Quotes About Authenticity

why act the part of a Jew when you're Greek? [ 20] Don't you know why it is that a person is called a Jew, Syrian, or Egyptian? And when we see someone hesitating between two creeds, we're accustomed to say, 'He is no Jew, but is merely acting the part.' But when he assumes the frame of mind of one who has been baptized * and has made his choice, then he really is a Jew, and is called by that name.

Because when you engage in the same things as the masses, you lower yourself to their level.

A vine cannot behave olively, nor an olive tree vinely – it is impossible, inconceivable.

Know, first, who you are; and then adorn yourself accordingly.

If it should ever happen to you to be turned to externals in order to please some person, you must know that you have lost your purpose in life.

Be the same person in public as in private.

A college friend once explained that the difference Neil Young and Crazy Horse and Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band was that the former made you feel as if they were really no better than you are, while the latter somehow convinces you that you can be as great as they are.

Jeff: I don't need a limousine to know who I am. At least I know I don't know.

W obu ?wiatach prawd? jest, ?e je?li szukasz dobra i prawdy, pi?kno znajdzie si? samo.

More history than ever is today being revised or invented by people who do not want the real past, but only a past that suits their purpose. Today is the great age of historical mythology. The defence of history by its professionals is today more urgent in politics than ever. We are needed.

honesty is like seeing a crackhead up close: it ain't that fucking attractive.

But that's not the way love goes. You show the good, disguise the bad.

She was exposed now. It wasn't the undressing that made her naked. It had been the tears.

I let my towel drop to the carpet. Nakedness stared at nakedness, and nakedness smiled.

A man don't need to act tough if he is. Men that put on a show are spineless more often than not.

There's nothing good about being ordinary. People don't respect you for it. People run after people who are different, who have confidence in their own taste, who don't run with the herd. There is nothing gained by giving in to the pressures of group vulgarity.

I could become servile, cloying, saccharinely sweet: the whole package of lies that passes in the world as femininity.

Blush like you mean it

The truth is we all want to be known. And we're simultaneously afraid of it. We want to be unmasked, and the person who can unmask us wins our respect.

Ir completamente sobria a una fiesta es algo nuevo para mí; nuevo y atemorizador. Veo demasiado, siento demasiado, me doy demasiada cuenta de las mentiras.

When one follows the path with heart, one often bleeds. (But what is the alternative—a cauterized core?)

If I loved him, would I censor my writing to please him? If I married him, would I force my writing to be married as well?

If only we could escape from always having to play ourselves!

La quantité ne fait pas la vérité.