#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."

"You will be required to do wrong no matter where you go. It is the basic condition of life, to be required to violate your own identity. At some time, every creature which lives must do so. It is the ultimate shadow, the defeat of creation; this is the curse at work, the curse that feeds on all life. Everywhere in the universe."

"My identity was a big issue when I was a teenager, and I had a lot of questions, like: 'Who am I?' 'Who do I belong to?' But when I was still quite young, I decided that belonging is a tough process in life, and I'd better say I belonged to myself and the world rather than belonging to one nationality or another."

"Our identity rests in God's relentless tenderness for us revealed in Jesus Christ."

"The firmest friendship is based on an identity of likes and dislikes."

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

"Personal branding is important to me as a person. It’s also important to me as a non-person. I am a rock."

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

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

"But there was a special kind of gift that came with embracing the chaos, even if I cursed most of the way. I'm convinced that, when everything is wiped blank, it's life 's way of forcing you to become acquainted with and aware of who you are now, who you can become. What is the fulfillment of your soul?"

"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."

"Everyone, either from modesty or egotism, hides away the best and most delicate of his soul’s possessions; to gain the esteem of others, we must only ever show our ugliest sides; this is how we keep ourselves on the common level"

"I am not an angel,' I asserted; 'and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. Mr. Rochester, you must neither expect nor exact anything celestial of me - for you will not get it, any more than I shall get it of you: which I do not at all anticipate."

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

"Mind makes a man of God."

"To get people to notice you, you must be unique. If I were invisible, everybody would see me for who I am as a person."

"Live in the wisdom of accepted tenderness. Tenderness awakens within the security of knowing we are thoroughly and sincerely liked by someone...Scripture suggests that the essence of the divine nature is compassion and that the heart of God is defined by tenderness."

"I take thee at thy word:Call me but love, and I'll be new baptized;Henceforth I never will be Romeo."

"The trick. . .is to find the balance between the bright colors of humor and the serious issues of identity, self-loathing, and the possibility for intimacy and love when it seems no longer possible or, sadder yet, no longer necessary."

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