We can’t just choose to tell some facts and not others because we don’t want to upset people. We have to tell it like it is.
Greta ThunbergOf course, when I say that human nature is gentleness, it is not 100 percent so. Every human being has that nature, but there are many people acting against their nature, being false.
Dalai LamaFaith is a state of openness or trust.
Alan WattsAn unexciting truth may be eclipsed by a thrilling lie.
Aldous HuxleyI’d rather be hated for who I am, than loved for who I am not.
Kurt CobainIt is difficult for the common good to prevail against the intense concentration of those who have a special interest, especially if the decisions are made behind locked doors.
Jimmy CarterI want you to be everything that’s you, deep at the center of your being.
ConfuciusI learned, when I look in the mirror and tell my story, that I should be myself and not peep whatever everybody is doing.
Kendrick LamarThe American people are entitled to see the president and to hear his views directly, and not to see him only through the press.
Richard M. NixonAll my big mistakes are when I try to second-guess or please an audience. My work is always stronger when I get very selfish about it.
David BowieWhen you are trying to impress people with words, the more you say, the more common you appear, and the less in control. Even if you are saying something banal, it will seem original if you make it vague, open-ended, and sphinxlike.
Robert GreeneOne of my big goals as a human being is to continue to write what’s really happening to me, even if it’s a tough pill to swallow for people around me… I do fear that if I ever were to have someone in my life who mattered, I would second-guess every one of my lyrics.
Taylor SwiftLife is not living in the suburbs with a white picket fence. That’s not life. Somehow our American culture has made it out that that’s what life needs to be – and that if it’s not that, it’s all screwed up. It’s not.
Tom BradyI don’t believe in doing things to manufacture my body to appeal to what I think people might like.
Kevin HartTwitter is great to connect with fans and be transparent. I enjoy that aspect about it. But really, I’m still trying to figure it out.
Kobe BryantI didn’t try to copy my dad or fit into the pressure or the mold that everybody tried to make me fit into.
Joel OsteenI find rebellion packaged by a major corporation a little hard to take seriously.
David ByrneAll of my music is honest.
The WeekndI know where I’m going and I know the truth, and I don’t have to be what you want me to be. I’m free to be what I want.
Muhammad AliWho you are speaks so loudly I can’t hear what you’re saying.
Ralph Waldo EmersonI meant what I said and I said what I meant.
Dr. SeussNo man was ever great by imitation.
Samuel JohnsonI have trust issues with allowing other individuals to know my innermost secrets for fear of how I may be viewed. Everyone has this.
Kevin GatesEveryone assumes I practise all of my own laws but I don’t. I think anybody who did would be a horrible ugly person to be around.
Robert GreeneThe American public’s a lot more sophisticated than we all give them credit for. And on complicated issues, I’m going to give them straight answers. And if it takes more than three minutes, I’m going to do it.
Joe BidenMy goal was never to make Facebook cool. I am not a cool person.
Mark ZuckerbergI say what I want to say and do what I want to do. There’s no in between. People will either love you for it or hate you for it.
EminemWhatever I am, it’s natural… I don’t have to pretend to be aggressive, don’t have to show the opposition that I am on the field. Being aggressive comes naturally to me, helps me perform.
Virat KohliI know a lot of artists say this, but it’s hard to put myself in a box. I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming form a special place. There’s no tricks.
Bruno MarsWhere is the man who has the strength to be true, and to show himself as he is?
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheTo be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else – means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
E. E. CummingsThe essential lesson I’ve learned in life is to just be yourself. Treasure the magnificent being that you are and recognize first and foremost you’re not here as a human being only. You’re a spiritual being having a human experience.
Wayne DyerI think that I do feel that my nature is to express what this self, this particular self at this time, experiences in the world. And that is so organic – I use this metaphor a lot but I’ll use it again – it’s like a pine tree producing pine cones, or a blackberry bush producing blackberries – it’s just what happens with this being, now.
Alice WalkerI don’t know that you can put a label on growth. I’m just me.
Lady GagaIf I’ve got a problem with one of my clients that needs to get solved, guess what I’m going to do? I’m going to call them up, and I’m going to say, ‚Hey, here’s what’s going on. This is the situation. This thing went sideways. I didn’t expect it. Now it’s going to take me some more time to get you what you need.‘ But I’m going to do that upfront.
Jocko WillinkIf the writing is honest it cannot be separated from the man who wrote it.
Tennessee WilliamsI’m different from any other designer, businesswise, in that I’ve built this company up and I own it. I never had business hype behind me to promote my image… My image is real… I have never had marketing people telling me what to do.
Vivienne WestwoodPower is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.
Margaret ThatcherThe truth is rarely pure and never simple.
Oscar WildeI’m trying to make the world a more open place.
Mark ZuckerbergBut the attitude of faith is to let go, and become open to truth, whatever it might turn out to be.
Alan WattsYou’re not going to scare me into being somebody I don’t want to be.
Nipsey HussleI write from my soul. This is the reason that critics don’t hurt me, because it is me. If it was not me, if I was pretending to be someone else, then this could unbalance my world, but I know who I am.
Paulo CoelhoTo avoid being mistaken for a sellout, I chose my friends carefully. The more politically active black students. The foreign students. The Chicanos. The Marxist professors and structural feminists and punk-rock performance poets.
Barack ObamaI have learned that as long as I hold fast to my beliefs and values – and follow my own moral compass – then the only expectations I need to live up to are my own.
Michelle ObamaMan is the only creature that refuses to be what he is.
Albert CamusI would be a liar, a hypocrite, or a fool – and I’m not any of those – to say that I don’t write for the reader. I do. But for the reader who hears, who really will work at it, going behind what I seem to say. So I write for myself and that reader who will pay the dues.
Maya AngelouIt could be if I fight in front of one person or one million people. It’s still the same emotions.
Conor McGregorLet us begin by committing ourselves to the truth to see it like it is, and tell it like it is, to find the truth, to speak the truth, and to live the truth.
Richard M. NixonI write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.
Lana Del ReyI suppose my best attribute, if you want to call it that, is sincerity. I can sell sincerity because that’s the way I am.
John WayneMy definition of country music is really pretty simple. It’s when someone sings about their life and what they know, from an authentic place.
Taylor SwiftThere’s a gap between what I want to do, what I do on camera, and what gets edited. Right? So the goal is to try and close the gaps. What’s the biggest compliment is if I read a review and it’s exactly what I wrote down in my diary before ever filming it. That’s really cool. That’s the biggest signifier of closing the gaps.
Matthew McConaugheyI’m confident in who I am. I’ve come to a place in my life where I’ve accepted things that are me, as opposed to feeling pressure to explain myself to people around me. That’s just the way I’ve always tried to be. It didn’t change when I became a star.
Lady GagaSometimes we be playing the politics too much and forget who we are just to win.
Kanye WestI can’t very well be teaching one way and living my life another way. What I do in life must be consistent with the things I say. And the same goes for you.
Joyce MeyerI feel like the reason people feel like they know me is because I’m giving you myself in the music. There’s where the connection comes from; you can’t Twitter that.
J. ColeThe worst crime is faking it.
Kurt CobainI always wanted a great love affair: something that feels big and full, really honest, and enough. No moment should feel slight, false, or a little off. For me, it had to be everything.
Angelina JolieBe content to seem what you really are.
Marcus Aurelius