Who I Was Quotes

I had no idea who I was. Neither did I know that I was living inside the world of dreams and illusions ~ Susanna Eun

When I stopped viewing girls as potential girlfriends and started treating them as sisters in Christ, I discovered the richness of true friendship. When I stopped worrying about who I was going to marry and began to trust God's timing, I uncovered the incredible potential of serving God as a single. . . .

I believe the time has come for Christians, male and female, to own up to the mess we've left behind in our selfish pursuit of short-term romance. Dating may seem an innocent game, but as I see it, we are sinning against each other. What excuse will we have when God asks us to account for our actions and attitudes in relationships? If God sees a sparrow fall (Matthew 10:29), do you think He could possibly overlook the broken hearts and scarred emotions we cause in relationships based on selfishness?

Everyone around us may be playing the dating game. But at the end of our lives, we won't answer to everyone. We'll answer to God. . . .

Long before Seventeen magazine ever gave teenagers tips on dating, people did things very differently.

At the turn of the twentieth century, a guy and girl became romantically involved only if they planned to marry. If a young man spent time at a girl's home, family and friends assumed that he intended to propose to her. But shifting attitudes in culture and the arrival of the automobile brought radical changes. The new "rules" allowed people to indulge in all the thrills of romantic love without having ~ Joshua Harris

I am for who i was in the beginning but now is present and i exist in the future. ~ Frank McCourt

I was alive in the past, and I'm alive now, sitting here talking to you. But what you see here isn't really me. This is just a shadow of who I was. You are really living. But I'm not. Even these words I'm saying right now sound empty, like an echo. ~ Haruki Murakami

My biggest problem in middle school was catty girls, cliques, and trying to figure out if I wanted to be a part of one of those, just figuring out who I was and all that. ~ Lindsey Shaw

I feel I'm better now than I ever have been. You learn so much as you're doing it. I'm watching tapes and I'll see things that get me annoyed and where I know I can improve. I understand better letting the crowd play more. I've always said it was important for me who I was working with, because I like to kid around a lot. But I've also learned to use my partner better. I'm feeling good. There's no reason to stop. ~ Marv Albert

It was surreal to think the Queen of England not only knew who I was but thought enough of what I do to give me an award. ~ Henry Winkler

I thought being faithful was about becoming someone other than who I was ... it wasn't until I failed that I began to wonder if my human wholeness might be more useful to God than my exhausting goodness. ~ Barbara Brown Taylor

Especially when you play a character for so many years, the character ends up reflecting a lot of who you are and I think I've changed a lot since then, but that represented a lot of who I was as a teenager. ~ Sara Gilbert

I wish for that time back. All that time that was supposed to be about discovering the world and who I was became wasted on making myself smaller and smaller. Imagine if we all stopped expending so much energy on trying to change our bodies. We could do anything we dreamed of. We could get shit done. ~ Megan Jayne Crabbe

He knew who I was, at that time, because I had a reputation as a writer. I knew he was part of the Bush dynasty. But he was nothing, he offered nothing, and he promised nothing. He had no humor. He was insignificant in every way and consequently I didn't pay much attention to him. But when he passed out in my bathtub, then I noticed him. I'd been in another room, talking to the bright people. I had to have him taken away. ~ Hunter S. Thompson

Probably Lloyd in 'Say Anything' is the closest to me - or to who I was at the time. It was just a great love story about people in the '80s, and we all tried to make it feel as real as possible. It was such a wonderful time. We didn't leave anything in the gym; we put it all out there. ~ John Cusack

I just don't see the point in beating myself up. I think it's more productive to concentrate on being a better person right now than punishing myself for who I was in the past. ~ Megan McCafferty

I want to see the king," I said, after explaining who I was.
"Wonderful," said the ancient Nkumai who sat on a cushion near the corner pole of the house. "I'm glad for you."
That was all, and apparently he meant to say no more. "Why are you so glad?" I asked.
"Because it's good for every human being to have an unfulfilled wish. It makes all of life so poignant. ~ Orson Scott Card

