Define Yourself Quotes

I mean one of the things about being alone is that you've no people to define yourself off, I mean, people are like all-round mirrors, because let's face it, we don't often see ourselves all round in a mirror anyway, do we. ~ Diana Wynne Jones

Your ribcage never meant to hurt you.
Your windpipe doesn't know how to be pretty,
but she knows how to howl -
and here, I'd like to take a moment
to submit a formal apology to my soft parts
because they kept me warm
when I was trying to freeze to death,
and I hated them for it. An apology
for a starvation that went deeper than my skin.
One for the strongest skeleton I will ever own
and how I kept using the word girl against it.
Or how I turned words like beautiful into shapes
I could contort myself into. I didn't mean
to compare myself to faces I can't have.
Or spend years trying to carve myself,
like Michelangelo's angels, from the marble -
forgetting what it is to be skin instead of stone.
I let myself be afraid. I was taught to be.
When you learn you are only as good
as your beauty routine, you forget
how to define yourself by anything else. ~ Ashe Vernon

Does it really take any considerable time or effort just to understand that you depend on enemies and outsiders to define yourself, and that without some opposition you would be lost? To see this is to acquire, almost instantly, the virtue of humor, and humor and self-righteousness are mutually exclusive. Humor is the twinkle in the eye of a just judge, who knows that he is also the felon in the dock. How could he be sitting there in stately judgment, being addressed as "Your Honor" or "Mi Lud," without those poor bastards being dragged before him day after day? It does not undermine his work and his function to recognize this. ~ Alan W. Watts

Find yourself, who are you?
Choose yourself, who can you be?
Define yourself to find your destination. ~ Debasish Mridha

The definition of your life is you and your character. So define yourself in your own way. ~ Debasish Mridha

you were whole before him, you are still whole without him, do not define yourself by him, define yourself by yourself ~ Adeline Whitmore

Do you define yourself as a victim of the world? Or, as the world? ~ Alan Watts

If you define yourself by the title of coach or boss, you'll never earn real trust from your players or employees. ~ Bill Courtney

As an independent woman, you are not defined by your partners or your parents. You are defined by you. - STRONG: Powerful Philosophy for Timeless Thoughts by Kailin Gow. ~ Kailin Gow

When you define yourself based on things you have done, in order to maintain that self-image you must constantly look away from the present moment, as you search for a means of self-understanding through past experiences. ~ Chris Matakas

Negative identity is a phenomenon whereby you define yourself by what you are not. This has enormous advantages, especially in terms of the hardening of psychological boundaries and the fortification of the ego: one can mobilize a great deal of energy on this basis and the new nation [the US] certainly did ... The downside ... is that this way of generating an identity for yourself can never tell you who you actually are, in the affirmative sense. It leaves, in short, an emptiness at the center, such that you always have to be in opposition to something, or even at war with someone or something, in order to feel real. ~ Morris Berman

That's the trouble with having a "click" as Mary Wren might call it. When you define yourself by walls, who's in, who's out. The people on the other side of the wall become, not just them, but them. The outsiders. The opposition. The enemy. ~ Ruth Ware

Maybe freedom means defining yourself any way you want to be. ~ Amy Hill Hearth

Define yourself, don't be an imitation. ~ Debasish Mridha

It's nice to have something you think separates you from the mainstream and gives you perspective on that, but it can become very limiting at the same time if it's something you use to artificially define yourself. ~ Dale Peck

You are doing something very sacred here, something very daring, during your life upon the earth. You are defining yourself, and then creating yourself anew, in each golden moment of now. ~ Neale Donald Walsch

You define yourself by either what your clients want or what you believe they'll need for the future. So: Define yourself by your client, not your competitor. ~ Ginni Rometty

Accept no one's definition of your life, define yourself. ~ Harvey Fierstein

If you define yourself as someone fixing education, there's nothing short-range you can do to fix education directly. It's labor intensive. You have to change the way people act. You have to convince people, and change people. ~ Deborah Meier

I think in particularly with young kids who don't have a lot of positive influences, pop culture almost becomes a larger part of that self-discovery and how you define yourself. ~ Terry Gross

Our instructors do not understand how it is. To be bound to someone in such a way. They are too old, too out of touch with their emotions. They no longer remember what it is to live and breathe within the world. They think it simple to pit any two people against each other. It is never simple. The other person becomes how you define your life, how you define yourself. They become as necessary as breathing. Then they expect the victor to continue on without that. It would be like pulling the Murray twins apart and expecting them to be the same. They would be whole but not complete. ~ Erin Morgenstern

Believe in your dream and define yourself endlessly. ~ Debasish Mridha

[When I was hired, I was urged] not to seek a clear definition of what I'd be doing because that would also make it clear what I was not supposed to do. Be careful not to define yourself out of an interesting job. ~ Madeleine K. Albright

