“Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.”
William James
“Be your unapologetically weird self.”
Chris Sacca
“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everyone will respect you.”
Lao Tzu
“The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe. If you try it, you will be lonely often, and sometimes frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
“Man’s ideal state is realized when he has fulfilled the purpose for which he is born. And what is it that reason demands of him? Something very easy – that he live in accordance with his own nature.”
Seneca
“Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself. Do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.”
Bruce Lee
“The reward for conformity was that everyone liked you except yourself.”
Rita Mae Brown
“[I]n all my research, the greatest leaders looked inward and were able to tell a good story with authenticity and passion.”
Deepak Chopra
“Authenticity is about being true to who you are.”
Michael Jordan
“Be yourself, everyone else is taken.”
Oscar Wilde
“Be yourself—not your idea of what you think somebody else’s idea of yourself should be.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Originality is the best form of rebellion.”
Mike Sasso
“Authenticity is a collection of choices that we have to make every day. It’s about the choice to show up and be real. The choice to be honest. The choice to let out true selves be seen.”
Brene Brown
“Live authentically. Why would you continue to compromise something that’s beautiful to create something that is fake?”
Steve Maraboli
“Everything will line up perfectly when knowing and living the truth becomes more important than looking good.”
Alan Cohen
“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
Carl Jung
“Aspire to be authentic.”
Yann Martel
“Read, every day, something no one else is reading. Think, every day, something no one else is thinking. Do, every day, something no one else would be silly enough to do. It is bad for the mind to continually be part of unanimity.”
Christopher Morley
“If you trade your authenticity for safety, you may experience the following: anxiety, depression, eating disorders, addiction, rage, blame, resentment, and inexplicable grief.”
Brene Brown
“We need to find the courage to say NO to the things and people that are not serving us if we want to rediscover ourselves and live our lives with authenticity.”
Barbara de Angelis
“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no path and leave a trail.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson
“This above all; to thine own self be true.”
William Shakespeare
“Just be what you are and speak from your guts and heart—it’s all a man has.”
Hubert Humphrey
“We are constantly invited to be who we are.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Only the truth of who you are, if realized, will set you free.”
Eckhart Tolle
“To find yourself, think for yourself.”
Socrates
“Hard times arouse an instinctive desire for authenticity.”
Coco Chanel
“Authenticity is your most precious commodity as a leader.”
Marcus Buckingham
“It is better to fail in originality than to succeed in imitation.”
Herman Melville
“Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.”
Oscar Wilde
“You don’t have to live your life the way other people expect you to.”
Chris Guillebeau
Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma – which is living with the results of other people’s thinking.
Steve Jobs
Have any other quotes about being authentic you’d add to the list? Let me know in the comments!
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