Authenticity Quotes

I often think that the effort we put into trying to pretend something about us is true — that we are less than we are or more than we are or that one aspect of ourselves is the whole story — is based in a fear of  being really known, of  being truly seen, as we actually are. Perhaps we each have a wound, a vulnerable place that we have to protect in order to survive. And yet sometimes we overcompensate so much for the things we are trying to hide that no one ever suspects the truth…and then we are left in the true aloneness of never really being known.

~ Nadia Bolz-Weber

True friends—those that want nothing for you but peace, harmony, and joy—sometimes more than you want it for yourself—will rise to the surface. Those are the ones to listen to and commune with. You will know their voice because it’s authentic as well, and it speaks with no ulterior motives or projections. It may not tell you pretty things, but it will always speak in love.

~ Akosua Dardaine Edwards

Authenticity is about returning and magnifying who you are, instead of trying to become someone who you think you should be. It’s about peeling off the false adornments and standing wholly, holy, and true.

~ Akosua Dardaine Edwards

Authenticity is not possible without embracing the “and” within us. Our minds like to categorize things into neatly labeled boxes. Am I right, or is she right? Let’s stretch our minds to I can be right and so can she. Embracing the “and” is like yoga for the brain. When we train ourselves to hold paradoxes by stretching ourselves out of the boxes our minds create, we stretch into new possibilities and adapt more quickly in a fast-changing world.

~ Henna Inam

Most of us want to be authentic. Yet, we are not who we think we are. We are made up of a rich array of facets and possibilities, many of which we ignore because we label them as “bad”. We create a cardboard cutout image of ourselves to look good to others. The discord between who we are and the image we have to live up to slowly kills our aliveness. When we suppress parts of ourselves, it lowers our mojo, sense of fulfillment, leadership effectiveness and impact in the workplace.

~ Henna Inam

Authentic leadership is leading adaptively from your core, choosing who you’re most inspired to be to serve the greatest good in this moment.

~ Henna Inam

Authentic leadership is a whole body experience. Our bodies have a lot more to teach us about ourselves than our thoughts.

~ Henna Inam

If we try to emulate the leadership style of others we perceive as successful, we end up being second-rate versions of someone else.

~ Henna Inam

Inspiration is the most radiant and flourishing expression of our authenticity.

~ Elaina Marie

Brain ablaze. Feel like we are unearthing something and finding ourselves, knowing ourselves, stripping odd layers of our upbringing like old paint. Can't write about it fully yet. Don't understand it. I only know that when F leaves and B and I talk I feel like I am saying - and hearing - the first wholly honest words of my life.

~ Lily King

Our imperfections are what create authentic connections with one another.

~ Henna Inam

True beauty can only be found in the true Self.

~ Ka Chinery

To change any behavior we have to slow down and act intentionally rather than from habit and impulse.

~ Henna Inam

The real you focuses on goals that inspire you and doesn’t let “that’s just not me!” stand in the way.

~ Henna Inam

To be effortlessly yourself is a blessing, an ambrosia. It is like a few tiny little puffs of opium which lift you ever so slightly off the hard surface of the world.

~ Laurie Colwin

To be effective, we have to slow down the speed of our thoughts and focus on managing our attention.

~ Henna Inam

Authentic leadership is about leading from the core of who we are to inspire each of us to our best contribution toward a shared mission.

~ Henna Inam

Enjoy your own authentic stupidity rather than strive vainly to be wise.

~ David Brandon

You are like an ocean: quietly ebbing and flowing to the rhythm of life, but wildly expansive and profoundly powerful. You are boundless. You are whole. Your quietness is your strength. Your depth is your advantage.

~ Aletheia Luna

I'm a thousand different people. Every one is real.

~ Candy Darling

We must say no to what, in our heart, we don't want. We must say no to doing things out of obligation, thereby cheating those important to us of the purest expression of our love. We must say no to treating ourselves, our health, our needs as not as important as someone else's. We must say “no.

~ Suzette R. Hinton

If chained is where you have been, your ams will always bear marks of the shackles. What you have to lose is your story, your own slant. You'll look at the scars on your arms and see mere ugliness, or you'll take great care to look away from them and see nothing. Either way, you have no words for the story of where you came from.

