The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another.
—James Matthew Barrie
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
—Judy Garland
You were born an original.—Don’t die a copy.
—John Mason
We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
—François VI de la Rochefoucault
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
—Kurt Vonnegut
There is just one life for each of us: our own.
—Euripides
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not.
—Andre Gide
An unfulfilled vocation drains the color from a man’s entire existence.
—Honoré de Balzac, Scènes de la vie Parisienne
Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.
—Oscar Wilde
How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.
—Gabrielle “Coco” Chanel
We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.
—André Berthiaume, Contretemps
What I am is good enough if I would only be it openly.
—Carl Rogers
Almost every man wastes part of his life in attempts to display qualities which he does not possess, and to gain applause which he cannot keep.
—Samuel Johnson, The Rambler, 1750
Hateful to me as the gates of Hades is that man who hides one thing in his heart and speaks another.
—Homer
Originality is... a by-product of sincerity.
—Marianne Moore
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself.
—Harvey Fierstein
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life.
—Steve Jobs
When one is pretending the entire body revolts.
—Anaïs Nin
Be what you are. This is the first step toward becoming better than you are.
—Julius Charles Hare
Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind!
—Author unknown
It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is.
—Desiderius Erasmus
Most of our faults are more pardonable than the means we use to conceal them.
—François de la Rochefoucault
When you dance to your own rhythm, Life taps its toes to your beat.
—Terri Guillemets
Rabbi Zusya said that on the Day of Judgment, God would ask him, not why he had not been Moses, but why he had not been Zusya.
—Walter Kaufmann
