“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last update March 11, 2023. History

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Ralph Waldo Emerson 727

American philosopher, essayist, and poet 1803–1882

Tom Hodgkinson (1968) British writer

Source: The Freedom Manifesto

“You have to look at yourself objectively. Analyze yourself like an instrument. You have to be absolutely frank with yourself. Face your handicaps, don't try to hide them. Instead, develop something else.”

Audrey Hepburn (1929–1993) British actress

Source: Audrey Hepburn (2002), p. 108

“Whatever you would make habitual, practice it; and if you would not make a thing habitual, do not practice it, but accustom yourself to something else.”

Epictetus (50–138) philosopher from Ancient Greece

Book II, ch. 18.
Discourses

“Connection can be thought of as a link formed with something or someone else. If you are linked to something, you cannot affect it without affecting yourself. And this is really the greatest form of safety available on the planet or any living being.”

Teal Swan (1984) American spiritual teacher

“You were trying to tell me something and I was trying to tell you something else. We didn't trust each other and that was reason enough to make each of us right.”

Elliot Perlman (1964) Australian writer

Source: The Reasons I Won't Be Coming

“Old age is not an accomplishment; it is just something that happens to you despite yourself, like falling downstairs.”

Robert A. Heinlein book Podkayne of Mars

Source: Podkayne of Mars (1963), Chapter 5 (p. 50)

“[Freedom of speech] isn't something somebody else gives you. That's something you give to yourself.”

Kurt Vonnegut book Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus (1990)

“Accomplishment is something you cannot buy. If you have a chance and don’t make the most of it, you are wasting your time on this earth. It is not what you do in baseball or sports, but how hard you try. Win or lose, I try my best”

Roberto Clemente (1934–1972) Puerto Rican baseball player

Clemente's oft-cited "wasting your time on this earth" admonition, but in a context quite distinct from that of its ubiquitous counterpart (which is likewise contained in this speech—see below); from the opening of his Tris Speaker Memorial Award acceptance speech, delivered on January 29, 1971; as quoted in "800 Turn Out for Baseball Dinner" by Joe Heiling (The Houston Post, January 30, 1971, p. 1-B) and "Post Time: Clemente's Catch Proves Point" by Houston Post sports editor Clark Nealon (The Houston Post, June 18, 1971, p. 5-D).
Other, <big><big>1970s</big></big>, <big>1971</big>
Context: I am a very proud person. Baseball has helped send my brothers and nephews to school. But more than that, baseball has become my whole life. Accomplishment is something you cannot buy. If you have a chance and don’t make the most of it, you are wasting your time on this earth. It is not what you do in baseball or sports, but how hard you try. Win or lose, I try my best.

“Try to realize it's all within yourself,
No one else can make you change.
And to see you're really only very small
And life flows in within you and without you.”

George Harrison (1943–2001) British musician, former member of the Beatles

Within You Without You, from Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (1967)
Lyrics

“All your life, other people will try to take your accomplishments away from you. Don't you take it away from yourself.”

Michael Crichton book The Lost World

Source: The Lost World

“To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.”

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