“I am not just what I remember. I am also what I dream.”
“I know not what I could have been, but feel
I am not what I should be — let it end.”
Act IV, scene 1.
Sardanapalus (1821)
Context: I am the very slave of circumstance
And impulse — borne away with every breath!
Misplaced upon the throne — misplaced in life.
I know not what I could have been, but feel
I am not what I should be — let it end.
“What is important is not just what you do - "I am writing a book"”
but how you do it, how you approach it, and what you come to value.
[…] There are many realities. We should remember this when we get too caught in being concerned about the way the rest of the world lives or how we think they live.
Essay, "Every Monday". p.127
Writing Down the Bones (1986)
“I am not unambitious. I am just too ambitious for what you call ambitions.”
#412
Vectors: Aphorisms and Ten Second Essays (2001)
“What I am is good enough, if I could just be it openly.”
On Becoming a Person (1961)
Source: page # not specified
“Who am I helping, what am I breaking, what am I giving, what am I taking?”
“What I am is what I am. Are you what you are — or what?”
"What I Am"
Shooting Rubberbands at the Stars (1988)
“I am what I am Are you what you are or What?”