~ Barbara Kingsolver

If you are feeling constrained by a group that you belong to, ask yourself,“How can I participate in this community and still be who I am?

~ Gina Greenlee

When we are driven by ego and a relentless need to succeed, it’s easy to blindly neglect the relationships, self-care and truth that will create joy and authentic fulfillment in our lives.

~ Shannon Tanner

As a young wife and mother living in a pre-Pinterest world, I used to glue-gun bows and small pieces of minutia together methodically. I was an insomniac proudly penning thank you notes longer than the Declaration of Independence to every person who had even sent me a card. I was reorganizing my linen closet, ironing placemats, straight-ironing my hair, and never saying no to any person that asked me for a favor. And, I forgot to mention, I didn’t really like myself.I felt like a fuzzy, carbon copy of myself. I felt the passion, the conviction, and the grit somewhere inside of me yet a bunch of preconceived ideas somehow got in the way.

~ Ann Brasco

I am not a genuine woman, but I am not interested in genuineness.

~ Candy Darling

The one thing I have that nobody else has or can duplicate is my sound. The sound of my voice. The sound of my life. Others may say similar things but they can’t say them like I do.

~ Suzette R. Hinton

It's a funny thing, how it works...The moment we stop trying so hard to be someone, we become ourselves--only what was there all along, waiting and peeking out from behind all the masks we wore.And when this happens, we discover that Who We Really Are is much greater than anything we might have pretended or even hoped to be.

~ Jacob Nordby

Power is like being a lady... if you have to tell people you are, you aren't.

~ Margaret Thatcher

When you honor your most authentic self-—your Spirit—you are allowing your Light to shine and touch the world. Living authentically, in its simplest terms, is living your Truth, the truth in your heart and soul. It's allowing yourself to be guided by Divine Truth and Wisdom, each and every day, and doing your Highest, most authentic work in the world. It's joyfully creating and living your Highest purpose!

~ Valerie Rickel

Without authenticity, we are only a poor imitation of someone else.

~ Tom Hayes

An echo has no voice of its own.

~ Marty Rubin

A man could not be prevented from making himself a big wax doll, and kissing it. But if the man were to come with the doll and sit before a man in love, and begin caressing his doll as the lover caressed the woman he loved, it would be distastefulto the lover. Just such a distasteful sensation was what Mihailov felt at the sight of Vronsky’s painting: he felt it both ludicrous and irritating, both pitiable and offensive.

~ Leo Tolstoy

The total destruction of falsehood allows authentic creative flow to happen.

~ Bryant Mcgill

It is almost as if we are all playing a big game of hide-and-go-seek. We all hide expecting to be found, but no one has been labelled the seeker. We stand behind the wall, at first excited, then worried, then bored, then anxious, then angry. We hide and hide. After a while, the game is not fun anymore. Where is my seeker? Where is the person who is supposed to come find me here in my protected shell and cut me open? Where is that one who will make me trust him, make me comfortable, make me feel whole? Some people rot on the spot, waiting for the seeker that never comes. The most important truth that I can relate to you, if you are hiding and waiting, is that the seeker is you and the world, behind so many walls, awaits.

~ Vironika Tugaleva

I do not see the point in dressing and acting and speaking in a way that makes you feel more comfortable and me feel less comfortable.

~ Dan Pearce

Think about the word mould for a moment. A mould is a device into which one crams and smashes something until it becomes the shape that they desire. Don't spend your life letting other people destroy you while they try and force you into their moulds.

~ Dan Pearce

For a moment, I felt like myself again. Not the new me, not the old me, just the real me.

~ Leslea Tash

The truth does not need a number of supporters for authenticity. One person among the lot can be the only truthful out of the ten; 11 people out of 12 may be on the truthful side. However, the truth is the truth irrespective of how many people like to embrace it!

~ Israelmore Ayivor

A Permeable Life is about what presses out from the heart, what comes in at a slant and what shimmers below the surface of things. To live permeably is to be open-hearted and audacious, to risk showing up as our truest self, and embracing a willingness to be astonished.

~ Carrie Newcomer