Quotes About Authenticity

The challenge life presents to each of us is to become truly ourselves--not the self we have imagined or fantasized about, not the self that our friends want us to be, not the self our ego would have us be, but the self God has ordained us to be from before we were in our mother's womb.

The most devastating form of loneliness is not to be without friends; rather, it is to be surrounded by friends and never to be truly known.

Catherine of Sienna wrote, "If you are what you should be you will set the whole world on fire.

When we pretend to be somoene other than who we are, our true self hides in fear and shame; the fear of being discovered and the shame of not being enough.

The fear of being alone is the father of many relationships that never should have been. When we choose to be with someone because we are afraid of being alone, we dishonor ourselves and the other person.

If we are to be happy, it will be as ourselves.

Recuerda lo siguiente en todo momento: ser tú mismo nunca te conducirá a destruirte de ninguna forma o en ningún grado. Ser verdaderamente tú nunca te llevará a una versión minimizada de ti. Y ser tú implica que todo lo que hagas y digas ayudará a otros a convertirse en una versión mejorada de sí mismos.

I am broken. Pretending otherwise is exhuasting.

We hide because we think people will love us less if they truly know us, but the opposite is true in most cases. If we are willing to take the risk and reveal ourselves for who we are, we discover that most people are relieved to know that we are human. Why? Because they are human, too, and are filled with the same fear as you. In most cases, you will find that the things you thought would cause people to stop loving you actually lead them to love you more.

Intimacy is a risk. It should not be taken lightly, but we must take it. No man or woman can live a full life without being known by at least one person. Intimacy is a prerequisite for all those who wish to live the abundant life. The only true reason to delay the adventurous and risky pursuit of real intimacy is the absence of a confidant freely chosen and worthy of our trust.

La felicidad es en gran medida como la riqueza y la sabiduría: aquellos que la poseen generalmente no necesitan hablar de ella, y aquellos que constantemente están hablando de ella generalmente no la poseen.

Doctrina: Que hay muchos en el mundo que casi "lo son", pero al final son solo casi cristianos

I never set out to be rich and famous. I wanted to follow my own path.

I used to be a real prince charming if I went on a date with a girl. But then I'd get to where I was likely to have a stroke from the stress of keeping up my act. I've since learned the key to a good date is to pay attention on her.

There are few things more nerve-racking than trying to act normal with a camera in your face and someone shouting at you to "act normal.

Even if we can go on deceiving others, it becomes harder to hide the truth from ourselves.

Mais est-ce la bonne solution que de fermer les yeux sur l'effritement de notre vie pour ne les entrouvrir craintivement qu'à la veille de la mort ? N'est-il pas préférable de les ouvrir grands dès maintenant, pour nous demander : « Comment donner un sens à ma vie ? » Laissons tomber le masque des conventions, des compromis entretenus avec nos pairs, dans ce jeu que nous poursuivons depuis trop longtemps.

The demand for likability is dangerous. It's a conversation stopper, and we need conversations, in so-called real life and in fiction.

People were always saying to Margaret, 'Well, Julia sings and Betsy writes. Now what is little Margaret going to do?' Margaret would smile politely, for she was very polite, but privately she stormed to Betsy with flashing eyes, 'I'm not going to do anything. I want to just live. Can't people just live?

Women have to learn where their true source of validation is.

On the contrary. Babies are the best judges of character.

The authentic answer is always the question's vitality. It can close in around the question, but it does so in order to preserve the question by keeping it open.

Our real life is not the life we live, and we feel that our deepest, nay, our most intimate thoughts are quite apart from ourselves, for we are other than our thoughts and our dreams. And it is only at special moments – it may be by merest accident – that we live our own life. Will the day ever dawn when we shall be what we are? …

the real is coherent and probable because it is real, not real because it is coherent...