Quotes About Authenticity

Art only begins where Imitation ends.

Cheap editions of great books may be delightful, but cheap editions of great men are absolutely detestable

If you pretend to be good, the world takes you very seriously. If you pretend to be bad, it doesn't. Such is the astounding stupidity of optimism.

I've now realised for the first time in my life the vital Importance of Being Earnest.

It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Fashion is what one wears oneself. What is unfashionable is what other people wear. Just as vulgarity is simply the conduct of other people. And falsehoods the truths of other people. Other people are quite dreadful. The only possible society is oneself. To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.

Is insincerity such a terrible thing? I think not. It is merely a method by which we can multiply our personalities.

True friends stab you in the front

An artist should create beautiful things, but should put nothing of his own life into them.

Never mind what I say. I am always saying what I shouldn't say. In fact, I usually say what I really think. A great mistake nowadays. It makes one so liable to be misunderstood.

Create yourself. Be yourself your poem.

To deny one's own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one's own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.

Seriousness is the only refuge of the shallow.

A man who takes himself too seriously will find that no one else takes him seriously.

You have always told me it was Ernest. I have introduced you to every one as Ernest. You answer to the name of Ernest. You look as if your name was Ernest. You are the most earnest-looking person I ever saw in my life. It is perfectly absurd your saying that your name isn't Ernest.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all

Know thyself' was written over the portal of the antique world. Over the portal of the new world, 'Be thyself' shall be written.

Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask and he'll tell you the truth

I don't like compliments and I don't see why a man should think he is pleasing a woman enormously when he says to her a whole heap of things that he doesn't mean.

The first duty in life is to be as artificial as possible.  What the second duty is no one has as yet discovered.

It is tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man,' says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are some one else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

His face had softened: as if just being a moment with her had relaxed him, allowed him to be someone different. I guess this is what marriage is, or was, or could be. You drop the mask. You allow the fatigue in. You lean across and kiss the years because they're the things that matter.

If an urn lacks the characteristics of an urn, how can we call it an urn?

Hold faithfulness and sincerity as first principles.