The way you define yourself as a writer is that you write every time you have a free minute. If you didn't behave that way you would never do anything. ~ John Irving

Define yourself before others do. ~ Debasish Mridha

If you don't define yourself for yourself then you will be crushed into other's fantasies of you and eaten alive ~ Audre Lorde

As I say to our own team: 'Never protect your past, never define yourself by a single product, and always continue to steward for the long-term. Keep moving towards the future.' ~ Ginni Rometty

A great person defines himself; an average person defines others. ~ Debasish Mridha

Every book changes you in some way, whether it's your perspective on the world or how you define yourself in relation to the world. ~ Mindy Mejia

Don't let others define you. Define yourself. ~ Ginni Rometty

Positive belief leaves no room for excuses; it questions why the feats and quests cannot be attained. When your beliefs are strong enough, you will not define yourself on the basis of past and present limitations or life events. Your success can only be as big as the size of your beliefs, for it is the size of your beliefs that will either limit your dream or allow it to explode. ~ Archibald Marwizi

Defining yourself through thought is limiting yourself. ~ Eckhart Tolle

I should no longer define myself as the son of a father who couldn't or hasn't or wouldn't or wasn't. ~ Cameron Conaway

Don't fear uniqueness. Fear similarities and acceptance. Create a new trend by defining yourself. ~ Debasish Mridha

You get treated in life the way you teach people to treat you. ~ Wayne W. Dyer

Don't let others define you. You define yourself. ~ Ginni Rometty

There is wisdom in not letting anyone really know who you are or what you are like. If you define yourself, people hold you in their mind a certain way making it difficult to change. ~ Frederick Lenz

Labeling yourself is not only self-defeating, it is irrational. Your self cannot be equated with any one thing you do. Your life is a complex and ever-changing flow of thoughts, emotions, and actions. To put it another way, you are more like a river than a statue. Stop trying to define yourself with negative labels - they ~ David D. Burns

Most people look at their current state of affairs and they say, "This is who I am." That's not who you are. That's who you were. Let's say for instance that you don't have enough money in your bank account, or you don't have the relationship that you want, or your health and fitness aren't up to par. That's not who you are; that's the residual outcome of your past thoughts and actions. So we're constantly living in this residual, if you will, of the thoughts and actions we've taken in the past. When you look at your current state of affairs and define yourself by that, then you doom yourself to have nothing more than the same in future. ~ Rhonda Byrne

Successful candidates follow a simple fundamental rule: Define yourself before your opponent can define you. ~ Nina Easton

Trying to define yourself is like trying to bite your own teeth. ~ Alan W. Watts

You need to define yourself in the marketplace. ~ Steve Madden

You've got to find forgiveness, Florence," said Elsie. "You find it so easily in other people, why do you struggle so much to find it in yourself?"
"I'm a bad person. I'm flawed. Damaged."
"Of course you are."
I looked at him.
"We all are. Every one of us is damaged. We need the faults, the breaks, the fracture lines."
"We do?" I said.
'Of course we do. However else would all the light get in?"
I could see Elsie smiling at us.
"You can't define yourself by a single moment." Jack held my hand very tightly. I could feel him shaking. "That moment doesn't make you who you are."
"Then what does?" I said.
"Oh, Florence. Everything else," he said. "Everything else. ~ Joanna Cannon

A boy should fit into your life-not become it. High school is when you start to define yourself. Don't define yourself as the girl who has a boyfriemd and nothing else. ~ Miranda Kenneally

Don't allow circumstance to hold you back- even negative ones. You don't have to let your circumstances define you. You can define yourself, and the best way to find yourself is through education. ~ Mary Hatwood Futrell

Don't define yourself by your body .. it's the infinite being that's connected to everything in the universe. ~ Rhonda Byrne

I grew up with too much freedom. You can't define yourself. ~ Moon Unit Zappa

I started saying, 'I don't want to be crazy anymore.' I need to make some changes. And the first thing I started doing was just got all the men out of my life, because that was a big problem for me. That was a crutch, if you will. You know, trying to define yourself through other people or men, in particular. ~ Natalie Cole

If you're unable to find your face in the dictionary, then take this opportunity to define yourself. ~ Faydra D. Fields

Take the time to define yourself and define your value. If you're having a hard time doing that, ask yourself: What is something I would say to someone I love? ~ Beyonce Knowles

Define yourself.
Make your happiness flow.
Your smile show ~ Richard Allen Whisenant

As actors, we're like these vagabond artists: we have to be invited to perform, so if you don't have a choice of options, it's very hard to define yourself. ~ Joel Kinnaman

It is always easier to find your sense of value by demeaning another's value. It is easier to define yourself as 'not that,' rather than do an actual accounting of your own qualities and put them on the scale. ~ Jessa Crispin

