Thomas Merton Quotes

I believe so many people live what I call that false identity they are living according to other people's expectations, associations, their experiences, the labels in life. And they buy into that.

I understand that nobody understands me, but I can't be someone I'm not.

The challenge is how strange and different my voice sounds, so I have tried to sound like other people and tried to be something I wasn't. I have tried to be a soul singer because someone else thought that a good idea. Not because I did.

Everyone kept telling me, Just be yourself. Be yourself. I kept thinking, there's got to be more to it than that!

A lot of people have their own idea of how you need to conduct yourself. But I think it's important to be spontaneous and honest, because what's frightening in the process of being correct is that you might lose yourself.

I used to tell myself that I will always be myself.

They tell me what to wear, how to look, what I should say, how I should be. Until recently I had given into that pressure, I lost sight of who I was. I listened to opinions of people and I tried to change who I am because I thought others would accept me for it. And I realized I don't know how to be anything but myself.

My life is my statement and I try to be true to myself and thusly to other people. Whatever my failings are, they are human and I try to perfect it each day.

You cannot really be too concerned with what people think of you. You're on your own adventure of growth and discovery. So it's not always good to be who people think you are, especially if you subscribe to it as well ... which is easily done, because then you don't have to figure out who you are, you just ask somebody else.

A woman who does not know herself has no choice other than to live with other people’s evaluations. But no one can adapt perfectly to public opinion. And herein lies the source of their destruction.

There is nothing one fears more or is more ashamed of than not being oneself. Yet few people realize even an approximation of their true potential. Most people must live with varying degrees of the shame and fear of not being fully in control of themselves.

I think one of the reasons to be here on earth is to finally be who we are, at all times - to know and be predictable to ourselves.

I think you're always policing yourself by trying to do what you think would be "cool" and accepted by other people, until you start to figure out who you really want to be. Growing up is an ongoing push-and-pull of you being yourself and you performing to what society expects you to be.

I'm 43 now. I've reached the point where I really can't care what anyone thinks. Of course, I do. I'm an actress. I'm totally insecure, but I'm trying to stick to my guns about what is important to me, and it doesn't matter what anyone thinks I should or shouldn't do.

I am a very honest person, and I can only say there are moments in my life where I really did think I was being me in the sense of my morals and beliefs and the way I acted. But when I look back at certain things that I wore and my hair and make-up, I was like, 'Whoa! That wasn't me!' But I didn't know it back then.

It's so much easier to know who you are when there aren't a thousand people telling you who they think you are.

Because for whatever reason, even though I want to stay home all the time and be left alone, I want to tell the world who I am now.

It seems that different people have an idea of what I am, and what I should be. And then there's me.

What's the greater risk? Letting go of what people think - or letting go of how I feel, what I believe, and who I am?

Yeah, it's nice to look up to people, but the more you try to be somebody else, the less you are of yourself.

Being yourself is one of the greatest things you can possibly do. Being true to yourself.

I wanted to do things that I knew were going to be me.

I have to be true to myself, and that's what I know for sure. I can't try to be anybody else.

I always knew who I was, but everyone else wanted to me to be their 'idea' of the 'right' artist. At times, I even believed them.

I never quite became the monster I wanted to be. I feel mostly monstrous as I more become myself. Because the more you become yourself, the more it disturbs other people.