Shunryu Suzuki Quotes

Being is. Being is in-itself. Being is what it is.

Real freedom isn't subject to how others estimate our value; it is in realizing that none are free who find their sense of worth wondering how others measure their lives.

What does it mean to be an individual? What does it mean to flourish?

I am not in this world to live up to other people's expectations, nor do I feel that the world must live up to mine.

My life is not to be somebody else's impact - you know what I mean?

It's not necessary, in order to be a complete person, that I have a man. It's not the end-all, be-all of my life.

Don't let others define you. You define yourself.

You can't base your life on other people's expectations.

I need no warrant for being, and no word of sanction upon my being. I am the warrant and the sanction.

I don't care what you say about me anymore! I don't care what you write about me anymore. I don't care! This is my life. I can't have anybody messing with my life. I just want to be Gerry Cooney, doing what I want to do. I want to be what I am. A fighter.

I think I've claimed the right to be any version of me that I want to be.

I didn't have to listen to nobody or look how anybody wanted me to look. I just wanted to be myself and look however I want.

I never was a person who let people who have their ideas and their expectations of me dictate who I became.

You own your identity; it is important to feel that way.

You're your own person, and it's about you. I'm my own person, and it's about me. Everyone has their own life.

I get to define for myself what being a success is.

I want to be myself otherwise what's the point.

I want to be my own person. I want to make a name for myself instead of having the name attached to me.

The freedom we are looking for is the freedom to be ourselves, to express ourselves.

The challenge of modern freedom, or the combination of isolation and freedom which confronts you, is to make yourself up. The danger is that you may emerge from the process as a not-entirely-human creature. (Referenced in How to Lose Friends and Alienate People by Toby Young)

Only in those moments when I exercise my freedom am I fully myself.

Do not turn yourself from an end into a means-one does not justify the other.

Why should I deem myself to be a chisel, when I could be the artist?

To be liberated, woman must feel free to be herself, not in rivalry to man but in the context of her own capacity and her personality.

When who you are and what you are is not decided by any external forces, then you are in dignity.