Quotes About Self-definition

I played cello on my early recordings, but that doesn't mean I'm a cellist, you know?

I've tried actively to define myself and redefine myself, and not be pigeonholed.

The world is fixated on defining and redefining what is feminine. That is for every individual to decide for herself.

I'm a very loyal person and I allowed myself to be defined as somebody who was doing Gordon's bidding. I should have fought back harder to define myself at an earlier stage.

I'm not saying that being gay is what defines me, but at the same time, if you feel like you have to hide it, then it becomes what defines you. You keep it hidden, and the secret becomes you.

I am content to be to myself what I would be. What I choose to seem to myself makes me what I am. My own thought makes me me; my own thought of myself is me. Another shall not make me! But another has made you, and can compel you to see what you have made yourself. You will not be able much longer to look to yourself anything but what he sees you! You will not much longer have satisfaction in the thought of yourself. At this moment you are aware of the coming change!

We can each define ambition and progress for ourselves. The goal is to work toward a world where expectations are not set by the stereotypes that hold us back, but by our personal passion, talents and interests.

I'm tired of defending my character. I am what I am.

Naming is power, you know. That's what they say at least. My parents exhausted universal power in first creating me and then in naming me. They created for me an identity whether I wanted one or not.

I did model for a little while part-time, but I wasn't a bloody model, and I am definitely not that horrible thing 'model-turned-actress.'

Remember this: You are the benchmark of your success - you define it. Don't let anyone else define it because if you do, you will fail. Appreciate those who support you and challenge those who don't

Black women who define ourselves and our goals beyond the sphere of a sexual relationship can bring to any endeavor the realized focus of completed and therefore empowered individuals.

I learned that if I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

This jugular vein psychology is based on the fallacy that your assertion or affirmation of self is an attack upon my self—or that my defining myself will somehow prevent or retard your self-definition. The supposition that one sex needs the other's acquiescence in order to exist prevents both from moving together as self-defined persons towards a common goal.

It is axiomatic that if we do not define ourselves for ourselves, we will be defined by others - for their use and our detriment.

For Black women as well as Black men, it is axiomatic that if we do not define ourselves for ourselves, we will be defined by others — for their use and to our detriment

those... who are unclear about the pathways of their own definition...

When the desire for definition, self or otherwise, comes out of a desire for limitation rather than a desire for expansion, no true face can emerge.

The distortion of relationship which says "I disagree with you, so I must destroy you" leaves us as Black people with basically uncreative victories, defeated in any common struggle. This jugular vein psychology is based on the fallacy that your assertion or affirmation of self is an attack upon my self — or that my defining myself will somehow prevent or retard your self-definition.

If you do not define yourself, your enemies will make sure they define you. Don't advertise what is not for sale..

It is not those events outside of our control which we should allow to define us. Instead, the definition of who we choose to be is dictated by how we deal with these outside events within ourselves.

No one has the ability to define who you are unless you give permission.

Unless individuals have the power to defy commoditization and define their own lives, their potential is vulnerable to the crushing forces of objectification.

Your past and your pain will certainly impact you, but they don't have to define you. You get to write your own definition.