As Maya Angelou famously advised, when people tell you who they are, believe them. Just as important, however, when people try to tell you who you are, don’t believe them. You are the only custodian of your own integrity, and the assumptions made by those that misunderstand who you are and what you stand for reveal a great deal about them and absol... See more
Maria Popova • 18 Life-Learnings From 18 Years of the Marginalian
The self as a concept is complex and widely debated. But regardless of what you believe, I think we can largely agree that our sense of self is precious and needs to be safeguarded from self-sabotage or violation from others.
sundus • I Am Me Before I Am Anything Else
I have to write to discover what I am doing. —Flannery O’Connor
Anna Quindlen • Write for Your Life
“Freedom,” according to Jean-Paul Sartre, “is what you do with what’s been done to you.” This is true at the individual level — say, someone climbing their way out of a traumatic childhood into full adulthood — as well as at the collective level — think, for example, of the generations-long liberation struggle of Black people in America.