Quotes About Self-definition

Never allow a stigma or the popular thing to define you.

It can be very frustrating and very deflating to be constantly defined and described by other people, so I've stopped reading anything written about me, and I find it much healthier. I just sort of concentrate on what I do and don't worry too much about that.

Part of knowing who you are is knowing who you're not.

job descriptions as self-descriptions.

As long as people tend to define themselves at least partially in terms of the work they do, any change to that work, its procedures and modes, is likely to have self-definitional importance to them. This can lead to surprising amounts of change resistance.

Most people define themselves by what they do - 'I'm a musician.' Then one day it occurred to me that I'm only a musician when I'm playing music - or writing music, or talking about music. I don't do that 24 hours a day. I'm also a father, a son, a husband, a citizen - I mean, when I go to vote, I'm not thinking of myself as 'a musician.'

We define ourselves as intelligent. That's odd, because we're doing the definition - We're creating our own definition and saying, 'We are intelligent!'

I mean one of the things about being alone is that you've no people to define yourself off, I mean, people are like all-round mirrors, because let's face it, we don't often see ourselves all round in a mirror anyway, do we.

There's nothing harder than defining oneself.

The question of what we are can only be answered by ourselves. We each decide what we are by the life choices we make. How we were made, who are parents are, where we are from, the color of our skin, who we choose to love, all those things do not define us. Our actions define us, and will keep defining us until even after death.

What writer Audre Lorde says to black men and women is true for all of us: If we do not define ourselves, we will be defined by others for their use and to our detriment. Our country and perhaps all human history is a pattern of oppression, repression, suppression, subjugation. Racism is part of our heritage, reminding us that not all aspects of a culture should be preserved.

Past a certain point, maybe, a person's character defines itself and stays fixed in your mind.

It is she who has enough confidence to define success and failure for herself who succeeds.

He defined himself almost wholly in the negative: It was not who he was, it was who he was not.

Your history doesn't matter, defining yourself in the present does as that will change your future

La récupération d'une image positive de nous ne passe pas seulement ni principalement par la récupération d'une image positive de nos fonctions "procréatives". Elle passe aussi et surtout par la capacité de nous définir autrement que par ces fonctions : par la récupération, comme spécifiques des femmes - c'est-à-dire partie aussi intégrante et définissante de nous-mêmes - de nos organes et fonctions non-procréatives.

When you give another person the power to define you, then you also give them the power to control you.

When you give another person the power to define you, then you also give them the power to control you. Here's

Never let anyone define what you are capable of by using parameters that don't apply to you.

I spent a lot of time learning how to define myself internally rather than externally. I learned how to care less about external validation. I think that's given me a renewed confidence in speaking out loud. I kind of don't care what people think about me. I feel a lot more confident in saying what I believe.

In a word, man must create his own essence: it is in throwing himself into the world, suffering there, struggling there, that he gradually defines himself.

I have a strong sense of myself. That gives me a sense of security, you know? If I define myself by things that are always changing, like the public's opinion, or what I'm wearing, or what job I'm doing, there's no stability in that.

It is difficult to not let the circumstances define you when everyone feels they know your personal struggles and agony.