Quotes About Authenticity

this was not a real human being but some kind of dummy. It was not the man's brain that was speaking, it was his larynx. The stuff that was coming out of him consisted of words, but it was not speech in the true sense: it was a noise uttered in unconsciousness, like the quacking of a duck.

Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in the present, now existed in the past, and when once the act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentically, and upon the same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity. When there is a gap between one's real and one's declared aims, one turns, as it were instinctively, to long words and exhausted idioms, like a cuttlefish squirting out ink.

It struck him as curious that you could create dead men but not living ones. Comrade Ogilvy, who had never existed in The present, now existed in The past, and when once The act of forgery was forgotten, he would exist just as authentical- ly, and upon The same evidence, as Charlemagne or Julius Caesar.

The great enemy of clear language is insincerity.

Now that you've seen what I'm really like, can you still bear to look at me?

Beware of Goodreads quotations that come without a citation; they are often false.

Dans des temps de tromperie généralisée, le seul fait de dire la vérité est un acte révolutionnaire.

The sense of being an impostor (what teacher has not felt it at times?) was heavy upon her.

to a time when truth exists

Nale?enie do mniejszoÅ›ci, nawet jednoosobowej, nie czyni nikogo szaleÅ"cem. Istnieje prawda i istnieje faÅ'sz, lecz dopóki ktoÅ› upiera siÄ™ przy prawdzie, nawet wbrew caÅ'emu Å›wiatu, pozostaje normalny.

Irony is just honesty with the volume cranked up.

Find out what makes you kinder, what opens you up and brings out the most loving, generous, and unafraid version of you—and go after those things as if nothing else matters. Because, actually, nothing else does.

I have plenty of friends, she says. Name one. She looks at me. Which I guess is sort of sweet.

Working with language is a means by which we can identify the bullshit within ourselves (and others).

Though firm, we are never too firm, though we love fun, we never have fun in a silly way that makes us appear ridiculous, unless that is our intent.

That's the whole game: Becoming convinced that there is a voice inside you that really, really knows what it likes, and getting better at hearing that voice and acting on its behalf. [...] How emphatically can you like what you like? How long are you willing to work on something, to ensure that every bit of it gets infused with some trace of your radical preference? -George Saunders

It's kind of crazy but, in my experience, that's the whole game: (1) becoming convinced that there is a voice inside you that really, really knows what it likes, and (2) getting better at hearing that voice and acting on its behalf.

When we find our voice, what's really happening is that we're choosing a voice from among the many voices we're able to do, and we're choosing it beacuse we've found that, of all the voices we contain, it's the one, so far, that has proven itself to be the most energetic.

Now all these happy sites and sounds seem like triks. Now it seems like the gud times are mere lee smoke that, upon blowing away, here is the reel life, which is: rok hats, kikking, stomping.

They brought the first guy back and the two old hippies sat side by side, seemingly wary of each other. She felt that each, in his mind, was making the case for being the more intelligent and authentic washed-up former hippie.

Look, show your cock. It's the shortest line between two points. The world ain't giving away nice lives. You got a trust fund? You a genius? Show your cock. It's what you got.

So I suppose one danger is that we might get the idea that, you know, "to blurt, is to be." The idea that whatever comes out is good and is us. Whereas someone who has really worked with text realizes – well, that neither one is "really" you, but that the considered version might represent a "higher" you – brighter, less willing to coast or condescend, funnier, and (mysteriously) also, I think, kinder.

Working with language is a means by which we can identify the bullshit within ourselves (and others). If we learn what a truthful sentence looks like, a little flag goes up at a false one.