Echoes

It would be better for me that the whole world should disagree with me than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.

You should rather please yourself than the people; take thought for the quality, not the number, of judgements made about you.

I do not care so much what I am to others as I care what I am to myself.

I have never felt that anything really mattered but the satisfaction of knowing that you stood for the things in which you believed and had done the very best you could.

The greatest thing in the world is to know how to be oneself.

I exist as I am, that is enough.

It would be better for me... that multitudes of men should disagree with me rather than that I, being one, should be out of harmony with myself.

Though the whole world should praise him, he would not be stimulated to greater endeavour, and though the whole world should condemn him, he would not be depressed. So fixed was he in the difference between the internal judgement of himself and the external judgement of others.

Never esteem anything as of advantage to you that will make you break your word or lose your self-respect.

I don't want to be interesting. I want to be good.

As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live.

I am not concerned that I have no place; I am concerned how I may fit myself for one. I am not concerned that I am not known; I seek to be worthy to be known.

Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.

To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.

Care about what other people think and you will always be their prisoner.

The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.

He who pursues fame at the risk of losing his self is not a scholar.

Everything in the universe is within you. Ask all from yourself.

What does your conscience say? — You should become who you are.

What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us.

You need a change of soul rather than a change of climate.

The lion who breaks the enemy's ranks is a minor hero compared to the lion who overcomes himself.

Insist on yourself; never imitate.

Re-examine all you have been told. Dismiss whatever insults your own soul.

When you are content to be simply yourself, everybody will respect you.