authenticity quotes

But even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked.

Anything I’ve ever said, I certainly was feeling at the time.

I change my mind a lot. I usually don’t agree with what I say very much. I’m an awful liar.

I’ve seen firsthand that being president doesn’t change who you are. It reveals who you are.

There are more sure marks of authenticity in the Bible that in any profane history.

The worst crime is faking it.

Because we’re actors we can pretend and fake it, but I’d rather the intimate investment was authentic.

My goal was never to make Facebook cool. I am not a cool person.

This soul, or life within us, by no means agrees with the life outside us. If one has the courage to ask her what she thinks, she is always saying the very opposite to what other people say.

A person who is truly authentic doesn’t need to play a role in life, we think, but can simply be him – or herself.

If you’re always under the pressure of real identity, I think that is somewhat of a burden.

To 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.

I live halfway between reality and theater at all times. And I was born this way.

I want people to understand they have to live their own lives the way they want to and not just do what we do.

For me, I don’t want to cheat the game by saying, or kind of doing lip service by saying, I want to be the greatest ever. I want to be able to show it.

I never want to change so much that people can’t recognize me.

When the whole world has their eyes on you, if you say something that doesn’t truly come from your spirit and your soul, or if you wear something that doesn’t come from your spirit and your soul, it’s an injustice to your position. And so, I’m really myself every single day and I do it because I know my fans would want me to.

I 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.

There’s poetry in being the band that can sell out Wembley but also makes a record in a garage. I don’t like doing what people expect me to do.

I’d rather tell you how I really feel.

Why do I talk about the benefits of failure? Simply because failure meant a stripping away of the inessential. I stopped pretending to myself that I was anything other than what I was, and began to direct all my energy into finishing the only work that mattered to me.

Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!

If you change and adapt your persona, you are seen as inauthentic; if you stay the angry young man, you fade from attention or seem tiresome.

I don’t have to show anything to anyone. There is nothing to prove.

It’s important for me to let my fans know I really don’t care. I’m confident.

Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.

I don’t need you to be funny. I don’t want to be entertained.

In everything truth surpasses the imitation and copy.

The truth is: Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you’re enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect.

You know, I just do whatever feels right to me! And so that’s what you’re gonna get!

Why lie? I’m not going to be a hypocrite and say the opposite of what I think, like some others do.

I just have a thing in my brain that when I’m about to do something that’s genuine or authentic, I think of it in song form. I’ll be like, ‚Yo, this is a human emotion that no one talks about.‘

To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity.

In my father’s generation, the product was 80 percent of what you were putting into the world, and your personal life was 20 percent. It now seems that 80 percent of the product I put out is silly, made-up stories and what I’m wearing.

I’m not really concerned with portraying this tough warrior – I mean, that’s part of my job and I take that very seriously. But I don’t have anything to hide, and I’m not concerned with what people think.

I meant what I said and I said what I meant.

You don’t need anybody to tell you who you are or what you are. You are what you are!

I don’t want to tell President Obama how to make a speech. He’s a much better speech maker than I am. But I think always to tell the truth in a sometimes blatant way, even though it might be temporarily unpopular, is the best approach.

Every man should know, if you’re comfortable and you like it, you should do it. Everyone always worries about what the girls think, what the guys think. If you like it, do it.

I don’t mind telling a dark side.

The greatest way to live with honor in this world is to be what we pretend to be.

I don’t really have a gimmick or a ‚thing.‘ I’m one of the few artists who gets to be himself every day.

I’ve been lucky – all the ads I’ve got, I’ve got to be myself. I haven’t had to act too much or tried too hard to be someone I’m not. I think that’s why people sort of like them. Even the Fastrack ads I did with Genelia.

No man was ever great by imitation.

I do believe in God. But you won’t find me visiting temples every now and then. I believe in self-realization. Peace of mind matters a lot to me. What’s the point in doing something just for the sake of it? I’d rather do something I like doing as long as I’m being true to myself.

I don’t see the point of doing an interview unless you’re going to share the things you learn in life and the mistakes you make. So to admit that I’m extremely human and have done some dark things I don’t think makes me unusual or unusually dark. I think it actually is the right thing to do, and I’d like to think it’s the nice thing to do.

The difficult thing is that vulnerability is the first thing I look for in you and the last thing I’m willing to show you. In you, it’s courage and daring. In me, it’s weakness.

I’ve always done whatever I want and always been exactly who I am.

Always be sincere, even if you don’t mean it.

I never think of myself as an icon. What is in other people’s minds is not in my mind. I just do my thing.

Key is never be afraid of being yourself. Never!

I like to be myself, and I don’t pretend. For instance, I don’t dress up for occasions; I am what I am.

I just write songs that I strongly believe in and that are coming from inside. There’s no tricks. It’s honesty with big melodies.

I fear that many a man’s good resolutions only need the ordinary fire of daily life to make them melt away. So, too, with fine professions and the boastings of perfection which abound in this age of shams.

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

I tend not to like an awful lot of what is going out under my name now because it is just all product. Who needs it?

Self-talk, for me, has been the biggest thing in my life. A lot of us have a dialogue that is crap. It’s a crappy dialogue. We live in a world right now that is very external. Everything is very on the surface. Superficial. Everything. And what we’re telling ourselves is what we see on TV.

Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.

There is more to sex appeal than just measurements. I don’t need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much sex appeal, picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.

I 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.