Quotes about Identity

I know for sure that only by owning who and what you are can you step into the fullness of life.

If you want to be a grocer, or a general, or a politician, or a judge, you will invariably become it; that is your punishment. If you never know what you want to be, if you live what some might call the dynamic life but what I will call the artistic life, if each day you are unsure of who you are and what you know you will never become anything, and that is your reward.

To be natural is such a very difficult pose to keep up.

Memory is the diary we all carry about with us.

One's real life is so often the life that one does not lead.

Every woman becomes their mother. That's their tragedy. And no man becomes his. That's his tragedy.

It's tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man', says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their life is a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Basil Hallward is what I think I am: Lord Henry what the world thinks me: Dorian what I would like to be—in other ages, perhaps.

It is a sad truth, but we have lost the faculty of giving lovely names to things.

Neither at things, nor at people should one look. Only in mirrors should one look, for mirrors do but show us masks.

It is tragic how few people ever 'possess their souls' before they die. 'Nothing is more rare in any man,' says Emerson, 'than an act of his own.' It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are some one else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

I am not worried that nobody knows me. I seek to become fit to be known