# Quotes about authenticity - Quotes: 33 - Authors: 32 - Broader topic: [Quotes about identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md) - Topic page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity - JSON version (same data): https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.json ## Quotes > "...One thing nobody can do better than you is be you." (p164) [Elizabeth Moon](https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-moon.md) · [The Speed of Dark](https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-moon/the-speed-of-dark.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/elizabeth-moon/the-speed-of-dark/one-thing-nobody.md) Topics: [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > I can't tell if [Alice’s] actually real, or if she's stopped caring if she's real or not. Or is not caring what makes a person real. [Jennifer Egan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jennifer-egan.md) · [A Visit from the Goon Squad](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jennifer-egan/a-visit-from-the-goon-squad.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jennifer-egan/a-visit-from-the-goon-squad/i-cant-tell.md) Topics: [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > You ache. You ache all over. You are aching to be you, but you're scared of what it means to do so. [Caleb Azumah Nelson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/caleb-azumah-nelson.md) · [Open Water](https://www.leafyquotes.com/caleb-azumah-nelson/open-water.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/caleb-azumah-nelson/open-water/you-ache-you.md) Topics: [fear](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/fear.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > Children stay in alignment with their true self if the important adults in their lives support doing so. However, when they’re criticized or shamed, they learn to feel embarrassed by their true desires. By pretending to be what their parents want, children think they’ve found the way to win their parents’ love. They silence their true selves and instead follow the guidance of their role-selves and fantasies. In the process, they lose touch with both their inner and outer reality. [Lindsay C. Gibson](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson.md) · [Adult Children of Emotionally Immature Parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson/adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/lindsay-c-gibson/adult-children-of-emotionally-immature-parents/children-stay-in-alignment.md) Topics: [childhood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/childhood.md), [parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > Masking is a state of exclusion forced onto us from the outside...We only get the opportunity to take our masks off when we realize other ways of being exist. [Devon Price](https://www.leafyquotes.com/devon-price.md) · [Unmasking Autism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/devon-price/unmasking-autism.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/devon-price/unmasking-autism/masking-is-a-state.md) Topics: [otherness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/otherness.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > If you know anything about Buddhism, you will know that the most important point is to be yourself and not try to become anything that you are not already. Buddhism is fundamentally about being in touch with your own deepest nature and letting it flow out of you unimpeded. [Jon Kabat-Zinn](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-kabat-zinn.md) · [Wherever You Go, There You Are](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-kabat-zinn/wherever-you-go-there-you-are.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/jon-kabat-zinn/wherever-you-go-there-you-are/if-you-know.md) Topics: [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md), [Buddhism](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/buddhism.md) > I think, consciously or not, what we readers do each time we open a book is to set off on a search for authenticity. We want to get closer to the heart of things, and sometimes even a few good sentences contained in an otherwise unexceptional book can crystallize vague feelings, fleeting physical sensations, or, sometimes, profound epiphanies. [Maureen Corrigan](https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan.md) · [Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/maureen-corrigan/leave-me-alone-im-reading/i-think-consciously.md) Topics: [reading](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/reading.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > The natural man will probably be manly. The affected man cannot be so. [Anthony Trollope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope.md) · [Phineas Redux](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/phineas-redux.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/phineas-redux/the-natural-man.md) Topics: [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > When one wants to be natural, of necessity one becomes the reverse of natural. [Anthony Trollope](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope.md) · [Phineas Redux](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/phineas-redux.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/anthony-trollope/phineas-redux/when-one-wants.md) Topics: [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > As a coping mechanism for teenage me, masking was an incredibly successful tactic – I was only bullied intermittently during my school years – but as a catalyst for growth, it worked more like castration. [Hannah Gadsby](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-gadsby.md) · [Ten Steps to Nanette](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-gadsby/ten-steps-to-nanette.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/hannah-gadsby/ten-steps-to-nanette/as-a-coping.md) Topics: [growing up](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/growing-up.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > I wouldn't call myself an actor or a singer for that matter, just a journeyman. [...] I feel I must have a talent somewhere for doing something but I'm still not terribly sure what it is. I suppose it's a talent for being myself. [Ronnie Drew](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ronnie-drew.md) · [Ronnie](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ronnie-drew/ronnie.md) · p. 196 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/ronnie-drew/ronnie/i-wouldnt-call.md) Topics: [talent](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/talent.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > This artifice will drive them to seek authenticity. Authenticity will be the buzzword of the twenty-first century. And what is authentic? Anything that is not devised and structured to make a profit. Anything that is not controlled by corporations. Anything that exists for its own sake and assumes its own shape. But of course, nothing in the modern world is allowed to assume its own shape. The modern world is the corporate equivalent of a formal garden, where everything is planted and arranged for effect. Where nothing is untouched, where nothing is authentic. [Michael Crichton](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton.md) · [Timeline](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline.md) · p. 444 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/michael-crichton/timeline/this-artifice-will.md) Topics: [business](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/business.