47 Quotes On Self Expression

In a world where individuality often grapples with conformity, the power of self-expression serves as a beacon of authenticity and personal freedom. Each quote in this curated collection captures the essence of expressing one's true self, embracing uniqueness, and celebrating the diverse tapestry of human identity. Whether through words, art, fashion, or any other medium, self-expression allows us to communicate our inner worlds and connect with others on a deeper level. Join us as we explore profound insights and wisdom from thought leaders, artists, and visionaries who have championed the importance of staying true to oneself. Discover inspiration that not only encourages you to express your own voice but also celebrates the distinctive expressions that make us beautifully and unapologetically human.

1. “Do your own thing on your own terms and get what you came here for” - Oliver James

2. “Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life, but define yourself.” - Harvey Fierstein

3. “There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and will be lost.” - Martha Graham

4. “If critics say your work stinks it's because they want it to stink and they can make it stink by scaring you into conformity with their comfortable little standards. Standards so low that they can no longer be considered "dangerous" but set in place in their compartmental understandings.” - Jack Kerouac

5. “To go wrong in one's own way is better than to go right in someone else's.” - Fyodor Dostoevsky

6. “None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

7. “No man has the right to dictate what other men should perceive, create or produce, but all should be encouraged to reveal themselves, their perceptions and emotions, and to build confidence in the creative spirit.” - Ansel Adams

8. “Follow your inner moonlight; don't hide the madness.” - Allen Ginsberg

9. “When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.” - Ansel Adams

10. “I want freedom for the full expression of my personality.” - Mahatma Gandhi

11. “Only when I'm dancing can I feel this free.” - Madonna

12. “These days I just can't seem to say what I mean [...]. I just can't. Every time I try to say something, it misses the point. Either that or I end up saying the opposite of what I mean. The more I try to get it right the more mixed up it gets. Sometimes I can't even remember what I was trying to say in the first place. It's like my body's split in two and one of me is chasing the other me around a big pillar. We're running circles around it. The other me has the right words, but I can never catch her.” - Haruki Murakami

13. “If you could say it in words, there would be no reason to paint.” - Edward Hopper

14. “Censor the body and you censor breath and speech at the same time. Write yourself. Your body must be heard.” - Hélène Cixous

15. “Insist on yourself; never imitate. Your own gift you can offer with the cumulative force of a whole life's cultivation, but of the adopted talent of another, you have only an extemporaneous, half possession.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

16. “When I write I am trying to express my way of being in the world. This is primarily a process of elimination: once you have removed all the dead language, the second-hand dogma, the truths that are not your own but other people's, the mottos, the slogans, the out-and-out lies of your nation, the myths of your historical moment - once you have removed all that warps experience into a shape you do not recognise and do not believe in - what you are left with is something approximating the truth of your own conception.” - zadie smith

17. “You're crackers.”“Marvelous isn't it? I find it's the only way to be.” - Paul Magrs

18. “You must forget all your theories, all your ideas before the subject. What part of these is really your own will be expressed in your expression of the emotion awakened in you by the subject.” - Henri Matisse

19. “Everyone has to scratch on walls somewhere or they go crazy” - Michael Ondaatje

20. “Happiness is part of who we are. Joy is the feeling” - Tony DeLiso

21. “Keep your best wishes, close to your heart and watch what happens” - Tony DeLiso

22. “I have no desires, save the desire to express myself in defiance of all the world’s muteness.” - Vladimir Nabokov

23. “Never dull your shine for somebody else.” - Tyra Banks

24. “I may not agree with you, but I will defend to the death your right to make an ass of yourself.” - Oscar Wilde

25. “If you believe in your heart that you are right, then you must fight with all your might to do it your way. Only dead fish swim with the stream all the time.” - Linda Ellerbee

26. “You have to not care whether they approve of your or not,” she said when I called. “We do what we do to express ourselves, not to coincide with what others like. You’re lucky if they like anything you do.” - Debby Bull

27. “It is easy to be disgruntled if you are denied rights and freedoms to which you feel entitled. But if you are not coherent, if you cannot put into words what it is that displeases you and why it is unfair and should change, then you are dismissed as an unreasonable whiner. You may be lectured about perseverance and patience, life as a test, the need to accept the higher wisdom of others.” - Ayaan Hirsi Ali

