By Maxime Lagacé 
Maxime is the founder and chief editor of WisdomQuotes. He has been collecting quotes since 2004. His goal? To help you develop a calm, peaceful and powerful mind. Learn more about him on his about page.
Here are 100 of the best quotes about being yourself.
And remember:
being different and unique may seem scary at first but it can be your greatest source of strength.
You’ll discover quotes by Thoreau, Lao Tzu, Rumi, and more.
Enjoy!
Never apologize for being yourself. Paulo Coelho
Be yourself. Everyone else is taken. Oscar Wilde
When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you. Lao Tzu (Tao Te Ching)
The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you but yourself. Rita Mae Brown
Existence wants you to be you. Osho
It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for what you are not. André Gide
Some people around you will not understand your journey. They don’t need to; it’s not for them. Paulo Coelho
You must not be afraid of your uniqueness and you must care less and less what people think of you. Robert Greene
No one ever made a difference by being like everyone else. Buckminster Fuller
We are the ones we have been waiting for. Alice Walker
When someone is properly grounded in life, they shouldn’t have to look outside themselves for approval. Epictetus
Don’t believe you have to be like anybody to be somebody. Nike
Don’t let other people decide who you are. Bob Goff
He who obeys, does not listen to himself. Friedrich Nietzsche (Thus Spoke Zarathustra)
You change the world by being yourself. Yoko Ono
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The Best Be Yourself Quotes
If you desire to make a difference in the world, you must be different from the world. Elaine S. Dalton
What is the seal of liberation? No longer being ashamed in front of oneself. Friedrich Nietzsche
Don’t chase people. Be yourself, do your own thing and work hard. The right people – the ones who really belong in your life – will come to you, and stay. Will Smith
You are what you believe yourself to be. Paulo Coelho (Source)
A dead thing can go with the stream, but only a living thing can go against it. G.K. Chesterton (The Everlasting Man)
Be in the world, but don’t let the world be in you. Love, and yet don’t be lost in it. Relate, and yet be alone, utterly alone. Know perfectly well that all relationship is a game: play the game and play it as beautifully as possible and as skillfully as possible. Osho
Every man who says frankly and fully what he thinks is so far doing a public service. We should be grateful to him for attacking most unsparingly our most cherished opinions. John Stuart Mill
The world just wants your authentic truth. Gabby Bernstein
There’s a point, around the age of twenty, when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities. Ursula K. Le Guin (The Dispossessed)
When you see a mob doing something, it should make you less likely to do it yourself, not more likely. Paul Graham
Can you remember who you were, before the world told you who you should be? Charles Bukowski
You, being yourself, unknowingly inspire others to be themselves. Mooji
The imitator dooms himself to hopeless mediocrity. Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you don’t say what you think then you kill your unborn self. Jordan B. Peterson
The most important consequence of self-sufficiency is freedom. Epicurus
Even if one is neither vain nor self-obsessed, it is so extraordinary to be oneself – exactly oneself and no one else. Simone de Beauvoir
To exist is to change, to change is to mature, to mature is to go on creating oneself endlessly. Henri Bergson
Do not live to satisfy the expectations of others. Ichiro Kishimi (The Courage to Be Disliked)
Be nobody’s darling; Be an outcast. Take the contradictions of your life and wrap around you like a shawl, to parry stones, to keep you warm. Alice Walker
Large groups are no place for smart people. Naval Ravikant
Just stick to your principles. And rest assured that, if you remain true to them, the same people who made fun of you will come to admire you. Epictetus
A rebel is the one who lives totally according to his own light and risks everything else for his ultimate value of freedom. Osho
Part 2. Be Yourself Quotes That Are…
The Most Famous Be Yourself Quotes
Searching for a famous be yourself quote? Check out those by JFK, Gandhi, Emerson, Thoreau, etc.
