Quotes About Authenticity

An authentic life comes from an authentic self in which the layers on the outside are merely expressions of the core on the inside.

How was it possible to wake up every day and be recognizable to another when so often one was barely recognizable to oneself?

When I was with Yoav, everything in me that had been sitting stood up. He had a way of looking at me with a kind of unabashed directness that made me shiver. It's something amazing to feel that for the first time someone is seeing you as you really are, not as they wish you, or you wish yourself, to be.

as a rule of thumb, whenever there appears a plural, correct for a singular. Should I ever let slip a royal WE, put me out of my misery with a swift blow to the head.

It is impossible to distrust one's writing without awakening a deeper distrust in oneself.

I did it for myself alone, not for anyone else, and that was the difference. It didn't matter if I found the words, and more than that, I knew it would be impossible to find the right ones.

Life is about doing the things that make you happy, not the things that please other people. If you can please other people, that's a plus, but as long as you're not hurting anyone, you're golden.

I go into solitude so as not to drink out of everybody's cistern. When I am among the many I live as the many do, and I do not think I really think. After a time it always seems as if they want to banish my self from myself and rob me of my soul.

El cinismo es la única fuerza bajo la cual las almas vulgares rozan lo que se llama sinceridad»

The pure soul is a pure lie.

Of all that is written, I love only what a person hath written with his blood. Write with blood, and thou wilt find that blood is spirit.

it is not only he who speaks contrary to what he knows who lies, but even more he who speaks contrary to what he does not know

The main advantage about being over thirty is you no longer have to pretend you have a date on Friday night or even, lo and behold, that you want one. You can now easily say to yourself, I hope no one wants to ask me to do anything because I am so looking forward to a hot tub and a midnight snack.

If now isn't a good time for the truth, I don't see when we'll get to it.

Writing for the gallery is something that a writer must resist no matter who he is. You know the writers that are writing for their audience because they write the same book over and over again with the sort of cute things their readership likes. Serious writers write things that compel them, new challenges, new situations, and a new landscape that they have not been in before.

Don't waste your death on a half assed life

A friend tells you the truth, that your breath stinks and you need a bath. An enemy tells you that you look great and you shouldn't change a thing.

They say to keep what you have, you have to give it away. I believe that. I also believe that you can be cool as fuck, not give a fuck and fucking kick ass in life, and not be fucked up. I'm still the first person to say "Fuck you" but I'm faster to say "I love you." If life is what you make it, I've made mine great. It took a lot of hard work and if you need to, you can do it too.

I'm still the first person to say "F**k you" but I'm faster to say "I love you.

When an almond tree became covered with blossoms in the heart of winter, all the trees around it began to jeer. 'What vanity,' they screamed, 'what insolence! Just think, it believes it can bring spring in this way!' The flowers of the almond tree blushed for shame. 'Forgive me, my sisters,' said the tree. 'I swear I did not want to blossom, but suddenly I felt a warm springtime breeze in my heart.

What is truth? What is falsehood? Whatever gives wings to men, whatever produces great works and great souls and lifts up a man's height above the earth - that's true. Whatever clips off man's wings - that's false.

It's all because of doing things by halves and saying things by halves, being good by halves, that the world is in the mess it's in today.

What happened to the crow, Zorba? Well, you see, he used to walk respectably, properly - well, like a crow. But one day he got it into his head to try and strut about like a pigeon. And from that time the poor fellow couldn't for the life of him recall his own way of walking. He was all mixed up, don't you see? He just hobbled about.

Life is short. People are not easy to know. They're not easy to know, so if you don't tell them how you feel, you're not going to get anywhere, I feel.