We mostly grow up believing we’ve got one [self]... Modern neuroscience is saying it’s hard to locate a self. Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, interview Andrew Marr Radio 4 May 2011
What interests me is the extent to which we are unreliable narrators of ourselves. Gwen Adshead, Broadmoor forensic psychotherapist
People can become disorganised at different times. ibid.
The associations between self-esteem and its expected consequences are mixed, insignificant or absent. Californian Governor’s Task-Force on Self-Esteem
These are families of theory ... The Pearl View ... At the heart of every individual is something which is permanent, unchanging, some kind of essence of who they are ... The alternative theory ... is that this essence just isn’t there ... The Bundle Theory [David Hume] ... We are this collection of thoughts, experiences, memories and so forth. Julian Baggini, editor-in-chief The Philosophers’ Magazine, interview
I don’t find myself interesting as a person and the details I find boring, quite frankly, You could sum it up in a few words or sentences really: came from nothing. Self-educated. Luck. Energy. Curiosity. Ambition. That’s it. Nothing at all can illuminate the work as far as I can tell. Peter Ackroyd
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind. Bernard M Baruch
To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Self-command is the main discipline. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can offer with the cumulative force of a whole life’s cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession. Ralph Waldo Emerson
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to pause and reflect. Mark Twain
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. Coco Chanel
Remember to always be yourself. Unless you suck. Joss Whedon
About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you. Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all. Rita Mae Brown
I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself. Charlotte Bronte, Jane Eyre
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I –
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
Don’t you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you can’t be exactly who you are. Lady Gaga
Wanting to be someone else is a waste of who you are. Kurt Cobain
I’m not in this world to live up to your expectations and you’re not in this world to live up to mine. Bruce Lee
I wore black because I liked it. I still do, and wearing it still means something to me. It’s still my symbol of rebellion – against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to others’ ideas. Johnny Cash
It’s hard to be a diamond in a rhinestone world. Dolly Parton
I am not eccentric. It’s just that I am more alive than most people. I am an unpopular electric eel set in a pond of catfish. Edith Sitwell
I think everybody’s weird. We should all celebrate our individuality and not be embarrassed or ashamed of it. Johnny Depp
I am too not a bit tamed, I too am untranslatable,
I sound my barbaric yawp over the roof of the world. Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
I have said that the soul is not more than the body,
And I have said the body is not more than the soul,
And nothing, not God, is greater is one than one’s-self is. Walt Whitman
It kills me how these days everyone has clinical justification for their strangeness. Miguel Syjuco, Ilustrado
To be an outlaw you must first have a base in law to reject and get out of, I never had such a base. I never had a place I could call home that meant any more than a key to a house, apartment or hotel room ... Am I alien? Alien from what exactly? Perhaps my home is my dream city, more real than my waking life precisely because it has no relation to waking life. William S Burroughs
The first and most important thing an individual can do is to become an individual again, decontrol himself, train himself as to what is going on and win back as much independent ground for himself as possible. William S Burroughs
If we wish to know about a man, we ask ‘what is his story – his real, inmost story?’ – for each of us is a biography, a story. Each of us is a singular narrative, which is constructed, continually, unconsciously, by, through, and in us – through our perceptions, our feelings, our thoughts, our actions; and, not least, our discourse, our spoken narrations. Biologically, physiologically, we are not so different from each other; historically, as narratives – we are each of us unique. Oliver Sacks, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales
Forming grammatically correct sentences is for the normal individual the prerequisite for any submission to social laws. No one is supposed to be ignorant of grammaticality; those who are belong in special institutions. The unity of language is fundamentally political. Gilles Deleuze, Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia
Taking into account the public’s regrettable lack of taste, it is incumbent upon you not to fit in. Janeane Garofalo, Feel This Book: An Essential Guide to Self-Empowerment, Spiritual Supremacy, and Sexual Satisfaction
I get glimpses of the horror of normalcy. Each of these innocents on the street is engulfed by a terror of their own ordinariness. They would do anything to be unique. Katherine Dunn, Geek Love
For it is in your power to retire into yourself whenever you choose. Marcus Aurelius, Meditations
Our culture promotes individuality, while the Amish are deeply entrenched in community. To us, if someone stands out, it’s no big deal because diversity is respected and expected. To the Amish, there’s no room for deviation from the norm. It’s important to fit in, because that similarity of identity is what defines the society. If you don’t fit in, the consequences are psychological tragic, you stand alone when all you’ve ever known is being part of the group. Jodi Picoult, Plain Truth
You are not who you think you are. Sylvia Hartmann
The importance of solitude is to help you to differentiate your own thoughts from those you have studied, read, heard, or unintentionally absorbed. Tonya Sheridan
Punk has always been about doing things your own way. What it represents for me is ultimate freedom and a sense of individuality. Billy Joe Armstrong
The reason most people don’t express their individuality and actually deny it, is not fear of what prime ministers think of us or the head of the federal reserve, it’s what their families and their friends down at the bar are going to think of them. David Icke
I believe in individuality, that everybody is special, and it’s up to them to find that quality and let it live. Grace Jones
I learned to embrace my individuality, and if that meant writing a song on one chord over and over again, then that’s what I do. Beth Orton
We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be. May Sarton