Finding Yourself Quotes

“You've got to find yourself first. Everything else'll follow.”
― Charles de Lint, Dreams Underfoot

“Whatever it takes to find the real you, don't be daunted if the rest of the world looks on in shock.”
― Stephen Richards

“But there was a difference between being stuck and choosing to stay. Between being found and finding yourself.”
― Martina Boone, Compulsion

“When you fight yourself to discover the real you, there is only one winner.”
― Stephen Richards

“Your voice has haunted every inch of my soul since the last time I heard it…my world had been so dark, void of sound and then I heard you sing again—and it exploded. Everything came crashing down on me that I’d been holding in, and then I was just a mess. But I wasn’t suffering in silence anymore. I was suffering from the impenetrable sound of your voice on repeat in my head.”
― Cassandra Giovanni, Finding Perfection

“Money isn't the solution to your problems. It only lets you carry your unhappiness around in style.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Role models are only of limited use. For no-one is as important, potentially powerful and as key in your life and world as you.”
― Rasheed Ogunlaru

“Fer in our dreams we find ourselves. Who we were. Who we are. Who we can become. Sleep. Dream.”
― Moira Young, Rebel Heart

“It's easy to side with the top dogs? But, we gain credit/karma points for siding with the poor. And just because some of us are poor, does not mean we are poor in spirit.”
― Janine Myung Ja, Adoption Stories

“Have you ever truly, keenly felt like you don't know who you are? Do you ever do something and think, Who is at the controls? Like some mad pilot has locked you out of the cockpit? I definitely do. I feel a kind of vertigo that makes me shake afterwards. I guess we all feel it when making a difficult-seeming choice, and sometimes you seriously don't know what you want because you don't know who you're supposed to be, or who you want to be. Physics, my first and second families, my philosophy degree, had all failed to help me answer that question. The former has led me to wonder whether I am one of an infinite number of Alices in multiple universes. A quantum fuck-up, which is someone who fucks up in every one of those universes but in different ways.”
― Olivia Sudjic, Sympathy

“Everything is music for the born musician.”
― Romain Rolland, Jean-Christophe: Dawn, Morning, Youth, Revolt

“It is one thing to lose people you love. It is another to lose yourself. That is a greater loss.”
― Donna Goddard, Waldmeer

“Looking in the mirror, staring back at me isn't so much a face as the expression of a predicament.”
― Colin Firth

“Every time I’m in an airport,
I think I should drastically
change my life: Kill the kid stuff,
start to act my numbers, set fire
to the clutter and creep below
the radar like an escaped canine
sneaking along the fence line.
I’d be cable-knitted to the hilt,
beautiful beyond buying, believe
in the maker and fix my problems
with prayer and property.
Then, I think of you, home
with the dog, the field full
of purple pop-ups—we’re small
and flawed, but I want to be
who I am, going where
I’m going, all over again.”
― Ada Limon, Bright Dead Things

“To be away from home and yet find oneself everywhere at home; to see the world, to be at the centre of the world, and yet remain hidden from the world.”
― Charles Baudelaire

“The more I stepped away from darkness, the less it felt like home.”
― Mitali Meelan, Coffee and Ordinary Life

“Go to the community and the locations that have set a sparkle in your psyche. That's how you find your Tribe”
― Karl Wiggins, Wrong Planet - Searching for your Tribe

“You’ve been here the whole time!” I could see it clearly. 
 
The calm, glowing One smiled, and all of a sudden, I knew. It hadn’t been fear telling me not to get on the boat, scaring me away from the fun. It was Jesus trying to spare me the agony of this trip because . . . because He loves me? Yes, He loves me! 
 
And there I’d stood, as if I’d had my hand on His chest, pushing Him away. What was I doing? Seeing Him now, I realized we’d been stuck in this pose a long time. I hadn’t wanted Him to go in case I needed Him, but I hadn’t wanted Him to come inside and control me. 
 
Ever so patiently—suspended in time, but oh-so-very present—Jesus held out His hand and invited me to dance. 
 
“Yes,” I yielded, and something so much more peaceful than peace settled inside even though the storm still raged, and the circumstances hadn’t budged. “Let’s dance.” 
 