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > She was becoming herself and daily casting aside that fictitious self which we assume like a garment with which to appear before the world. [Kate Chopin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin.md) · [The Awakening](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin/the-awakening.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/kate-chopin/the-awakening/she-was-becoming.md) Topics: [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > Each time I spoke, I gained a little courage. It took a long while—but today I have more happiness than I ever dreamed possible. In rearing my own children, I have always taught them the lesson I had to learn from such bitter experience: No matter what happens, always be yourself! [Dale Carnegie](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dale-carnegie.md) · [How to Stop Worrying and Start Living](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dale-carnegie/how-to-stop-worrying-and-start-living.md) · p. 14 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dale-carnegie/how-to-stop-worrying-and-start-living/each-time-i-spoke.md) Topics: [courage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > Many children harbor hidden anger and resentment toward their parents and often the cause is inauthenticity in the relationship. The child has a deep longing for the parent to be there as a human being, not as a role, no matter how conscientiously that role is being played. [Eckhart Tolle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle.md) · [A New Earth](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/eckhart-tolle/a-new-earth/many-children-harbor.md) Topics: [children](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/children.md), [parents](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/parents.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > What I am and what I feel are good enough to be a basis for therapy, if I can transparently be what I am and what I feel in relationshipto him. Then perhaps he can be what he is, openly and without fear. [Carl Rogers](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-rogers.md) · [On Becoming a Person](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-rogers/on-becoming-a-person.md) · p. 66 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/carl-rogers/on-becoming-a-person/what-i-am-and.md) Topics: [honesty](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/honesty.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > "Be true to love where ever you find it, and be true to yourself and everything that you really are." [Gregory David Roberts](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts.md) · [Shantaram](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/gregory-david-roberts/shantaram/be-true-to-love.md) Topics: [love](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/love.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > What is false creates taste, and reinforces itself by knowingly eliminating any possible reference to the authentic. And what is genuine is reconstructed as quickly as possible, to resemble the false. [Guy Debord](https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-debord.md) · [Comments on the Society of the Spectacle](https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-debord/comments-on-the-society-of-the-spectacle.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/guy-debord/comments-on-the-society-of-the-spectacle/what-is-false.md) Topics: [lies](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/lies.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > You do an awfully good impression of yourself. [Bret Easton Ellis](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bret-easton-ellis.md) · [Lunar Park](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bret-easton-ellis/lunar-park.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/bret-easton-ellis/lunar-park/you-do-an-awfully.md) Topics: [humor](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/humor.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > It is vain to apportion praise and blame. The truth is that if the vicious circle is so hard to break, it is because the two sexes are each the victim at once of the other and of itself. Between two adversaries confronting each other in their pure liberty, an agreement could be easily reached: the more so as the war profits neither. But the complexity of the whole affair derives from the fact that each camp is giving aid and comfort to the enemy; woman is pursuing a dream of submission, man a dream of identification. Want of authenticity does not pay: each blames the other for the unhappiness he or she has incurred in yielding to the temptations of the easy way; what man and woman loathe in each other is the shattering frustration of each one's own bad faith and baseness. [Simone de Beauvoir](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir.md) · [The Second Sex](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/the-second-sex.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/simone-de-beauvoir/the-second-sex/it-is-vain.md) Topics: [women](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/women.md), [men](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/men.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > One of the strangest things I have encountered on your world, dear Benita, is that many of your people have no idea who they really are but many ridiculous ideas about what they are expected to be, plus many religious convictions about what they should be, although nobody is! One should not want to be anything but what one is because it creates unhappiness. [Sheri S. Tepper](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper.md) · [The Fresco](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco.md) · p. 57 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/sheri-s-tepper/the-fresco/one-of-the.md) Topics: [happiness](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/happiness.md), [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > Just as novels have come to be seen as narratives of identity, so too has politics become, for many, a search for personal authenticity, a journey of self-discovery. [Amitav Ghosh](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh.md) · [The Great Derangement: From bestselling author and winner of the 2018 Jnanpith Award](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh/the-great-derangement-from-bestselling-author-and-winner-of-the-2018-jnanpith-award.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/amitav-ghosh/the-great-derangement-from-bestselling-author-and-winner-of-the-2018-jnanpith-award/just-as-novels.md) Topics: [politics](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/politics.md), [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune. Our nervous system isn't just a fiction, it's part of our physical body, and our souls exists in space and is inside us, like the teeth in the mouth. It can't forever be violated with impunity. [Boris Pasternak](https://www.leafyquotes.com/boris-pasternak.md) · [Doctor Zhivago](https://www.leafyquotes.com/boris-pasternak/doctor-zhivago.md) · p. 43 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/boris-pasternak/doctor-zhivago/the-great-majority.md) Topics: [hypocrisy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hypocrisy.