“If I won't be myself, who will?”

"Old Mortality" in Pale Horse (1939)
Context: I don't want any promises, I won't have false hopes, I won't be romantic about myself. I can't live in their world any longer, she told herself, listening to the voices back of her. Let them tell their stories to each other. Let them go on explaining how things happened. I don't care. At least I can know the truth about what happens to me, she assured herself silently, making a promise to herself, in her hopefulness, her ignorance.

Variant: No. If I let myself love you, I won't throw myself in front of her. I'll throw myself in front of you." - Dimitri
Source: Vampire Academy

Source: The Joy Luck Club (1989), Ch. 8, pg. 134

Source: The Restaurant at the End of the Universe

Source: By the Time You Read This, I'll Be Dead

Spineless
So-Called Chaos (2004)

Source: 88 Poems