You needn't instruct me to think about my children's welfare," Phoebe said quietly. "I've always put them first, and always will. As for me being a child... I'm afraid I'm not nearly enough like one." A faint smile touched her lips. "Children are optimistic. They have a natural sense of adventure. To them, the world has no limitations, only possibilities. Henry was always a bit childlike in that way- he never became disenchanted with life. That was what I loved most about him."
"If you loved Henry, you will honor his wishes. He wanted Edward to have charge of his family and estate."
"Henry wanted to make sure our future would be in capable hands. But it already is."
"Yes. Edward's."
"No, mine. I'll learn everything I need to know about managing this estate. I'll hire people to help me if necessary. I'll have this place thriving. I don't need a husband to do it for me. If I marry again, it will be to a man of my choosing, in my own time. I can't promise it will be Edward. I've changed during the past two years, but so far, he doesn't see me for who I am, only who I was. For that matter, he doesn't see how the world has changed- he ignores the realities he doesn't like. How can I trust him with our future?"
Georgiana regarded her bitterly. "Edward is not the one who is ignoring reality. How can you imagine yourself capable of running this estate?"
"Why wouldn't I be?"
"Women aren't capable of leadership. Our intelligence is no less than men's, ~ Lisa Kleypas

I knew who I was. I was a celebrity without talent. I was an heiress. I was a whore. I was a party waiting to happen. I was an addict. I was his, and in that last definition - that I was owned by Deacon I knew my place in the chaos. ~ C.D. Reiss

I'd spent so long trying to fit in,trying to be someone i wasn't,that i had no idea who i was any more. ~ Dorothy Koomson

The only time it got really crazy was during 'Batman.' Anywhere I went in the world, people knew who I was. I was being offered these huge films that would have taken my career to a different level, and I decided to put on the brakes. I knew if I continued on that track, I probably wouldn't have gotten married. ~ Chris O'Donnell

I've learned a lot from being a chameleon, sort of adopting the musical personalities of who I was playing with. ~ Jeremy Denk

The girl. Was that who I was? I was the girl just like they were the boys. Was that how we were going to address each other for the entirety of this year? How family-feeling. ~ Natalie Bina

I just wanted to be who I was, which was like so many other girls I knew. We grew up in the city, had a hard edge and obstacles to overcome, but we were still young and beautiful. I didn't want to be all dressed up, all made up - I wanted to be myself, which hadn't been done before. ~ Alicia Keys

For some of us, the Gypsy years can go on forever ... That isn't such a bad thing. When all is said and done, they're a lot of fun. The truth is, I liked being a Gypsy. It's who I was. And it's still a lot of who I am. Gypsy, it's a good word. ~ Chita Rivera

I became a mother before becoming sick, but i never expected sickness to take away my independent mothering, so i plant trees to sooth my soul from the aching pains of losing the maternal ability to mother another child. My first born will be my only treasure, the one who knew who i was before the mess entered our lives and also the one who adapted with me to a reality we weren't certain of oh and lots of plants and plants and plants. ~ Nikki Rowe

On this walk I'd had so much time and space to actually figure out who I was without my mother's influence. I understood now: the things that my mother had found made her happy were not the same as the things that made me happy. And I understood: that was okay. ~ Aspen Matis

Everything has changed since I met you. I thought I knew who I was, what I was, but being with you, I've learned about the kind of man I want to be. ~ Jane Harvey-Berrick

Who I was ad who I had beed disconnected, leaving me stranded somewhere in the middle. ~ Alexandra Bracken

I think we function better mentally, emotionally, and physically when we take care of our bodies with nourishment, water, and exercise. The lie I used to believe was that my weight would define me, that it would speak volumes about who I was as a person. Today I believe it's not your weight that defines you, but the care and consideration you put into your body absolutely does. ~ Rachel Hollis

I remember a very nurturing, safe environment: everybody knew who I was, who my parents were, who my grandparents were, what part of Russia we were from originally. That was a really comforting feeling. Non-Mennonites, when they see that aspect of it, think it's a beautiful thing, and it is, but there's so much going on besides. ~ Miriam Toews

Pieces of who I was
shattered
reassembled
into who I am;
Shards shaping into prisms
casting arcs of soul-fire
into who I will be;
I am a kaleidoscope
of all the versions
of myself
I was
and am
and will become. ~ L.R. Knost

Maybe it was more about finding who I was in relation to the Simulacrum-to the blood inside of me- and less about finding myself in relation to who I wanted to be. Maybe I had gotten those two things mixed up along the way ~ Julia J. Gibbs