Send out judgment and low energy and that is what you'll attract back. Remember, when you judge another, you do not define them, you define yourself as someone who needs to judge. The same applies to judgments directed at you. ~ Wayne Dyer

I remember being in high school, and you had to draw those lines and define yourself. I don't think when I was in high school I would have been willing to admit that I liked the Shins. I was into TSOL and Black Flag. I probably would have listened to the Shins secretly in my bedroom. ~ James Mercer

Don't let anyone try to tell you who you are. Define yourself. ~ David Alan Grier

Don't focus on it," she said. "Don't define yourself in terms of something which even many highly trained and gifted professionals do not fully understand. ~ Elyn R. Saks

Not that I wasn't also having fun. Ripping the Defenders' arguments to shreds and then reading all the comments agreeing passionately with me and electronically patting me on my cybershoulders was thrilling. It's so much harder to actually define yourself and work to imagine the best possible future than it is to tear down others' ideas. ~ Hank Green

You have the power to define yourself - remember that power; take that control. It's like a superpower, really, to be whom you want to be, to do what you want to do, to fly where you want to fly. Your life will get more complicated, but think of it as a great adventure, every damn day. You're going to have fun. ~ Randall Kenan

Not being offended is a way of saying, I have control over how I'm going to feel, and I choose to feel peaceful regardless of what I observe going on. When you feel offended, you're practicing judgment. You judge someone else to be stupid, insensitive, rude, arrogant, inconsiderate, or foolish, and then you find yourself upset and offended by their conduct. What you may not realize is that when you judge another person, you do not define them. You define yourself as someone who needs to judge others. ~ Wayne W. Dyer

It's more important than ever to define yourself in terms of what you stand for rather than what you make, because what you make is going to become outmoded faster than it has at any time in the past ... hang on to the idea of who you are as a company, and focus not on what you do, but on what you could do. By being really clear about what you stand for and why you exist, you can see what you could do with a much more open mind. You enhance your ability to adapt to change. ~ James C. Collins

Never accept other people's limited perceptions of you. Define yourself. You can do anything. ~ Jeanette Jenkins

Time may be defined as " dimension governed by activity." Dimension diminishes with inactivity so does the value of time. ~ Moutasem Algharati

You should never be defined by what you do, by the things you have; you've got to define yourself by who you are and who you impact and how you impact people. And that's the thing I try to get across to my players. ~ Tony Dungy

I just have to remind myself that my daily quotidie in life has almost nothing to do with any aspect of my professional life as a public figure. ~ Moby

Identity was just a box people liked to put themselves in, a mast to tether to in a storm, a security blanket. ~ Leonardo Donofrio

I come from an era, in my world, where you just had to define yourself as who you are and what you do. I happen to be an actor. I happen to be someone that loves to act, that also likes music, that also likes to speak, and that also has an opinion. ~ Idris Elba

Your impermanence is a thing you should meditate on every day: There is nothing more sobering, nor scary, nor a faster-way-to-cut-the-negative-bullshit than to remember that you do not have forever. What defines your life, when it's all said and done, is how much you influence other people's lives, oftentimes just through your daily interactions and the courage with which you live your own. That's what people remember. That's what you will be known for when you're no longer around to define yourself. ~ Brianna Wiest

Never letting the competition define you. Instead, you have to define yourself based on a point of view you care deeply about. ~ Tom Chappell

Do not define yourself by what you do. A manager? No, you are not a manager but you work as a manager. A maid? No, you are not a maid but you work as a maid. An accountant? No but you only work now as an accountant ~ Ikechukwu Joseph

Look to see what you are doing today. Is this how you choose to define yourself? Look to see what you are thinking today. Is this what you wish to create? ~ Neale Donald Walsch

Be willing to redefine yourself every day. ~ Deepak Chopra

My mother taught me something at a young age - she said 'you are the company you keep'. To define yourself by some label or some level of resources - that's pretty shallow. ~ Howard Schultz

You must make a daily effort to look upon others without condemnation. Every judgment takes you away from your goal of peace. Your ego loves your judgments, because with them you remain in a constant state of anguish and remorse. Keep in mind that you do not define anyone with your judgment; you only define yourself as someone who needs to be judged. ~ Wayne Dyer

Just as it is necessary to rob your enemies of their humanity, so you have to find a way of relinquishing responsibility for the evil you are about to commit. You must define yourself as a victim. It follows that you, in committing murder, even genocide, are merely acting in self-defence. It is the victim who is responsible. This was Hitler's constant and deeply paradoxical claim. As Jeffrey Herf points out, he and his propagandists had to maintain two completely contradictory ideas: 'one rooted in the grandiose idea of a master race and world domination, the other in the self-pitying paranoia of the innocent, beleaguered victim'.23 In general, as Vamik Volkan notes, dualists tend to combine 'paradoxical feelings of omnipotence and victimization'.24 On the one hand we are masters of the universe; on the other we are the devil's slaves. ~ Jonathan Sacks

