Quotes About Authenticity

People often need to suspend their self-promotion, and have someone in their lives they do not need to impress. This explains dog ownership.

somehow it is only when you don't care about your reputation that you tend to have a good one.

you have a real life if and only if you do not compete with anyone in any of your pursuits

Do not pay attention to what people say, only to what they do, and how much of their necks they are putting on the line.

True humility is when you can surprise yourself more than others; the rest is either shyness or good marketing.

Hatred is much harder to fake than love. You hear of fake love; never of fake hate.

People try to impress you with the things they have done ... You should be more impressed with things they would never do.

Bad-mouthing is the only genuine, never faked expression of admiration.

you'd even rather have a failed real person than a successful one, as blemishes, scars, and character flaws increase the distance between a human and a ghost.

Simply: if you can't put your soul into something, give it up and leave that stuff to someone else.

Someone with a high public presence who is controversial and takes risks for his opinion is less likely to be a bullshit vendor.

Missing a train is only painful if you run after it. Likewise, not matching the idea of success others expect from you is only painful if that is what you are seeking.

With novelists, names and dates are wrong, the rest is true. With historians, names and dates are correct, the rest is false.

It costs a lot of energy to fake that you're not bored.

What matters, in the end, is what they pay for goods, not what they say they "think" about them, or the various possible reasons they give you or themselves for that.

A genius is someone with flaws harder to imitate than his qualities.

I am never bothered by normal people; it is the bull***tter in the "intellectual" profession who bothers me.

Those who talk about books as commodities are inauthentic, just as those who collect acquaintances can be superficial in their friendships. A novel you like resembles a friend. You read it and reread it, getting to know it better. Like a friend, you accept it the way it is; you do not judge it.

Even the apples we see in the stores are to be regarded with some suspicion: original apples were devoid of sweet taste and fruit corporations bred them for maximal sweetness—the mountain apples of my childhood were acid, bitter, crunchy, and much smaller than the shiny variety in U.S. stores said to keep the doctor away.

Unreliable people carried less weight than reliable ones. You can't fool people more than twice.*1

to accept the fact that I am rather emotional.

shame-free policy is maximal transparency, even transparency of intentions.

Virtue is not something you advertise.

Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.