“If I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you. But if I am I because you are you and you are you because I am I, then I am not I and you are not you!”

— Menachem Mendel of Kotzk

As quoted in Tales of the Hasidim : The Later Masters (1948) by Martin Buber as translated by Olga Marx
Variant translations:
If I am I, simply because I am I, and thou art thou, simply because thou art thou; then I am I and thou art thou. But if I am I because thou art thou, and thou art thou because I am I, then I am not I and thou art not thou.
As quoted in The Rift in Israel: Religious Authority and Secular Democracy (1971) by Samuel Clement Leslie, p. 145
If I am I, because you are you, and you are you, because I am I, then I am not I, and you are not you. But if I am I because I am I, and you are you because you are you, then I am I and you are you, and we can talk.
As quoted in Let Us Reason Together (1970) by William Berkowitz and William Leonard Laurence

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update May 22, 2020. History

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Menachem Mendel of Kotzk 8

Polish rabbi 1787–1859

John Powell (1645–1713) American Jesuit priest

“I am afraid to show you who I really am, because if I show you who I really am, you might not like it--and that's all I got.”

Sabrina Ward Harrison (1975) Canadian writer

Source: Spilling Open: The Art of Becoming Yourself

“YOU are a genius!… and I am a genius because I married you.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

“Infantile love follows the principle: "I love because I am loved."
Mature love follows the principle: "I am loved because I love."
Immature love says: "I love you because I need you."
Mature love says: "I need you because I love you.”

Erich Fromm book The Art of Loving

Source: The Art of Loving

“I was at a point where I was ready to say I am what I am because of what I am and if you like me I'm grateful, and if you don't, what am I going to do about it?”

Anne Bancroft (1931–2005) American actress

Interview on her role in the Broadway play "Two for the Seesaw". The New York Times (1958).

“You are (I am) is a repetition among other repetitions. You are is I am; I am is you are: you are is I.”

Octavio Paz (1914–1998) Mexican writer laureated with the 1990 Nobel Prize for Literature

Source: The Monkey Grammarian (1974), Ch. 6
Context: Repetitions, you wander about lost amid repetitions, you are merely a repetition among other repetitions. An artist of repetitions, a past master of disfigurations, a maestro of demolitions. The trees repeat other trees, the sands other sands, the jungle of letters is repetition, the stretch of dunes is repetition, the plethora is emptiness, emptiness is a plethora, I repeat repetitions, lost in the thicket of signs, wandering about in the trackless sand, stains on the wall beneath this sun of Galta, stains on this afternoon in Cambridge, a thicket and a stretch of dunes, stains on my forehead that assembles and disassembles vague landscapes. You are (I am) is a repetition among other repetitions. You are is I am; I am is you are: you are is I. Demolitions: I stretch out full length atop my triturations, I inhabit my demolitions.