#identity

"Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you."

"We leave something of ourselves behind when we leave a place, we stay there, even though we go away. And there are things in us that we can find again only by going back there."

"First and foremost: a human being. If your definition of yourself is something else; maybe you should reconsider."

"We know what we are, but not what we may be."

"Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice."[Stanford University commencement speech, 2005]"

"I've triedto become someone else for a while,only to discover that he, too, was me."

"People resist a census, but give them a profile page and they'll spend all day telling you who they are."

"A girl should be two things: who and what she wants."

"I’ll wear a maze on a necklace, dangling over my chest, because if you want to get at my heart, you have to be ready to lose yourself."

"When I discover who I am, I’ll be free."

"There’s a drive in a lost soul—in one that is searching for acceptance, companionship, belonging, whatever you want to call it. The slightest coincidence ignites a spark that one hopes will lead to something meaningful."

"The closer you come to knowing that you alone create the world of your experience, the more vital it becomes for you to discover just who is doing the creating."

"Don't let others box you into their idea of what they think you should be. A confined identity is a miserable way to exist. Be you and live free. Trust that in living true to yourself, you will attract people that support and love you, just as you are."

"The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others."

"I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art."

"I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will."

"It's like everyone tells a story about themselves inside their own head. Always. All the time. That story makes you what you are. We build ourselves out of that story."

"I belong to the people I love, and they belong to me--they, and the love and loyaty I give them, form my identity far more than any word or group ever could."

"Define yourself radically as one beloved by God. This is the true self. Every other identity is illusion."

"But often, in the world’s most crowded streets,But often, in the din of strife,There rises an unspeakable desireAfter the knowledge of our buried life;A thirst to spend our fire and restless forceIn tracking out our true, original course;A longing to inquireInto the mystery of this heart which beatsSo wild, so deep in us—to knowWhence our lives come and where they go."