Quotes About Identity

I wondered how far I should turn out faithful to that ideal conception of one's own personality every man sets up for himself secretly.

Occupation? Put down, well – tourists. We've been called harder names before now;

arrested me, and he stood by civilly, holding a half-pint champagne bottle (medical comforts) with the candle stuck in it. To my question he said Mr. Kurtz had painted this—in this very station more than a year ago—while waiting for means to go to his trading-post. 'Tell me, pray,' said I, 'who is this Mr. Kurtz?

The work is not dear to me, but I'm glad for that which is in the work - a chance to find yourself.

Sometimes it seems to me that man is come where he is not wanted, where there is no place for him; for if not, why should he want all the place? Why should he run about here and there making a great noise about himself, talking about the stars, disturbing the blades of grass?

Gewiss," he said, and stood still holding up the candelabrum, but without looking at me. "Evident! What is it that by inward pain makes him know himself? What is it that for you and me makes him — exist?

brain as a shadow passes away upon a white screen. She lives in the cottage and works for Miss Swaffer. She is Amy Foster for everybody, and the child is 'Amy Foster's boy.' She calls him Johnny—which means Little John. It is impossible to say whether this name recalls anything to her. Does she ever think of the past? I have seen her hanging over the boy's cot in a

Thus in the course of years he was known successively in Bombay, in Calcutta, in Rangoon, in Penang, in Batavia—and in each of these halting-places was just Jim the water-clerk.

Originea sa cea mai direct? se afla în declaraÈ›ia c? era un rus. Orice aÈ™tepta el de la via?? urma s? i se dea, ori s? i se refuze, doar prin aceast? filiaÈ›ie. Imensa familie suferea acum din cauza disensiunilor interne, iar el se sustr?gea mental din diferend, aÈ™a cum orice om de bun-simÈ› s-ar abÈ›ine de la a lua partea cuiva într-o violent? ceart? de familie.

This was simple prudence, white men being so much alike at a distance that he could not tell who I might be.

No, I'd rather be like myself, bad as I am.

If you want to know the age of the Earth—look upon the sea in a storm. But what storm can fully reveal the heart of a man? Between Suez and the China Sea are many nameless men who prefer to live and die unknown. This is the story of one such man. Among the great gallery of rogues and heroes thrown up on the beaches and ports—no man was more respected or more damned than—Lord Jim.

Joseph Conrad

Not like Homer would I write, Not like Dante if I might, Not like Shakespeare at his best, Not like Goethe or the rest, Like myself, however small, Like myself, or not at all.

el capitalismo al estilo americano— está modelando de maneras poco afortunadas nuestra identidad individual y como nación. Lo que aflora es un conflicto con nuestros valores más elevados: la codicia, el egoísmo, la abyección moral, la disposición a explotar a otros y la deshonestidad que la Gran Recesión puso de manifiesto en el sector financiero se evidencian hoy en todos lados, no solo en Estados Unidos.

surely better to be a nation than to be mistreated by one." The Jews "are forced to be a 'nation' by the nationalism of the others

Donald Trump is worth I don't know how many millions, but his confident vulgarity will always keep him from being viewed as other than monstrously rich (perhaps more monster than rich), and if he were to be certified as upper class, many others put in that category would doubtless do what they could to find a new social class to fit into.

Reading is experience. A biography of any literary person ought to deal at length with what he read and when, for in some sense, we are what we read.

Vladimir Nabokov, contemning readers who identified with characters in fiction, remarked that the best readers identify with the artist.

what's left of me if you take my work away? I'm not sure there's anything left." "Whaddya mean?

We all know people who become strongly identified with, and attached to, their intelligence. It can become a big ego trap, harmful to oneself or others. Intelligence can also be a great blessing, providing invaluable clarity.

Another aspect of wrong view that we will discuss in much greater detail in later chapters is the deeply conditioned sense of "I," of self. On the relative level, of course, we move and speak and act as individuals, as selves. Yet on a deeper level, and with close attention, we can see through this appearance and experience the place of nonseparation from others and from the world. This is the realization of selflessness.

A healthy self and an empty self are not contradictory; it just appears so because we use the same language to describe two different things. The whole path of meditation is about understanding that the self as an unchanging entity is a fiction, an illusory mental construct.

So many problems in the world—political and economic tensions and hostilities—are related to the thought, "This is my nation, my country." In understanding that the concept is only the product of our own thought processes, we can begin to free ourselves from that attachment.