Embraced in His arms, I fell asleep—even in the midst of those crazy waves. ”
― Elizabeth Bristol, Mary Me: One Woman’s Incredible Adventure with God

“Find yourself and you will find your freedom.”
― Gillian Duce, Demons And Dangers: Magic And Mayhem - Book 4

“He gave himself to them completely, with no guilt, no shame, no reservation, and in that surrender he found a quiet, shining pearl he had never known existed - himself. He was Sam. He was Sunshine. He was Peaches.”
― Heidi Cullinan, Special Delivery

“Life isn't always about finding yourself. More often than not, it's about discovering who God created you to be.”
― David A.R. White, Between Heaven and Hollywood: Chasing Your God-Given Dream

“Look at the sun. The sun is shining. Nobody polishes the sun. The sun just shines. Look at the moon, the sky, the world at its best. Unfortunately, we human beings try to fit everything into conditionality. We try to make something out of nothing. We have messed everything up. That’s our problem. We have to go back to the sun and the moon, to dragons, tigers, lions, garudas (mythical birds). We can be like the blue sky, sweethearts, and the clouds so clean, so beautiful. We don’t have to try too hard to find ourselves. We haven’t really lost anything; we just have to tune in. The majesty of the world is always there.”
― Chögyam Trungpa, Great Eastern Sun: The Wisdom of Shambhala

“I'm traveling a speed
unknown to man
and I carry love for all
in the mirror of my hand.

I say love for all…don't try to run away...
look at the mirrors of your heart.
Face the truth today—

I am what I am, thank God.
Some people don't understand,
Help them, God—
I say find yourself first, and then your tool.
I say find yourself first, don't you be no fool.

Here comes a woman, sweat all down her back.
For birth or for pleasure, she's on the right track…
But for being free, she ain't supposed to plea.
And don't rely on no man to try and understand.
I say find yourself first
and then your talent.
Work hard in your mind
for it to come alive.
And then prove to the man
that you're as strong as him.
'Cause in the eyes of God…
you're both children to him…

You are what you are, thank God.
You gonna shine like a star
with the help of God—
But we find ourselves first
and then our tool…
Find yourself, don't be no fool.”
― Jimi Hendrix, Cherokee Mist: The Lost Writings

“Let the ego lose so that the soul can win.”
― Hiral Nagda

“She was not as carefree and gay as before, but she was at peace.”
― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Pack lightly.

Leave behind
all pre-conceived notions.

Choose a Fred Flinstone-like vehicle
by which you will venture

with a comfortable seat
that will remember you always,

in a color that announces you,

and a horn that celebrates you.

Gather traveling companions
for their wisdom, humor,and warmth
and the challenges they bring
so that you may grow.

Be welcomed
by the many landscapes that know you,
even when they feel new to you.

Toss your shoes out the window.

Imagine the stories of every aged stone
passing beneath your bare feet
warmed and chafed by friction.

Off road.

As the driver.

And the passenger.

In the front.

And in the back.

Do not end the journey
until you are claimed for your next.

And so you must go,
taking the only
one first step
in every journey...

Leaving.”
― Maggie Mer McDanal

“I see you, Julia. Life can be fucking incredible; we just need courage to believe it.”
― Tami Egonu, The Meaning of Us

“etc."
I have been searching for my self everywhere,
but I can’t find it!
I can’t even remember when exactly I lost it…
I search for it in everything I love and hate
in foreign and familiar cities
in all the kind, exhausted, and mean faces…
I search for my self near water springs and along river shores
On mountaintops and in the scent of wildflowers…
Between the branches of olive and fig trees,
but without any trace or hope…
I search in teacups, in the corners of old cafés
In songs and interludes…
In books
In the memories of everyone who ever knew me
Everyone I betrayed or was betrayed by…
I search in lines and sentences,
But all in vain…
I even search unsuccessfully in the sentences that list options,
including the examples and each “etc.” after each list of options…
I keep wondering how did I so quietly lose it?
And each time I ask the loved ones about my strong desire
to reunite with my lost self,
I realize they have no leads other than long and wide lists
of places, things, activities, individuals, and hobbies
where I may possibly “find” my self…
In each list they suggest, I find countless options
and countless lines ending with “etc.”
They don’t understand
that I have turned every rock and searched behind every “etc.”
And today I finally realized
That my self wasn’t from here,
and thus, it was never here…
That, all along, I have been searching for an illusion
that never existed…

[Original poem published in Arabic on March 11, 2024 at ahewar.org]”
― Louis Yako

“Sometimes, just sometimes you would feel like leaving everything and finding a safe place, somewhere distant very very distant, like to get lost somewhere, to entirely disappear, take that call, disappear for a while, the World isn't running anywhere.
Who knows, you might find a cloud floating on a morning mist, carrying the missing pieces of your heart, lost in the chaos of Time, in the mad conundrum of Life, in the crazy hunt for a fairytale, in everything that needed you to leave, to leave for a safe place in Yourself.

Love & Light, always
- Debatrayee”
― Debatrayee Banerjee

“At some point every generation is lost. We must be. How else can we find ourselves?”
― Cory Richards, The Color of Everything: A Journey to Quiet the Chaos Within