The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud. Coco Chanel
Whenever you find yourself on the side of the majority, it is time to reform (or pause and reflect). Mark Twain
The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others. Mahatma Gandhi
Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth. John F. Kennedy
Success isn’t about how your life looks to others. It’s about how it feels to you. That’s what it means to be true to yourself. Michelle Obama
Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. Dr. Seuss
What makes you different or weird, that’s your strength. Meryl Streep
Find out who you are and do it on purpose. Dolly Parton (Source)
This above all: to thine own self be true. William Shakespeare (Hamlet)
I pay no attention whatever to anybody’s praise or blame. I simply follow my own feelings. Mozart
Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric. Bertrand Russell
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They laugh at me because I’m different; I laugh at them because they’re all the same. Kurt Cobain
Listen and be open, but don’t let anybody tell you who you are. Jeff Bezos (Source)
Never forget what you are, for surely the world will not. Make it your strength. Then it can never be your weakness. Armour yourself in it, and it will never be used to hurt you. Tyrion Lannister (George R. R. Martin, Games of Thrones)
Nothing is yet in its true form. C.S. Lewis
My philosophy is: It’s none of my business what people say of me and think of me. I am what I am and I do what I do. I expect nothing and accept everything. And it makes life so much easier. Anthony Hopkins
One must know oneself. Even if it does not help in finding truth, at least it helps in running one’s life, and nothing is more proper. Blaise Pascal
When a person decides to be themselves, they offer something no one else can be. Curtis Jackson (50 Cent, Source)
I wore black because I liked it. I still do, and wearing it still means something to me. It’s still my symbol of rebellion – against a stagnant status quo, against our hypocritical houses of God, against people whose minds are closed to others’ ideas. Johnny Cash
I would rather die having spoken in my manner, than speak in your manner and live. Socrates
Not till we have lost the world do we begin to find ourselves. Henry David Thoreau
The superior man follows nobody else’s path. Napoleon Bonaparte
Short Be Yourself Quotes
One-liners, More short be yourself quotes, sayings, thoughts, and captions for your bio, social status, self-talk, motto, mantra, signs, posters, wallpapers, and backgrounds.
Become who you are. Friedrich Nietzsche
Conformity gets you nowhere. Neil Strauss
Our own life has to be our message. Thich Nhat Hanh
I’d rather be a freak than a clone. Joanne Harris
Appear as you are, be as you appear. Rumi
It is a waste of energy to follow anybody. Jiddu Krishnamurti
What the world craves is authenticity. Naval Ravikant
Stop letting the world keep score for you. Shane Parrish
You are who you are when nobody’s watching. Stephen Fry
Bet on yourself. Anthony Pompliano (Source)
Train yourself to take nothing personally. Robert Greene
Do not commit to any side or cause but yourself. Robert Greene
Consult your conscience; rather than popular opinion. Publius Syrus
You are what existence wants you to be. Just relax. Osho
To lead others, one must find one’s own direction. Zhuangzi
We have to wake up. We have to refuse to be a clone. Alice Walker
Stop trying to look smart and just be you. Matt D’Avella (Source)
Follow your inner moonlight; don’t hide the madness. Allen Ginsberg
Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be; embrace who you are. Brené Brown
Inspirational Be Yourself Quotes
Believe in yourself and you will be unstoppable. Conor McGregor
I am not what happened to me, I am what I choose to become. Carl Jung
In order to stand out, we have to know what we stand for. Simon Sinek (Source)
It has often been said that a reformation should begin with each man reforming himself. Søren Kierkegaard
This next level will require you to be okay with people not liking you. A person who is okay with not being liked is a powerful person. Inner Practitioner (Source)
You must always be prepared to place a bet on yourself, on your future, by heading in a direction that others seem to fear. Robert Greene
Understand: you are one of a kind. Your character traits are a kind of chemical mix that will never be repeated in history. There are ideas unique to you, a specific rhythm and perspective that are your strengths, not your weaknesses. You must not be afraid of your uniqueness. Robert Greene