Definition. How can she not see that when you are defined, you lose the ability to define yourself? ~ Neal Shusterman

Define yourself - not by how much you are loved, but by how much you love others. ~ Connor Chalfant

I don't like labels. I don't understand the need for them. When you define yourself a certain way, people have expectations. ~ Eddie Huang

Maybe the trick is not to define yourself as a container for your experiences, your thoughts. Maybe it's to assume you are larger than the things you have felt over a series of years, that your history is not a list of things your body has done or been present for, that your family is not people who you spent a lot of time around as a child or carry your genetic code. Maybe the trick is to push violently at your own boundaries, to find your own contradictions, and use your teeth and nails to destroy what separates you from something else.

I am trying. ~ Jessa Crispin

While others allow failure to define them, others
allow lack or abundance to define them. You cannot define yourself that way! You may have failed in the past but that is not the end of the world. You may be living in
poverty but poverty is not your destiny. Please hear me out; do not attach value to your bad life experiences. Learn from them but do not lose focus. Your focus
must be on your assignment; which is the ultimate reason for your existence. ~ D.S. Mashego

Who are you? Where are you coming from? What are your strengths and ambitions? What makes you happy and fulfilled? What are your inherent gifts and talents? Clearly define yourself. ~ Archibald Marwizi

You must begin to define yourself. You must begin to define your Black heritage. ~ H. Rap Brown

To own a certain book - and to choose it without help - is to define yourself. ~ Julian Barnes

Don't let anyone define you. You define yourself. ~ Billie Jean King

We cannot let the haters of this world define us. Or frighten us into no longer being ourselves. ~ Mary E. DeMuth

Living your life through negative feelings and memories is doing yourself a dishonour.If you want to change you need to be willing to leave your past wounds behind you. -If you wish to remain stuck in your attachment to past pains then dare to ask yourself exactly why you feel the need to define yourself by your past traumas or tragedies. ~ Miya Yamanouchi

Ultimately one must abandon the path to enlightenment. If you still define yourself as a Buddhist, you are not a buddha yet. ~ Dzongsar Jamyang Khyentse Rinpoche

You must define yourself, for no one else has the wisdom to do it for you. ~ Raymond E. Feist

There are a few things in life that occur, that you don't ask for, that are just dealt to you.
These things can define you or you can define yourself through them.
I elect to define myself through overcoming what has been dealt to me in my life.
It took thirty-one years and two generations of tweaking to get my first perfect ending.
Now I am going to work on my next one. ~ JohnA Passaro

A monopoly on the means of communication may define a ruling elite more precisely than the celebrated Marxian formula of monopoly in the means of production. ~ Robert Anton Wilson

But how to define the eroticism of a man (or an era) that sees female seductive power as centered in the middle of the body, in the navel? ~ Milan Kundera

Our minds are a lot like our rear-ends. Sometimes they are constipated, other times stricken with mental diarrhea, and occasionally a little bubbly. However, none of these and all of these conditions define our rear-ends or our personalities. Could contentment come from accepting all of our rocks, rumbles and runs? ~ Maximus Freeman

Attempting to define science fiction is an undertaking almost as difficult, though not so popular, as trying to define pornography ... In both pornography and SF, the problem lies in knowing exactly where to draw the line. ~ Arthur C. Clarke

I define vulnerability as uncertainty, risk and emotional exposure. With that definition in mind, let's think about love. Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can't ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment's notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow - that's vulnerability. ~ Brene Brown

I define love thus: The will to extend one's self for the purpose of nurturing one's own or another's spiritual growth. ~ M. Scott Peck

This is how I define grace: you're on the main stage, and it looks like it has been rehearsed 100 times, everything goes so smoothly. That's where I get my confidence and success, from knowing that I have an edge because I know I'm prepared. ~ Alex Rodriguez

Little, things, little things, are much more important than big things. Big things hit you in the face with their bigness and obscure the little, more important things that really define a life and provide it with delicacy. Page 113 ~ Lauren Roedy Vaughn

Yet entertainment
as I define it, pleasure and all
remains the only sure means we have of bridging, or at least of feeling as if we have bridged, the gulf of consciousness that separates each of us from everybody else. The best response to those who would cheapen and exploit it is not to disparage or repudiate but to reclaim entertainment as a job fit for artists and for audiences, a two-way exchange of attention, experience, and the universal hunger for connection. ~ Michael Chabon

We're compensated metaphysically with the absolute freedom to define and pursue whatever it is we believe will make our lives worthwhile- a dubious birthright that imparts a wearisome burden of its own. Rather like choosing one all-important meal from an infinite menu. ~ Chris Chester

We define a bargain issue as one which, on the basis of facts established by analysis, appears to be worth considerably more that it is selling for. ~ Benjamin Graham