For so long, it was just my secret. It burned inside me, and I felt like I was carrying something important, something that made me who I was and made me different from everybody else. I took it with me everywhere, and there was never a moment when I wasn't aware of it. It was like I was totally awake, like I could feel every nerve ending in my body. Sometimes my skin would almost hurt from the force of it, that's how strong it was. Like my whole body was buzzing or something. I felt almost, I don't know, noble, like a medieval knight or something, carrying this secret love around with me. ~ Carolyn Parkhurst

But I know that I am not who I was supposed to be, who I could have been, and I know it's because I was too afraid for too long. It made me think about things I never should have. ~ Nancy Werlin

Work hard to become the best you, because you are worth it, and you do matter! God designed you to be yourself, not anyone else! I want to encourage you to let go of what other people think of you, and focus on the beauty of who you are.

When I finally let go of trying to be who I thought everyone else wanted me to be, and became the person who I was designed to be, I found freedom. I am still a working progress, but I am content! ~ Arik Hoover

People always want to talk about who I was, but I've always been singing, always been experimenting with pop music. ~ Nicki Minaj

Does your height bother you?" he asked softly. "I was teased a lot as a kid," I admitted. "I felt a bit like a freak in high school, but over time, I learned to appreciate it, you know? I simply stopped listening to what others thought about me, and I found that I really liked who I was, what I was. I might not be the most desirable - " "That's ~ Kelli Jean

I went home one afternoon to pick up a script without bothering to change, and a half an hour later the Beverly Hills Police were at my door because a neighbor had reported a suspicious stranger lurking around Ross Martin's house. I had to peel off my beard to prove who I was. ~ Ross Martin

I don't know who I am or who I was. I know it less than ever. I do and I don't identify myself with myself. Everything is totally contradictory, but maybe I have remained exactly as I was as a small boy of twelve. ~ Alberto Giacometti

The rage was a good feeling, stronger and purer than the shame that followed, the fear and the sudden urge to run and hide, to deny, to pretend I did not know who I was and what the world would do to me. ~ Dorothy Allison

This is exactly who I was meant to be. ~ Jeannine Garsee

I was overwhelmed when people started to know who I was. ~ Katie Stevens

The giant deer took a leap to the downhill side, and then high-stepped around and past me, walking, not running, as if having known all along what decision I would make during this most perfect of days in one of the most perfect seasons, and situated perfectly and halfway between who I used to be and who I was on my way to becoming. ~ Anthony Licata

My most important inspirational job that I do is raising those kids. That's my job. And that's where my ambition goes. But I have a life. I'm not only their mother. I'm still who I was before, I just don't get to be it all the time. ~ Pat Benatar

My parents would frisk me before family events. Before weddings, funerals, bar mitzvahs, and what have you. Because if they didn't, then the book would be hidden inside some pocket or other and as soon as whatever it was got under way I'd be found in a corner. That was who I was ... that was what I did. I was the kid with the book. ~ Neil Gaiman

I get random meetings, like, 'Ron Howard would like to sit down with you.' 'Really?' If 'Breaking Bad' hadn't happened, Ron Howard probably wouldn't want to sit down with me. Because he would have no idea who I was. ~ Aaron Paul

I don't do well without you," he said. "Who I was before
I never want to be that person again. But I told you when I took you away from here that when everything was over, it would be your choice. You would get to choose where you wanted to go and who you wanted to be. ~ Alexandra Bracken

I'd got very successful, everyone knew who I was, but I felt very empty. ~ Boy George

To me, summer has always been about potential. This was especially true when I was in high school. Those 3 or so months between 1 school year and the next always meant change. People got taller or wider or smaller. They broke up or came together, lost friends or gained them, had life experiences that you could tell had transformed them even if you didn't know what they were. In the summer, the days were long, stretching into each other. Out of school, everything was on pause and yet happening at the same time, this collection of weeks when anything was possible. As a teenager, I was always hoping to change, to become someone other than who I was. Each summer, I felt I had the chance to do that. All I had to do was wait and see what happened. ~ Sarah Dessen

In whatever we do, we should be investing in ourselves and not our jobs. Everything I have ever pursued has been for the sole goal of who I was becoming in its achievement. I competed and fought because of the man I became. This is the only worthwhile victory. You cannot take the trophies with you. ~ Chris Matakas

