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Check out my favorite quotes about identity and get inspiration on how important our identity is and how history gives us an identity. These inspiring identity quotes allow us to appreciate the role that all these factors play in shaping our identity. And, contemplate the significance of our unique journey to finding ourselves.
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What is identity?
What is identity is an eternal question that philosophy, religion, and science have been trying to answer for centuries. As psychology suggests, identity is formed by several factors. Memories, experiences, relationships, and values contribute to our sense of self. Yet, according to the writer Doug Cooper, identity cannot be found or fabricated but emerges from within when one has the courage to let go.
“Identity cannot be found or fabricated but emerges from within when one has the courage to let go.”
– Doug Cooper
“The value of identity of course is that so often with it comes purpose.”
– Richard Grant
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My favorite quotes about identity
These quotes shed light on how history plays a vital role in shaping who we are. Plus, it underlines the importance of embracing our identity through memories and personal experiences.
Past gives you an identity
According to Heraclitus, man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.
“Man is most nearly himself when he achieves the seriousness of a child at play.”
Heraclitus
And, Eckhart Tolle wrote the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Thus, they are both illusions.
“…the past gives you an identity and the future holds the promise of salvation, of fulfillment in whatever form. Both are illusions.”
Eckhart Tolle
American novelist and short story writer Veronica Roth, known for her bestselling Divergent trilogy analyzed in her way how complicated is the matter of identity. In her book, we read that our identity is formed by the people we love and belong to.
“I belong to the people I love, and they belong to me–they, and the love and loyaty I give them, form my identity far more than any word or group ever could.”
Veronica Roth
Chezh/French author Milan Kundra examined the theme of identity excessively in his title book “Identity”. This book is full of identity quotes but this one is my favorite.
“Remembering our past, carrying it around with us always, may be the necessary requirement for maintaining, as they say, the wholeness of the self.”
Milan Kundera
“To be ourselves we must have ourselves – possess, if need be re-possess, our life-stories. We must “recollect” ourselves, recollect the inner drama, the narrative, of ourselves. A man needs such a narrative, a continuous inner narrative, to maintain his identity, his self.”
Oliver Sacks
“Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armor yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you.”
– George R.R. Martin
Primal identity
“Close your mouth,
Lao Tzu
block off your senses,
blunt your sharpness,
untie your knots,
soften your glare,
settle your dust.
This is the primal identity.”
“Because no man can ever feel his own identity aright except his eyes be closed; as if darkness were indeed the proper element of our essences, though light be more congenial to our clayey part.”
Herman Melville
“Focus attention on the feeling inside you. Know that it is the pain-body. Accept that it is there. Don’t think about it – don’t let the feeling turn into thinking. Don’t judge or analyze. Don’t make an identity for yourself out of it. Stay present, and continue to be the observer of what is happening inside you. Become aware not only of the emotional pain but also of “the one who observes,” the silent watcher. This is the power of the Now, the power of your own conscious presence. Then see what happens.”
Eckhart Tolle
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Bereft of identity
Moreover, these quotes encourage us to reflect on the power of understanding ourselves by leaving behind our given identity.
“Knowing yourself is the beginning of all wisdom.”
– Aristotle
As Jean-Pierre Vernant has written, entering the unknown and facing another reality, we may find ourselves bereft of our identity.
“To cross a bridge, a river or a border is to leave behind familiar, personal and comfortable and enter the unknown, a different and strange world where, faced with another reality, we may well find ourselves bereft of home and identity”.
Jean-Pierre Vernant
“I believe that true identity is found… in creative activity springing from within. It is found, paradoxically, when one loses oneself. Woman can best refind herself in some kind of creative activity of her own.”
Anne Morrow Lindbergh
“Any real change implies the breakup of the world as one has always known it, the loss of all that gave one an identity, the end of safety.”
James Baldwin
What threatens our identity
Lastly, these insightful words gain inspiration for embracing and celebrating our individuality through what we fight or reject.
“Ideology is a specious way of relating to the world. It offers human beings the illusion of an identity, of dignity, and of morality while making it easier for them to part with them.”
Václav Havel
“The more something threatens your identity, the more you will avoid it.”
Mark Manson
“Not everyone wants to get better. And that’s okay. Some people have an identity tied to sickness. Others fear true wellness because it is the unknown and the unknown is unpredictable. There is comfort in knowing exactly what your life will look like, even if that reality is making you sick.”
Nicole LePera
“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”
– Ralph Waldo Emerson
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