The Quotes canon
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Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Browse all 10,075 quotes or apply filters in different categories to narrow your search.
Coming of age story2 quotes
I wanted only to live in accord with the promptings which came from my true self. Why was that so very difficult? — Hermann Hesse · 1919No man has ever been entirely and completely himself. Yet each one strives to become that-one in an awkward, the other in a more intelligent way, each as best he can. — Hermann Hesse · 1919Modernist literature2 quotes
I will tell you what I will do and what I will not do. I will not serve that in which I no longer believe, whether it call itself my home, my fatherland, or my church: and I will try to express myself in some mode of life or art as freely as I can and as wholly as I can, using for my defence the only arms I allow myself to use—silence, exile and cunning. — James Joyce · 1915When the soul of a man is born in this country there are nets flung at it to hold it back from flight. You talk to me of nationality, language, religion. I shall try to fly by those nets. — James Joyce · 1915Political literature2 quotes
Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is. — Albert Camus · 1951The true artist is a man who believes absolutely in himself, because he is absolutely himself. — Oscar Wilde · 1891Road movie2 quotes
Talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. — George Hanson · 1969You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. I'm an easy target. Yeah, you're right. I talk too much. I also listen too much. I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you, but I don't like to hurt people's feelings. Well, you think what you want about me. I'm not changing. I like me. My wife likes me. My customers like me. 'Cause I'm the real article. What you see is what you get. — Del Griffith · 1987Animation1 quote
Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not. — Gobber · 2010Animation (film)1 quote
Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not. — Gobber · 2010Comedy1 quote
You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. I'm an easy target. Yeah, you're right. I talk too much. I also listen too much. I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you, but I don't like to hurt people's feelings. Well, you think what you want about me. I'm not changing. I like me. My wife likes me. My customers like me. 'Cause I'm the real article. What you see is what you get. — Del Griffith · 1987Comedy (film)1 quote
You wanna hurt me? Go right ahead if it makes you feel any better. I'm an easy target. Yeah, you're right. I talk too much. I also listen too much. I could be a cold-hearted cynic like you, but I don't like to hurt people's feelings. Well, you think what you want about me. I'm not changing. I like me. My wife likes me. My customers like me. 'Cause I'm the real article. What you see is what you get. — Del Griffith · 1987Comedy drama1 quote
Honey, all you have to be by the time you're 23 is yourself. — Troy Dyer · 1994Comedy drama (film)1 quote
Honey, all you have to be by the time you're 23 is yourself. — Troy Dyer · 1994Drama1 quote
Talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. — George Hanson · 1969Drama (film)1 quote
Talkin' about it and bein' it, that's two different things. — George Hanson · 1969Fantasy1 quote
Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not. — Gobber · 2010Fantasy (film)1 quote
Look, the point is, stop trying so hard to be something you're not. — Gobber · 2010Feminist literature1 quote
It is easier to live through someone else than to become complete yourself. — Betty Friedan · 1963Philosophical literature1 quote
A lily or a rose never pretends, and its beauty is that it is what it is. — Jiddu Krishnamurti · 1970Romantic comedy1 quote
Honey, all you have to be by the time you're 23 is yourself. — Troy Dyer · 1994Romantic comedy (film)1 quote
Honey, all you have to be by the time you're 23 is yourself. — Troy Dyer · 1994Tragedy (play)1 quote
This above all: to thine own self be true,
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man. — William Shakespeare · 1616Travel writing1 quote
To be what we are, and to become what we are capable of becoming, is the only end of life. — Robert Louis Stevenson · 1882