I knew Henry Fonda was my father, but I didn't know who I was. They all thought of me as Henry Fonda's son. Unfortunately for them, they never got to know me. ~ Peter Fonda

I was unfashionable before anyone knew who I was. ~ Paul Desmond

We are a very close family, and I love them very much, but I'm definitely the odd one out. I live a completely different kind of life style. I always was different. I felt like a fish out of water; I really never knew who I was. ~ Janet McTeer

Good diet and exercise are key, but abject fear has its own rewards. And arriving on the first day for rehearsals for 'Spamalot' and seeing all these much younger, much fitter people, who I was going to be on stage with, became a catalyst for cutting out the more unhealthy aspects of my life. ~ Sanjeev Bhaskar

At a time when most of my peers were struggling to find an identity, I knew exactly who I was: the church girl, the girl who always had a place in her youth group family, the girl on fire for God. I'm not sure I can ever calculate the value of that community, that sense of belonging and of being loved. It never even occurred to me that such a fire could be washed out. ~ Rachel Held Evans

When I was a teenager, I was trying to please people. I kept changing who I was to please the people I was with. And so once I just decided I wasn't going to do that anymore. I was going to live my life to please God. And so from that day to this, that's been my aim. Some people don't understand, but you can't please everybody anyway. ~ Anne Graham Lotz

The Minnesota Republican hierarchy didn't want me to run against their incumbent in 2000; they didn't know who I was. And once many party bigwigs did get to know me, they weren't sure that I could win the seat. ~ Michele Bachmann

Just when I thought I had things under control, the reality of who I was smacked me squarely in the face. Being nuts was no fun let me tell you. I was a far cry from being the lovable eccentric. The wacky dude who mumbled to himself and wore his pants inside out. Nope, my kind of nuts was scary and consuming. ~ A Meredith Walters

I knew in that moment that I was full of it. I didn't know who I was. I only knew my routine. I knew who I was suppose to be, who I was expected to be. ~ Stacie Hammond

I spent a good deal of time going back over my childhood, my midlife, to try to understand who I was. We're supposed to be complete and whole, and you can't be whole if you're trying to be perfect. Doing a life review helped me get over the disease to please. ~ Jane Fonda

One of things I like about looking at pictures when you're young and also meeting back with old friends you haven't seen in a long time is, for me, it's a glimpse of who I was. ~ Lea Thompson

This was me, the real me, and Spider was the only person ever to have found me, to see me for who I was. And I saw him too. ~ Rachel Ward

I feel very vulnerable when it has to do with family. Having lost my mom, who I was so extremely close to, now I feel so vulnerable when somebody gets sick or hurt. I become a complete wreck until they're well. Even if it's a cold! I compare myself to Marlin in Finding Nemo. ~ Nancy O'Dell

A bouquet of wonderful scents met my nose, and my heart leaped when I realized who I was smelling.
'Molly!' I heard someone call.
I whipped my head around everywhere and there they were, the people I'd been smelling. Everyone I'd ever loved in my life, standing at the edge of the water, smiling and clapping. I saw Ethan and Hannah and Trent and CJ standing in front, along with Andi and Maya and Jakob and all the others.
'Bailey!' Ethan yelled waving.
My names was Toby, and Buddy, and Molly and Max and Bailey and Ellie. I was a good dog, and this was my reward. Now I would get to be with the people I loved.
I turned, whimpering with you, and swam toward those golden shores. ~ W. Bruce Cameron

I realized much later in life that the reason this decision between MIT and IBM was so agonizing was because it wasn't really about choosing a career; it was about deciding who I was, which part of myself I wanted to be, and that's the hardest decision any of us has to make. ~ Mike Massimino

I was so ashamed of who I was. ~ Lady Gaga

They knew who I was in Australia in 2006, but not to a great extent. Now, with the momentum of a second World Cup, it has gone crazy. ~ Timothy F. Cahill

It was a wild indulgent slope we had cascaded down, and I didn't care. For once in my life, I didn't care about tomorrow. I didn't care if I starved or died. I feasted on the now, and I didn't let myself think about who he was or who I was, only who we were right now in this moment and how he made me feel on this patch of earth, in this patch of shade. In this strange upside-down world, ignoring tomorrow seemed as natural and expected as breathing. ~ Mary E. Pearson

