Quotes about Authenticity

We have probably wondered in our many lonesome moments if there is one corner in this competitive, demanding world where it is safe to be relaxed, to expose ourselves to someone else, and to give unconditionally. It might be very small and hidden, but if this corner exists, it calls for a search through the complexities of our human relationships in order to find it.

Our truest life is when we are in dreams awake.

Say what you have to say, not what you ought. Any truth is better than make-believe.

Give me a wildness whose glance no civilization can endure

The only way to speak the truth is to speak lovingly.

If I should sell my forenoons and afternoons to society, as most appear to do, I am sure that for me there would be nothing left worth living for.

There is no help for it; for he considers, not what is truly respectable, but what is respected.

I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear.

It is so much pleasanter and wholesomer to be warmed by the sun while you can be, than by an artificial fire.

Any truth is better than make-believe. Tom Hyde, the tinker, standing on the gallows, was asked if he had any thing to say. "Tell the tailors," said he, "to remember to make a knot in their thread before they take the first stitch." His companion's prayer is forgotten.

Is not the poet bound to write his own biography? Is there any other work for him but a good journal? We do not wish to know how his imaginary hero, but how he, the actual hero, lived from day to day.

There are nowadays professors of philosophy, but not philosophers. Yet it is admirable to profess because it was once admirable to live.