“The people we surround ourselves with either raise or lower our standards. They either help us to become the-best-version-of-ourselves or encourage us to become lesser versions of ourselves. We become like our friends. No man becomes great on his own. No woman becomes great on her own. The people ar…”— Matthew Kelly, facebook.com
“College is about figuring out who you are, and in order to do that, you need to become a lot of people you aren’t.”— Ryan O'Connell, amazon.com
“Human beings start putting each other into boxes the second that they see each other -- Is that person dangerous? Are they attractive? Are they a potential mate?”— iO Tillett Wright, ted.com
“Each of us isn’t the sum total of all the faults of his family. That’s impossible. That can’t be who we are.”— David Shields, amazon.com
“Why would someone for whom talking was torture want to talk all the time before thousands of Athenians? Because otherwise he’d have drowned himself at high tide. My sister—so shy, so sincere—once wanted to be an actress. The best jazz drummer I’ve ever heard had only one arm. We all choose a calling…”— David Shields, amazon.com
“Surprise people to counter any fixed image they may have of you.”— Dorie Clark, well.blogs.nytimes.com
“How often, you wonder, has the direction of your life been shaped by such misunderstandings? How many opportunities have you been denied—or, for that matter, awarded — because someone failed to see you properly? How many friends have you lost, how many have you gained, because they glimpsed some ele…”— Kevin Brockmeier, amazon.com
“For a long time, the fact that I was divorced was the most important thing about me. And now it’s not. Now the most important thing about me is that I’m old.”— Nora Ephron, amazon.com
“Yeah, I get it. You're one of the good guys. But guess what. We all think we're good guys.”— Alex Vause, twitter.com
“Other people aren't the scariest part of prison, Dina, it's coming face-to-face with who you really are. Because once you're behind these walls, there's nowhere to run, even if you could run. The truth catches up with you in here, Dina. And it's the truth that's gonna make you her bitch.”— Piper Chapman, youtube.com
“Why compare yourself with others? No one in the entire world can do a better job of being you than you.”— Soft Grung, twitter.com
“Don’t compare yourself to others. Compare yourself to the person you were yesterday.”— Anonymous, forbes.com
“Forcing people to adhere to outmoded, rigid notions of identity isn’t good for anybody—men, women, gay, straight, transgender, or otherwise. These stereotypes limit our ability to simply be ourselves.”— Barack Obama, glamour.com
“I am too intelligent, too demanding, and too resourceful for anyone to be able to take charge of me entirely. No one knows me or loves me completely. I have only myself.”— Simone de Beauvoir, amazon.com
“Prostitute. Whore. What did they really mean anyway? Only words. Words trailing their streamers of judgment. I hated labels anyway. People didn't fit in slots -- prostitute, housewife, saint -- like sorting the mail. We were so mutable, fluid with fear and desire, ideals and angles, changeable as wa…”— Janet Fitch, amazon.com
“Maybe our favorite quotations say more about us than about the stories and people we're quoting.”— John Green, amazon.com