authenticity quotes

I’ve always felt that if I examine myself too much, I’ll find out what I know and don’t know, and I’ll burst the bubble. I’ve gotten so lucky relying on my animal instincts, I’d rather keep a little bit of the animal alive.

Always be yourself, express yourself, have faith in yourself, do not go out and look for a successful personality and duplicate it.

If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.

I’m afraid that people who know me as I usually am will discover I have another side, a better and finer side. I’m afraid they’ll mock me, think I’m ridiculous and sentimental and not take me seriously. I’m used to not being taken seriously, but only the ‚light-hearted‘ Anne is used to it and can put up with it; the ‚deeper‘ Anne is too weak.

Being too good is apt to be uninteresting.

I suppose my best attribute, if you want to call it that, is sincerity. I can sell sincerity because that’s the way I am.

In past generations, people would try to play younger than they really are. My trick is, I don’t try to play younger than I really am.

True glory takes root, and even spreads; all false pretences, like flowers, fall to the ground; nor can any counterfeit last long.

Vulnerability is about showing up and being seen. It’s tough to do that when we’re terrified about what people might see or think.

The free soul is rare, but you know it when you see it – basically because you feel good, very good, when you are near or with them.

Always prefer the plain direct word to the long, vague one. Don’t implement promises, but keep them.

It’s hard to practice compassion when we’re struggling with our authenticity or when our own worthiness is off-balance.

True praise comes often even to the lowly; false praise only to the strong.

I wish they would only take me as I am.

Live truth instead of professing it.

The most virtuous are those who content themselves with being virtuous without seeking to appear so.

Many people look at me and think they know me but they don’t at all. This is the real me. I am a humble person, a feeling person. A person who cares about others, who wants to help others.

I’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.

Whatever 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.

There’s no real excuse for being successful enough as an actor to do what you want and then selling out. You do it pure. You don’t try to adapt it, make it commercial.

Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it.

I don’t ever want to come out with something safe and get away with, ‚It sounds good!‘ It’s got to be more than sounding good. The music I like are events.

If you set out to be liked, you would be prepared to compromise on anything at any time, and you would achieve nothing.

I 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.

Power is like being a lady… if you have to tell people you are, you aren’t.

Better understated than overstated. Let people be surprised that it was more than you promised and easier than you said.

I never wanted to write the sort of song that said, ‚Look at how abnormal and crazy and out there I am, man!‘

The best way to find out if you can trust somebody is to trust them.

If you know me, and you call me Stefani, you don’t really know me at all.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

I’m happy being myself, which I’ve never been before. I always hid in other people, or tried to find myself through the characters, or live out their lives, but I didn’t have those things in mine.

I’ve lived a very colorful life, and I’ve said some things, But not once have I taken them back, and I’ve never apologized for them – and I won’t.

You see, I am trying in all my stories to get the feeling of the actual life across – not to just depict life – or criticize it – but to actually make it alive. So that when you have read something by me, you actually experience the thing. You can’t do this without putting in the bad and the ugly as well as what is beautiful.

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?

I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

Originality is a thing we constantly clamour for, and constantly quarrel with.

Jesus lived a life that was full of joy and contradictions and fights, you know? If they were to paint a picture of Jesus without contradictions, the gospels would be fake, but the contradictions are a sign of authenticity.

That man is not truly brave who is afraid either to seem or to be, when it suits him, a coward.

I’m not going to change the way I look or the way I feel to conform to anything. I’ve always been a freak. So I’ve been a freak all my life and I have to live with that, you know. I’m one of those people.

They’re right to think that about me, because I’m the person most likely to sleep with my female fans, I genuinely love other women. And I think they know that.

This is not a showman’s job. I will not step out of character.

I’m always attracted to people who interest me. They’ve got to be people who are really true to themselves somehow, and who are always trying to do something that makes their life more interesting, or better, or something for somebody else. They’re interested in people.

I 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.

Be as you wish to seem.

Do not tell fish stories where the people know you; but particularly, don’t tell them where they know the fish.

Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.

Why do I not seek some real good; one which I could feel, not one which I could display?

Almost every man wastes part of his life attempting to display qualities which he does not possess.

We forfeit three-quarters of ourselves in order to be like other people.

Everyone 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.

Electric communication will never be a substitute for the face of someone who with their soul encourages another person to be brave and true.

Moral authority is never retained by any attempt to hold on to it. It comes without seeking and is retained without effort.

What people see on court is another side of me; it’s not me.

If you consider the definition of authenticity, it’s saying something and actually doing it. I write my own songs. I made my own videos. I pick my producers. Nothing goes out without my permission. It’s all authentic.

The people who truly know me know what I’m like. There have been people who try to say things that aren’t fair, and I check them. And then they don’t like me because I checked them.

It’s no accident many accuse me of conducting public affairs with my heart instead of my head. Well, what if I do? Those who don’t know how to weep with their whole heart don’t know how to laugh either.

Live-tweeting your bikini wax is not vulnerability. Nor is posting a blow-by-blow of your divorce . That’s an attempt to hot-wire connection. But you can’t cheat real connection. It’s built up slowly. It’s about trust and time.

You are only afraid if you are not in harmony with yourself. People are afraid because they have never owned up to themselves.

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be.

I’m not going to say I’m cool, because I don’t really feel that. I just don’t care at all, and I guess that’s what people think is cool.