Quotes About Self-expression

We learn to "act nice" and deny that we are angry, and we make ourselves sick in the process of denial. This is one of the main areas in which something we can't tell the truth about ruins our lives.

I am an anti-moralism moralist and I write righteously indignant diatribes against righteous indignation. I contradict myself. I have great ideas and a lot to say, but I'm not much of a writer. I don't learn to control myself and do what is required.

Why let them order you about? Why let them tell you to hurry and scurry like ants or maggots? Take your time! Saunter a while! Enjoy the sunshine, enjoy the breeze, let life carry you at your own pace! Don't be slaves of time, it's a helluva way to die, slowly, by degrees...down with the Ticktockman!

I don't want to hear any words like that while I'm here. Scout, you'll get in trouble if you go around saying things like that. You want to grow up to be a lady, don't you?' I said not particularly.

but you see they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that's the way I want to live.

She was one of the rare ones, so effortlessly herself, and the world loved her for it.

Some folks don't like the way I live. Now I could say the hell with 'em, I don't care if they don't like it. I do say I don't care if they don't like it, right enough - but I don't say the hell with 'em, see?

It ain't honest but it's mighty helpful to folks...but you see they could never, never understand that I live like I do because that's the way I want to live.

Any writer worth his salt writes to please himself.

Being constantly with other people places a pressure of normality on me that I can't always bear. Here, alone, I can be the way I am. My version of ordinary.

I've always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I'm wrong, but I won't change.

I've never met a girl who thinks like you. A lot of people tell me that, she said, digging at a cuticle. But it's the only way I know how to think. Seriously. I'm just telling you what I believe. It's never crossed my mind that my way of thinking is different from other people's. I'm not trying to be different. But when I speak out honestly, everybody thinks I'm kidding or playacting. When that happens, I feel like everything is such a pain!

Why do I act like this, agreeing when I really disagree, letting people force me to do things I don't want to do?

So I'm not crazy after all! I thought it looked good myself once I cut it all off. Not one guy likes it, though. They all tell me I look like a first grader or a concentration camp survivor. What's this thing that guys have for girls with long hair? Fascists, the whole bunch of them! Why do guys all think girls with long hair are the classiest, the sweetest, the most feminine? I mean, I myself know at least two hundred and fifty unclassy girls with long hair. Really.

I didn't start running because somebody asked me to become a runner. Just like I didn't become a novelist because someone asked me to. One day, out of the blue, I wanted to write a novel. And one day, out of the blue, I started to run-simply because I wanted to. I've always done whatever I felt like doing in life. People may try to stop me, and convince me I'm wrong, but I won't change.

There's nothing wrong with not looking like something. It just means you don't fit the stereotype yet.

The world follows its own course. Each possesses his own thoughts, each treads his own path. So it is with your mother, and so it is with your starling. As it is with everyone. The world follows its own course.

You're you , you see, and nobody else. You are you, right?

Si leyera lo mismo que los demás, acabaría pensando como ellos.

I think I just don't like names. Basically, I can't see what's wrong with calling me 'me' or you 'you' or us 'us' or them 'them.

Where Watanabe and I are alike is we don't give a damn if nobody understands us… That's what makes us different from everybody else. They're all worried about whether the people around them understand them. But not me, and not Watanabe. We just don't give a damn. Self and others are separate.

Like, if I suggested to a school friend we do something, she could say, 'Sorry, I don't have any money'. Which is something I could never say if the situation was reversed. If I said I don't have any money', it would really mean I don't have any money'. It's sad. Like, if a pretty girl says I look terrible today, I don't want to go out,' that's OK, but if an ugly girl says the same thing people laugh at her. That's what the world was like for me.

Too many people work in ways that are not their ways, and that almost guarantees nonperformance.

Leadership has many voices. You need to be who you are, not try to emulate somebody else.