Quotes About Authenticity

We who live in quiet places have the opportunity to become acquainted with ourselves, to think our own thoughts and live our own lives in a way that is not possible for those keeping up with the crowd.

I am confused at the idea of dressing for someone else. It makes little sense to me.

Be brave, be kind, be honest, be true— remember these things are alive within you.

Be in the World, Not of the World—Kind of like Lucky Charms cereal: there are lots of pretty marshmallows in with the cereal, but they're not the same. So live with the cereal, but remember: you're a pretty marshmallow.

as if we were actual human beings or completely normal people

The thing about death is that it's honest.

She was not a dog person. She was not a cat person, fish person, or horse person. On bad days, she was barely a people person. She ate meat, wore leather, and secretly coveted her mother's old mink.

He has to know what she's saying is too good to be true. Good Lord, if this were the kindest way to break u with a woman, that would be the greatest thing that ever happened to men. Maybe she should write an advice book for men, one that tells them everything they want to hear, as opposed to all those books for women, which tell them to be the opposite of what they are, no matter what that is.

I'm simply advising you to remain true to your characters. Nothing can happen now that hasn't been prepared for. As writers, we must stay within the reality we've created.

Everyone wore masks these days, and they seldom slipped. The extreme was the reality-based television shows, where people created meta versions of themselves by trying to act in a way they thought was natural.

His plan sounded dreamy—assuming we were a normal couple, headed out for a normal date, but we weren't that couple. We were a freak show of his own making.

The way I see it, nothing in life is a rehearsal. It's not preparation for anything else. There's no getting ready for it. There's no waiting for the real part to begin. Not ever.

I think humans are only capable of small moments of honesty. Then they get tired and back away. It's something to foster, this ability to keep it for longer. How to keep being honest and aware.

Where do you want to live? Do you want to live free and poor and covered in flea welts? Or enslaved, with your own clean room and a shower with hot water? Who are you, Virginia? Who are you, really?

nothing is really important but being oneself

Integrity battles with the desire for connection and rarely wins.

While being questioners and questers, we are often lost; we follow too many fads and fashions in our search. Too often we are left with a shallow and narcissistic inner life.

They teach us that we must shed our false self and allow our true self to emerge. This journey toward holiness takes us deep into our inner desert. The desert is too hot a place in which to carry our emotional and spiritual excess baggage, so we begin to let go rather than continue carrying the burden. Our desert begins to remove the excess we did not know was there.

Being user friendly doesn't mean you're going to be loved.

In a world where everything could be bought, begged, borrowed, or stolen, it was too incredible to think that this could not.

There's a knowledge deep in our bones that some lines cannot be crossed without becoming unrecognizable to ourselves-the only death truly to be feared. I know who I have been. I know who I am. I know who I will remain.

There comes a point when you either embrace who and what you are, or condemn yourself to be miserable all your days. Other people will try to make you miserable; don't help them by doing the job yourself.

There comes a point when you either embrace who and what you are, or condemn yourself to be miserable all your days. Other people will try to make you miserable; don't help them by doing the job yourself.

Love is too precious to be ashamed of.