The most contrarian thing of all is not to oppose the crowd but to think for yourself. Peter Thiel
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. George Bernard Shaw
You eliminate competition by being yourself. Dan Go
Don’t follow people. Either walk alongside, or not at all. Naval Ravikant (Source)
If you want to be rewarded, you have to be irreplaceable. If you want to be irreplaceable, you have to be unique. If you want to be unique, you have to be authentic. If you want to be authentic, stop listening to everyone and everything else. It’s drowning “you” out. Naval Ravikant
If you can see your path laid out in front of you step by step, you know it’s not your path. Your own path you make with every step you take. That’s why it’s your path. Joseph Campbell
Always stay true to yourself and never sacrifice who you are for anyone. Rakesh Valand (Source)
Stop caring about impact and just be the best version of you possible – then you’ll naturally have an impact. Naval Ravikant
Be so completely yourself that everyone else feels safe to be themselves too. Unknown
Cherish that which is within you, and shut off that which is without. Zhuangzi
I’m going to do what I want to do. I’m going to be who I really am. And I’m going to figure out what that is. Stephen Chbosky
Better to be rejected for who you are than accepted for who you’re not. Ed Latimore (Source)
Find your place on the planet. Dig in, and take responsibility from there. Gary Snyder
You create yourself moment to moment. You are not born as a fixed entity, but only as a infinite potentiality. Osho
I teach you rebellion! Come out of the masses. Stand alone like a lion and live your life according to your own light. Osho
You should never sacrifice what you could be for what you are. Jordan B. Peterson
Just to be you, what a privilege that is. Unknown
Conclusion
Part 1. In this age, the mere example of non-conformity, the mere refusal to bend the knee to custom, is itself a service. Precisely because the tyranny of opinion is such as to make eccentricity a reproach, it is desirable, in order to break through that tyranny, that people should be eccentric. John Stuart Mill (On Liberty)
Part 2. Eccentricity has always abounded when and where strength of character has abounded; and the amount of eccentricity in a society has generally been proportional to the amount of genius, mental vigor, and moral courage which it contained. That so few now dare to be eccentric, marks the chief danger of the time. John Stuart Mill (On Liberty)
My kids are starting to notice I’m a little different from the other dads. “Why don’t you have a straight job like everyone else?” they asked me the other day. I told them this story: In the forest, there was a crooked tree and a straight tree. Every day, the straight tree would say to the crooked tree, “Look at me…I’m tall, and I’m straight, and I’m handsome. Look at you…you’re all crooked and bent over. No one wants to look at you.” And they grew up in that forest together. And then one day the loggers came, and they saw the crooked tree and the straight tree, and they said, “Just cut the straight trees and leave the rest.” So the loggers turned all the straight trees into lumber and toothpicks and paper. And the crooked tree is still there, growing stronger and stranger every day. Tom Waits
Let’s recap:
- There will never be another person like you on Earth. Be proud of yourself.
- How to be miserable? Compare yourself to others. (There’s always someone better than you)
- What happens when you conform? You lose self-respect.
- How to live a life of meaning? Create your own path, in your own way.
- How to be somebody? How to change the world? Be YOU.
Further Readings
- Topic: Happiness
- 81 Happiness Quotes That Will Light Up Your Day 😄
- 140 Self-Esteem Quotes To Improve The Way You See Yourself
- 100 Serenity Quotes To Bring Quietude Into Your Life
- 65 Acceptance Quotes To Help You Embrace Life Fully
- 100 Solitude Quotes That Will Soothe You
- How to Be Yourself (psychologytoday.com)
- 100 Inner Peace Quotes To Be Cool, Calm, And Collected
Hope you enjoyed these inspiring be yourself quotes.
You’ll see, once you discover being yourself is once in a lifetime opportunity, you’ll never let yourself down again.
Now, if you did like the quotes, please share them with a friend today!
Do you feel 100% yourself with other people? What’s your favorite be yourself quote? Please let us know in the comment section below!
Table Of Contents
Part 1
Top 15 Images
Best Quotes
Part 2
Be Yourself Quotes That ARE
Famous
Short
Inspirational
Part 3
Conclusion