This is important: he sees me in a certain way, a way he will never deviate from. In the end, love was only possible because he saw me not as who I was, but as the person I would become. ~ Philippe Besson

The past defines us as much as the present. By never knowing my past, I was never sure of who I was. Because mine was missing, I never felt whole. ~ Arlene J. Chai

I was really selfish, and I didn't want to listen to anyone. Then I started working with some really amazing people, traveling more, and figuring out who I was as a person - looking at different things, listening to different music. ~ Charli XCX

The earlier, more analytic impulse was to use very rational but kind of absurd techniques or tendencies - mapping, charting, and architecture - to try and make sense of who I was in my time and space and political environment. But there's only so much truth to a theoretical understanding of something. ~ Julie Mehretu

I ask myself how I could give in to this perpetual vertigo that I in fact provoked and feared. I floated among erratic clouds and talked to myself in front of the mirror in the vain hope of confirming who I was. My delirium was so great that during a student demonstration complete with rocks and bottles, I had to make an enormous effort not to lead it as I held up a sign that would sanctify my truth: I am mad with love. ~ Gabriel Garcia Marquez

In a way it was like a bunch of guys in a game. They were falling behind every minute that passed, but they had lost interest in the score. It was as if they were just a ton behind and had given up on the win. And maybe deep inside they didn't want to peep the score, maybe they knew what was happening but just didn't want to think about it anymore. I could understand that. I had played enough ball in my life, and was deep enough into my game to know I had to be in the hunt for a win or I could lose who I was. And once I lost who I was, my inner me, then all the CDs and all the iPods and all the bling in the world wasn't going to make it right.
The strange thing was that everybody was feeling the same thing, that there was a huge game going on, and that the game was going to decide who was a winner and who lost. But so many of the brothers on the corner didn't have a play...I could feel for them because they were just like me in most ways, thinking that everybody should have a number, everybody should have the same playing time, and knowing it wasn't going to happen. ~ Walter Dean Myers

A life without pain: it was the very thing I had dreamed of for years, but now that I had it, I couldn't find a place for myself within it. A clear gap separated me from it, and this caused me great confusion. I felt as if I were not anchored to this world - this world that I had hated so passionately until then; this world that I had continued to revile for its unfairness and injustice; this world where at least I knew who I was. Now the world ceased to be the world, and I had ceased to be me. ~ Haruki Murakami

I had no idea the amount of people who even knew who I was. Suddenly, they were coming up and saying, "You're my favorite artist." Very surreal. After years of trying to get work, and then coming here and being able to meet some of the fans of Array. ~ Eric Wight

When I went to Japan I sang in Japanese; when I went to Greece I sang in Greek. When I went to Spain, I sang in Spanish. I couldn't speak it very well, but I sang, I was beautiful in singing it. These things just constantly attracted people to the uniqueness of who I was and the way in which I performed. ~ Harry Belafonte

I find I have to walk a little faster in public these days, but it's very easy to remember when nobody had any idea who I was. ~ John Lithgow

I'm always changing. I still have the same morals and values and foundation of who I was, growing up in Jacksonville, FL, but I'm such a different person from who I was when I was 17. You live and you learn and you grow. ~ Ashley Greene

Nobody in this building asked to be born. You didn't ask to be you, bro. I didn't ask to be me. I didn't ask to have this skin. I didn't ask to be who I was, bro. Nobody in here asked that ... You didn't ask for that. You didn't ask to live where you live or anything. So when you see people, forgive them and accept, you feel me? You gotta open your mind and say, man, nobody asked to be born. Life is hard, kinda. ~ Brandon McCartney

Dear Q,

Hell of a thing getting you out of that dungeon. Richard showed up, finally, for which I suppose we should be grateful, though G-d knows he doesn't make it easy.

We wanted to stay, Q, but it was hard, and getting harder every day. The centaurs said it wasn't working. But if you're reading this then you woke up after all. I'm sorry about everything. I know you are too. I know I said I didn't need a family to become who I was supposed to be, but it turned out that I did. And it was you.

We'll meet again.

