2,417 Quotes About Identity

In a sense, the self is more or less an invention from beginning to end. What is more unreal, what is more a creation than the self? Why do we have such a heavy investment in knowing what is true and what isn’t true about people’s lives? Why is it even valid to make a distinction between autobiography, auto-fiction and fiction itself? What fiction doesn’t contain a deep reflection of the author’s perspective and memory and sense of the world?- From an Interview with The Guardian, August 2017

If you’re not all that fond of the image in the mirror, don’t get rid of the mirror. Rather, get rid of the people that shaped what you’re seeing in the mirror.

Our life is an unfinished manuscript; we constantly edit our evolving composition.

The projected vision in the mind’s eye of a person’s conceptual self represents a self-edited photocomposition. Our conceived self consists of an admixture of facts gleaned from the residue of yesteryear’s reality imposed over a bed of surreal images.

What we seek is a reflection of what we will become if we happen to find it. Therefore, if what we seek is driven by the baseness of our greed, finding it might mean losing us.

Droll thing life is -- that mysterious arrangement of merciless logic for a futile purpose. The most you can hope from it is some knowledge of yourself -- that comes too late -- a crop of inextinguishable regrets.

There are moments when you should be anchoring your identity—and your sense of self-worth—on who you are, not just what you do.

While America will always, I think, feel foreign to me, New York City is my home. This is where I can construct my own identity freely and reject labels imposed on me.

Child of someone, friend of someone, employee of someone, lover of something and hater of something... You identify yourself always in relation to someone or something.You are like a car tethered to other cars from all directions, which in turn are tethered to other cars. Result is stress, dilemmas, conflicts.