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Identity Quotes

    “What they call you is one thing. What you answer to is something else.”

    Lucille Clifton

      “If you aim to be something you are not, you will always fail. Aim to be you. Aim to look and act and think like you. Aim to be the truest version of you. Embrace that you-ness. Endorse it. Love it. Work hard at it. And don’t give a second thought when people mock it or ridicule it. Most gossip is envy in disguise. Keep your head down. Keep your stamina. Keep swimming…”

      Matt Haig, The Midnight Library (Page 93)

        “Tell me what you pay attention to and I will tell you who you are.”

        José Ortega y Gasset

          “The commitments you make determine who you can become… and the commitments you honor define who you are.”

          Seth Godin, Graceful (Page 9)

            “Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don’t think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn’t stop you from doing anything at all.”

            Richard Feynman

              “The things you take pride in are the same things you are likely to be biased about. How might the things you take pride in be misleading you? The tighter you cling to your current identity, the harder it becomes to grow beyond it.”

              James Clear

                “Human beings have always employed an enormous variety of clever devices for running away from themselves, and the modern world is particularly rich in such stratagems. We can keep ourselves so busy, fill our lives with so many diversions, stuff our heads with so much knowledge, involve ourselves with so many people and cover so much ground that we never have time to probe the fearful and wonderful world within. More often than not we don’t want to know ourselves, don’t want to depend on ourselves, don’t want to know ourselves, don’t want to depend on ourselves, don’t want to live with ourselves. By middle life most of us are accomplished fugitives from ourselves.”

                John W. Gardner, Self-Renewal (Page 13)

                  “Imagine there is a small version of you and a big version. When you are playing small, your behavior is timid, you feel less than, and you are often surrounded by people and projects that drain you. When you are playing big, your behavior is confident, you feel motivated, and you tend to be investing in people and projects that energize you. How can you spend more time playing the big version of yourself this year?”

                  James Clear

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