Quotes About Self-expression

Think for yourself, or others will think for you without thinking of you.

I would not have any one adopt my mode of living on any account; for, beside that before he has fairly learned it I may have found out another for myself, I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father's or his mother's or his neighbor's instead.

Grow wild according to thy nature.

Say what you have to say, not what you ought.

I sometimes try my acquaintances by such tests as this;— who could wear a patch, or two extra seams only, over the knee? Most behave as if they believed that their prospects for life would be ruined if they should do it. It would be easier for them to hobble to town with a broken leg than with a broken pantaloon.

I desire that there may be as many different persons in the world as possible; but I would have each one, be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father's or his mother's or his neighbor's instead.

In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember that it is, after all, always the first person that is speaking.

We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones.

I occasionally observed that he was thinking for himself and expressing his own opinion - a phenomenon so rare that I would walk any day ten miles to observe it.

I would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way, and not his father's or his mother's or his neighbor's instead. The youth may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered from doing that which he tells me he would like to do.

Every man is the builder of a temple, called his body, to the god he worships, after a style purely his own, nor can he get off by hammering marble instead. We are all sculptors and painters, and our material is our own flesh and blood and bones.

If a man doesn't keep pace with his companions, perhaps it's because he hears a different drummer.

Where is this division of labor to end? and what object does it finally serve? No doubt another may also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.

beware of all enterprises that require new clothes, and not rather a new wearer of clothes.

If a man does not march in step to his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer.

Live as you like best, and your character will take care of itself. Most things are good for you; the exceptions are very rare.

I don't talk for your amusement.

Take things more easily. Don't ask yourself so much whether this or that is good for you. Don't question your conscience so much—it will get out of tune, like a strummed piano. Keep it for great occasions. Don't try so much to form your character—it's like trying to pull open a rosebud. Live as you like best, and your character will form itself.

Nu te mai stradui atat sa-ti formezi un caracter - e ca si cand ai incerca sa deschizi petalele unui boboc crud de trandafir. Traieste cum iti place, iar caracterul tau va avea singur grija de el.

I don't care how I live, nor where I live, said Millicent, so long as I can do as I like.

I have never studied; I have had no training. I do a little of everything, and nothing well. I am only an amateur. (Chapter 5)

I have no money, no resources, no hopes. I am the happiest man alive. A year ago, six months ago, I thought that I was an artist. I no longer think about it, I am. Everything that was literature has fallen from me. There are no more books to be written thank God.

Every time you come to the limit of what is demanded of you, you are faced with the same problem-to be yourself!

For me the book is the man and my book is the man I am, the confused man, the negligent man, the recklass man, the lusty, obscene, boisterous, thoughtful, scrupulous, lying, diabolically thruthful man that I am.