-E ~ Lev Grossman

I've always wanted to write about the other side of the tracks, the have-nots, maybe because that's who I was. ~ Matt De La Pena

The image I'd had of myself as a child was someone I'd never be, and it was only recently that I realized it was okay to be who I was. - Cat ~ Jeaniene Frost

I had to get really clear about what was meaningful & what wasn't, who I was & who I wasn't & who I wasn't going to be anymore. ~ Iyanla Vanzant

You talk about crying! The spring of 1988, I spent a fair length of time trying to come to grips with who I was and the habits I had and what they did to people that I truly loved. I really spent a period of time where, I suspect, I cried three or four times a week. ~ Newt Gingrich

No, just as my abused generation was divided before birth, so was I divided on birth, delivered into a postpartum world where hardly anyone accepted me for who I was, but only ever bullied me into choosing between my two sides. This was not simply hard to do no, it was truly impossible, for how I choose me againse myself? ~ Viet Thanh Nguyen

Like anyone cared where I was, or who I was. ~ Julie Anne Peters

At 50, I began to know who I was. It was like waking up to myself. ~ Maya Angelou

If I tried to flirt with a woman and she didn't know who I was, she would run away. ~ Larry David

It was a very vulnerable time going from being insecure about my body and who I am to becoming comfortable with me. I had to tune out what the hell everybody else had to say about who I was. When I was able to do that, I felt free. ~ Queen Latifah

I want to try to be who I am today, not who I was yesterday. ~ Ben Harper

All this time I had never been able to consider my own situation, nor could I do so yet. I had not the power to attend to it. I was greatly dejected and distressed, but in an incoherent wholesale sort of way. As to forming any plan for the future, I could as soon have formed an elephant. When I opened the shutters and looked out at the wet wild morning, all of a leaden hue; when I walked from room to room; when I sat down again shivering, before the fire, waiting for my laundress to appear; I thought how miserable I was, but hardly knew why, or how long I had been so, or on what day of the week I made the reflection, or even who I was that made it. ~ Charles Dickens

Who am I? Or possibly, who AM I? Make it who I WAS, because once I was somebody. ~ Dorothy Baker

I couldn't resist. I went over and joined in, and we just sang the song together, ... They had no idea that I had written it, or who I was. I was just some weird guy who wanted to join in on the singing. ~ Neil Diamond

I'm happy with who I am inside. I'd hate to have accolades and all that and not really be happy with who I was. So I'm really thankful for my family and for the support system that I have for being the person that I am today. I'm proud of who I am. ~ Keke Palmer

I love the press; I even like the people that don't like me. If it wasn't for those people, no one would know who I was and I wouldn't have a gig. ~ Criss Angel

I don't feed on humans. It's a choice I made years ago. I'm only weaker physically. The urge is still there. I didn't like who I was. Things I did, people I hurt. The part of you that feels remorse fades, it's easy to give in to. If I don't allow myself to feel remorse, or the pain of hurting somebody else, then I don't deserve to feel anything. ~ L.J.Smith

The Layers

I have walked through many lives,
some of them my own,
and I am not who I was,
though some principle of being
abides, from which I struggle
not to stray.
When I look behind,
as I am compelled to look
before I can gather strength
to proceed on my journey,
I see the milestones dwindling
toward the horizon
and the slow fires trailing
from the abandoned camp-sites,
over which scavenger angels
wheel on heavy wings.
Oh, I have made myself a tribe
out of my true affections,
and my tribe is scattered!
How shall the heart be reconciled
to its feast of losses?
In a rising wind
the manic dust of my friends,
those who fell along the way,
bitterly stings my face.
Yet I turn, I turn,
exulting somewhat,
with my will intact to go
wherever I need to go,
and every stone on the road
precious to me.
In my darkest night,
when the moon was covered
and I roamed through wreckage,
a nimbus-clouded voice
directed me:
"Live in the layers,
not on the litter."
Though I lack the art
to decipher it,
no doubt the next chapter
in my book of transformations
is already written.
I am not done with my changes. ~ Stanley Kunitz

People usually spend the first two months playing themselves up, not really being themselves. You waste those two months - and then they tell you, 'You're not who I was dating the first month!' ~ Manny Montana

I'd keep my eyes open, remember who I was, and go in swinging ~ Patrick Ness

I am not who I was,' he whispered, gripping the edges of the column, 'but I know who I am.' ...
'And I won't give up. ~ Christopher Paolini

When I retired from the NFL, no one knew who I was, and I had to start all over. I ended up doing security in L.A., and I was just on movie sets and watching. ~ Terry Crews