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > What's burning down is a re-creation of a period revival house patterned after a copy of a copy of a copy of a mock-tudor big manor house. It's a hundred generations removed from anything original, but the truth is aren't we all? [Chuck Palahniuk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk.md) · [Invisible Monsters](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/chuck-palahniuk/invisible-monsters/whats-burning-down.md) Topics: [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > How can one person be more real than any other? Well some people do hide and others seek. Maybe those who are hiding — escaping encounters, avoiding surprises, protecting their property, ignoring their fantasies, restricting their feelings, sitting out the Pan pipe hootchy-kootch of experience — maybe those people, people who won't talk to rednecks, or if they're rednecks won't talk to intellectuals, people who are afraid to get their shoes muddy or their noses wet, afraid to eat what they crave, afraid to drink Mexican water, afraid to bet a long shot to win, afraid to hitchhike, jaywalk, honky-tonk, cogitate, osculate, levitate, rock it, bop it, sock it, or bark at the moon, maybe such people are simply inauthentic, and maybe the jackleg humanist who says differently is due to have his tongue fried on the hot slabs of liars hell. Some folks hide and some folks seek,and seeking when its mindless, neurotic, desperate, or pusillanimous, can be a form of hiding. But there are folks who want to know and aren't afraid to look, and won't turn tail should they find it — and if they never do, they'll have a good time anyway, because nothing, neither the terrible truth, nor the absence of it, is going to cheat them out of one honest breath of earth's sweet gas. [Tom Robbins](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins.md) · [Still Life with Woodpecker](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/still-life-with-woodpecker.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/tom-robbins/still-life-with-woodpecker/how-can-one.md) Topics: [courage](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/courage.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > Sexual integrity means honestly recognizing our own impulses and desires and honoring them, whether or not we choose to act on them. If we value integrity, we must also value diversity in sexual expression and orientation, recognizing that there is no one truth, or one way, that fits everyone. > > Sexuality is sacred because through it we make a connection with another self — but it is misused and perverted when it becomes an arena of power-over, a means of treating another — or oneself — as an object. [Starhawk](https://www.leafyquotes.com/starhawk.md) · [Dreaming the Dark](https://www.leafyquotes.com/starhawk/dreaming-the-dark.md) · p. 41 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/starhawk/dreaming-the-dark/sexual-integrity-means.md) Topics: [sex](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/sex.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > You can only really be yourself when you have nothing left to lose, see? That's a learning I made. It may sound dumb, but it ain't easy when your dreams roll up. Take note, you can feel jerksville lurking in back. And as we know, just by thinking it, you suffer it worse. The learning: potential assholeness when a dream comes true is relative to the amount of time you spent working up the dream. . It means I could even fucken puke. [DBC Pierre](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre.md) · [Vernon God Little](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre/vernon-god-little.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/dbc-pierre/vernon-god-little/you-can-only.md) Topics: [dreams and aspirations](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/dreams-and-aspirations.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > You calculated how to be uncalculating, and are natural by art! [Thomas Hardy](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy.md) · [The Hand of Ethelberta](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/the-hand-of-ethelberta.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/thomas-hardy/the-hand-of-ethelberta/you-calculated-how.md) Topics: [paradox](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/paradox.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > After all, is not a real Hell better than a manufactured Heaven? [E.M. Forster](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster.md) · [Maurice](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/em-forster/maurice/after-all-is-not.md) Topics: [hell](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hell.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md), [paradise](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/paradise.md) > Nothing in this world is useless in the eyes of God. Not a leaf from a tree falls, not a hair from your head, not even an insect dies because it was of no use. Everything has a reason to exist... Don’t try to be useful. Try to be yourself: that is enough, and that makes all the difference. A life is never useless. Each soul that came down to Earth is here for a reason. [Paulo Coelho](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho.md) · [Manuscript Found in Accra](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/manuscript-found-in-accra.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/paulo-coelho/manuscript-found-in-accra/nothing-in-this.md) Topics: [meaning of life](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/meaning-of-life.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > I saw that I was from now on, for ever, contemptible. I had been and remained, intensely depressed, but I had also been, and always would be, intensely false; in existentialist terms, inauthentic. I knew I would never kill myself, I knew I would always want to go on living with myself, however hollow I became, however diseased. [John Fowles](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles.md) · [Daniel Martin](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/daniel-martin.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-fowles/daniel-martin/i-saw-that.md) Topics: [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md), [depression](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/depression.md) > "I'd rather be myself. Myself and nasty. Not somebody else, however jolly." [Aldous Huxley](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley.md) · [Brave New World](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world.md) — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/aldous-huxley/brave-new-world/id-rather-be-myself.md) Topics: [identity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/identity.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md) > No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself. [Virginia Woolf](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf.md) · [A Room of One's Own](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/a-room-of-ones-own.md) · p. 17 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/virginia-woolf/a-room-of-ones-own/no-need-to-hurry.md) Topics: [peace of mind](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/peace-of-mind.md), [authenticity](https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/authenticity.md)