Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter, and those who matter don’t mind.    —Dr. Suess

I was once afraid of people saying, “Who does she think she is?” Now I have the courage to stand and say, “This is who I am.”

—Oprah Winfrey

In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock.      —Thomas Jefferson

It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit.    —Harry S. Truman

Do what you feel in your heart to be right, for you’ll be criticized anyway. You’ll be damned if you do and damned if you don’t.

—Eleanor Roosevelt

Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got.

—Janis Joplin

Everything I did in my life that was worthwhile, I caught hell for. —Earl Warren

The greatest thing is, at any moment, to be willing to give up who we are in order to become all that we can be.     

                                                                                             —Max De Pree

Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. / Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power. / If you realize that you have enough, you are truly rich.

—Tao Te Ching

Until you make peace with who you are, you’ll never be content with what you have.       —Doris Mortman

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself.    —Harvey Fierstein

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.

—Margaret Young

One does not “find oneself” by pursuing one’s self, but on the contrary by pursuing something else and learning through discipline or routine … who one is and wants to be.

—May Sarton

Some luck lies in not getting what you thought you wanted, but getting what you have, which once you have got it you may be smart enough to see is what you would have wanted had you known. —Garrison Keillor

Self-conquest is really self-surrender. Yet before we can surrender ourselves we must become ourselves. For no one can give up what he does not possess.                                                       —Thomas Merton

There is a road, no simple highway, between the dawn and the dark of night, and if you go, no one may follow, that path is for your steps alone.                                                                                  —Jerry Garcia