Quotes About Authenticity

Sojourner [Truth]'s life exemplifies the process that occurs within ourselves as we grow to understand that we hold the authority to shape our own lives. This inner authority came when she embraced all of herself, which enabled her to speak from an authentic voice.

Voice is an important aspect of wholeness. Feeling our pain moves us into shadow, where we reclaim denied parts of our selves. This leads to developing a voice that grows increasingly more authentic and full-throated with each newly claimed aspect of our identity. We are no longer speaking from a foundation of self that is riddled with fault lines. The more unified we are, the more authority our voice contains. We voice ourself into being.

Pain shapes us, breaking us open so that we can reconfigure ourselves in a way that more deeply mirrors our authentic self.

For years he'd lived by the maxim Henry Green put so beautifully in his public-school memoir Pack My Bag: 'The safest way to avoid trouble if one may not be going to fit is to take as great a part as possible in what is going on.'12 To gain approval, to avoid trouble, he had to mirror what was around him: it was how he had tried to win love from his mother as a child. It was a life of perpetual disguise.

I have learned, too, the danger that comes in mistaking the wildness we give a thing for the wildness that animates

I collected pictures and I drew pictures and I looked at the pictures by myself. And because no one else ever saw them, the pictures were perfect and true. They were alive.

But also . . . I have plenty of people around me to talk to, and no one to be honest with.

And that was what all the expressions felt like— masks. I didn't believe them. They were too thorough, too nuanced; they were never at odds with his subject matter.

Marriage is no real excuse for not loving.

Handmade and heartfelt; Harriet wanted everything she did to be like this.

I have plenty of people around me to talk to, and no one to be honest with

lying is probably the most human gesture anyone can make, because humans all say one thing and do another

I was always a little disturbed by him because I'd never heard him tell a lie. That was horrifying to me, like living in a house with every door and window wide open all day long.

The book itself was useless, too. All the advice it offered about the timing of meals and affecting a cheerful disposition and trying to take an interest in the husband's doings even when they're fearfully boring and never saying 'I told you so'--those aren't the reasons a person looks with favour upon another person, these aren't the reasons someone stays in love.

I know too much to go back and pretend.

Danes are blunt and direct and trusting and secure

Just as London is not really England, Copenhagen is not, I am reliably informed, 'the real Denmark'.

there's a difference between eager-to-please nice-girl syndrome and feeling genuinely good about yourself.

El dolor es señal de que las ilusiones reinan en lugar de la verdad.

When you have become willing to hide nothing, you will not only be willing to enter into communion but will also understand peace and joy.

It didn't matter what you look like. You don't have to get up at 5:30 in the morning and there's a lot to be said for that. Corpse Bride can just play all my parts from now on and I'll just do the voice.

I think everything in life is art. What you do. How you dress. The way you love someone, and how you talk. Your smile and your personality. What you believe in, and all your dreams. The way you drink your tea. How you decorate your home. Or party. Your grocery list. The food you make. How your writing looks. And the way you feel. Life is art.

Imperfection is underrated. Perfection is overrated.

I hate this image of me as a prim Edwardian. I want to shock everyone.