Adoption is outside. You act out what it feels like to be the one who doesn't belong. And you act it out by trying to do to others what has been done to you. It is impossible to believe anyone loves you for yourself. I never believed that my parents loved me. I tried to love them, but it didn't work. It has taken me a long time to learn how to love - both the giving and the receiving. I have written about love obsessively, forensically, and I know/knew it as the highest value. I loved God of course, in the early days, and God loved me. That was something. And I loved animals and nature. And poetry. People were the problem. How do you love another person? How do you trust another person to love you? I had no idea. I thought that love was loss. Why is the measure of love loss?

— Jeanette Winterson

After sounding a lot like other people in my decades of past I have found my own voice when I realized I needed Christ and in so doing I am becoming just like Him as time marches on.

— John M Sheehan

A girl who truly knows herself is a girl that everybody else wants to know.

— Mandy Hale

Always be you! Just never think you can always be you without consequence.

— Darnell Lamont Walker

An amazing thing happens when you stop seeking approval and validation: You find it. People are naturally drawn like magnets to those who know who they are and cannot be shaken!

— Mandy Hale

And anyone will tell you that's the whole point. You want to meet someone who likes the same things you do, and who likes you most when you're most being yourself.

— B.J. Novak

Anybody who is imitating somebody else, no matter who it us, is heading in the wrong direction. It is impossible to become like somebody else. Your only hope is to become more fully yourself.

— Jon Kabat-Zinn

A person may learn things all their life, but never gain knowledge of truth.

— Amaka Imani Nkosazana

A person who is truly cool is a work of art. And remember, original works of art cost exponentially higher than imitations. Just take a look at the coolest people in history. They will always be a part of history for being extremely original individuals, not imitations.

— Suzy Kassem

Authenticity is about what makes you, you. It is an expression of your banners.

— Azim Jamal & Brian Tracy