“The minute you or anybody else knows what you are you are not it, you are what you or anybody else knows you are and as everything in living is made up of finding out what you are it is extraordinarily difficult really not to know what you are and yet to be that thing.”

Source: Everybody’s Autobiography (1937), Ch. 3

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The minute you or anybody else knows what you are you are not it, you are what you or anybody else knows you are and as…" by Gertrude Stein?
Gertrude Stein photo
Gertrude Stein 160
American art collector and experimental writer of novels, p… 1874–1946

Related quotes

Bret Easton Ellis photo
Mario Puzo photo
Gertrude Stein photo

“It's impossible to discover who you really are if you limit what you are willing to find out about yourself to only what you want to know.”

Guy Finley (1949) American self-help writer, philosopher, and spiritual teacher, and former professional songwriter and musician

The Secret Way of Wonder

Louis Sachar photo
P.G. Wodehouse photo
Dorothy Hodgkin photo

“There's the moment when you know you can find out the answer and that's the period you are sleepless before you know what it is. When you've got it and know what it is, then you can rest easy.”

Dorothy Hodgkin (1910–1994) British chemist

interviewed by
Context: I once wrote a lecture for Manchester University called « Moments of Discovery » in which I said that there are two moments that are important. There's the moment when you know you can find out the answer and that's the period you are sleepless before you know what it is. When you've got it and know what it is, then you can rest easy.

Keith Richards photo

“I don't encourage anybody to do what I do, you know? Why should you? More for me!”

Keith Richards (1943) British rock musician, member of The Rolling Stones

Interview 2006. http://youtube.com/watch?v=ohEz13V1Vhk&feature=related

Related topics