28. “I feel that the essence of dance is the expression of man--the landscape of his soul. I hope that every dance I do reveals something of myself or some wonderful thing a human can be.” - Martha Graham

29. “In spite of language, in spite of intelligence and intuition and sympathy, one can never really communicate anything to anybody. The essential substance of every thought and feeling remains incommunicable, locked up in the impenetrable strong-room of the individual soul and body. Our life is a sentence of perpetual solitary confinement.” - Aldous Huxley

30. “You must write for yourself, above all. That is your only hope of creating something beautiful.” - Gustave Flaubert

31. “Writing is a mysterious activity.” - Susan Sontag

32. “Don't let your special character and values, the secret that you know and no one else does, the truth - don't let that get swallowed up by the great chewing complacency.” - Aesop

33. “Each action we take is an act of self-expression. We often think of large-scale or important deeds as being indications of our real selves, but even how we sharpen a pencil can reveal something about our feelings at that moment. Do we sharpen the pencil carefully or nervously so that it doesn’t break? Do we bother to pay attention to what we’re doing? How do we sharpen the same pencil when we’re angry or in a hurry? Is it the same as when we’re calm or unhurried?Even the smallest movement discloses something about the person executing the action because it is the person who’s actually performing the deed. In other words, action doesn’t happen by itself, we make it happen, and in doing so we leave traces of ourselves on the activity. The mind and body are interrelated.” - H.E. Davey

34. “Everyone has their own ways of expression. I believe we all have a lot to say, but finding ways to say it is more than half the battle.” - Criss Jami

35. “The one thing which seems to me quite impossible is to take into consideration the kind of book one is expected to write; surely one can only write the book that is there to be written.(Letter to Muriel St. Clare Byrne, 8 September 1935)” - Dorothy L. Sayers

36. “Every impulse we strangle will only poison us.” - Oscar Wilde

37. “A great photograph is a full expression of what one feels about what is being photographed in the deepest sense and is thereby a true expression of what one feels about life in its entirety.” - Ansel Adams

38. “Never shall a young man,Thrown into despairBy those great honey-colouredRamparts at your ear,Love you for yourself aloneAnd not your yellow hair.” - W.B. Yeats

39. “Unexpressed emotions will never die. They are buried alive and will come forth later in uglier ways.” - Sigmund Freud

40. “The crowning fortune of a man is to be born to some pursuit which finds him employment and happiness, whether it be to make baskets, or broadswords, or canals, or statues, or songs.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

41. “There is no need for us all to be alike and think the same way, neither do we need a common enemy to force us to come together and reach out to each other. If we allow ourselves and everyone else the freedom to fully individuate as spiritual beings in human form, there will be no need for us to be forced by worldly circumstances to take hands and stand together. Our souls will automatically want to flock together, like moths to the flame of our shared Divinity, yet each with wings covered in the glimmering colors and unique patterns of our individual human expression.” - Anthon St. Maarten

42. “There was no need for a term like ‘magical thinking’ in the Golden Age of Man...there was only genuine everyday magic and mysticism. Children were not mocked or scolded in those days for singing to the rain or talking to the wind.” - Anthon St. Maarten

43. “We are not supposed to all be the same, feel the same, think the same, and believe the same. The key to continued expansion of our Universe lies in diversity, not in conformity and coercion. Conventionality is the death of creation.” - Anthon St. Maarten

44. “[O]ne can scarcely be frightened off writing what one wants to write for fear an obscure reviewer should patronise one on that account.” - Dorothy L. Sayers

45. “Writing my blog has saved me thousands on therapy.” - Phil Cooke

46. “Style is a deeply personal expression of who you are, and every time you dress, you are asserting a part of yourself.” - Nina Garcia

47. “When the artist is alive in any person, whatever his kind of work may be, he becomes an inventive, searching, daring, self-expressive creature. He becomes interesting to other people. He disturbs, upsets, enlightens, and opens ways for better understanding. Where those who are not artists are trying to close the book, he opens it and shows there are still more pages possible.” - Robert Henri