface our most sensitive skin simply to avoid conflict with others, we remove ourselves from all that is true. When we maintain ways we've already discarded just to placate the ignorance of those we love, we lose our access to what is eternal.

It doesn't have to be pretty or smart, just honest and true. For many a dance starts with a trip, and many a song finds its opening through a cough.

The famous British child psychologist D. W. Winnicott called these aspects of personality our True Self and False Self. It is the True Self that lets us know what is authentic and what has become artificial, while the False Self is a diplomat of distrust, enforcing a lifestyle of guardedness, secrecy, and complaint.

Not surprisingly, like most people, in the first half of my life, I worked very hard to understand and strengthen my uniqueness.

Practicing As a man in his last breath drops all he is carrying each breath is a little death that can set us free. Breathing is the fundamental unit of risk, the atom of inner courage that leads us into authentic living. With each breath, we practice opening, taking in, and releasing. Literally, the teacher is under our nose. When anxious, we simply have to remember to breathe. So often we make a commitment to change our ways, but stall in the face of

Healthy people who do not have a need to control anyone make the best leaders.

It's your attitude. It's not what you say, it's what you do, and it's not what you do, it's what you feel. You have to be connected to yourself, Henry, before you can connect with someone else." She gently touched herself on the chest, above her heart. "It comes from here. If your heart isn't right they'll know it.

If you write what you love everything else will follow.

There is no fiction. There's only truth disguised as fiction

There is no absolute truth. There is only your own truth. Write honestly, from the heart, and you will reach your readers.