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Personal Identity Quotes

Browse 73 quotes about Personal Identity.

Personal Identity Quotes

“James Baldwin is one of the greatest, North American writers of the second half of the Twentieth Century. A prolific writer and a brilliant social critic, he foreshadowed the destructive trends happening now in the whole Western world and beyond, while always maintaining a sense of humanistic hope and dignity. He explored palpable, yet unspoken, intricacies of racial, sexual, and class distinctions in Western societies and the inevitable, if unnameable, tensions with personal identity, assumptions, uncertainties, yearning, and questing.”

IfsWorldWholeSocialHalfClassCenturyIdentityHappeningsDignityCriticsWesternBrilliantInevitableUncertaintyTensionAssumptionDistinctionDestructiveTrendsYearningMaintainingTwentieth CenturyUnspokenWestern WorldAmerican WriterHumanisticIntricacyPersonal IdentityWestern SocietyClass Distinction
Author:Raoul Peck
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“There's that older poem of John Ashbery's-"America"-with the pun "I'm a wrecker," so wreckage and building out of the ashes of that. We're haunted by the genocide that is America, the decimation of so many native cultures. As a mix-blood European ancestry American, you're a nexus of all those violences, and yet there's a relative personal identity as well.”

WellsAmericaCultureViolenceBloodIdentityBuildingNativeGenocideRelativeAshesAncestryPunWreckagePersonal IdentityNexus
Author:Anne Waldman
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“Winning or losing an argument, receiving an acceptance or rejection, is no proof of the validity or value of personal identity. One may be wrong, mistaken, or a poor craftsman, or just ignorant - but this is no indication of the true worth of one's total human identity: past, present and future!”

HumansMayPastValuesWinningPoorIdentityAcceptanceLosingArgumentProofIgnorantRejectionReceivingMistakenIndicationValidityWin Or LosePast PresentPast Present And FutureCraftsmanPersonal IdentityTrue Worth
Book:The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath
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“After all, what is your personal identity? It is what you really are, your real self. None of us is what he thinks he is, or what other people think he is, still less what his passport says he is. And it is fortunate for most of us that we are mistaken. We do not generally know what is good for us. That is because, in St. Bernard's language, our true personality has been concealed under the 'disguise' of a false self, the ego, whom we tend to worship in place of God.”

PeopleThinkingKnowsHas BeensStillsRealSelfLanguageIdentityPersonalityEgoWorshipFortunateDisguiseMistakenConcealedPassportsReal SelfPersonal Identity
Author:Thomas Merton
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“Wendy Doniger has spent decades collecting not only myths from ancient texts but stories of all kinds from novels, movies, newspapers about an old mystery: what has or hasn't happened in bed for centuries. Rich in insights about sex, lies, and personal identity, the result is entertaining, enthralling, and, yes, sexy.”

KindStoriesLyingSexResultsNovelRichHappenedMysteryCenturyIdentityBedAncientSexyInsightMythDecadesNewspapersAll KindsEntertainingCollectingWendyPersonal Identity
Author:Roberto Calasso
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“Writing is an act of hope. It means carving order out of chaos, of challenging one's own beliefs and assumptions, of facing the world with eyes and heart wide open. Through writing we declare a personal identity amid faceless anonymity. We find purpose and beauty and meaning even when the rational mind argues that none of these exist. Writing therefore, is also an act of courage. How much easier is it to lead an unexamined life than to confront yourself on the page?”

WorldWritingMindHeartMeanEyePurposeOrderBeliefChallengesIdentityEasierPagesChaosWideArguingRationalAssumptionAnonymityCarvingPersonal IdentityActs Of CourageFacelessUnexamined Life
Author:Jack Heffron
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“The emptiness I speak about is not the emptiness the mind imagines. It is not blank. Your body can continue expressing in a natural way. Intelligence is there. Emotions can come. Everything can play, but inside there is total serenity and peace. No planning, no strategising, no personal identity is there. Just the space of pure being. It is what we are, but we dream and believe we are not.”

WayMindBelievePlayDreamBodySpeakNaturalSpaceEmotionImagineIdentityPureYour BodyPlanningEmptinessSerenityBlankPersonal Identity
Author:Mooji
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“Community cannot take root in a divided life. Long before community assumes external shape and form, it must be present as seed in the undivided self: only as we are in communion with ourselves can we find community with others. Community is an outward and visible sign of an inward and invisible grace, the flowing of personal identity and integrity into the world of relationships.”

WorldLongSelfFormCommunityGraceIdentityIntegrityShapesRootsAssumingSeedsInvisibleVisibleDividedInwardCommunionLong LifePersonal Identity
Book:The Courage to Teach: Exploring the Inner Landscape of a Teacher's Life
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