Authentic Living Quotes

“Living a spiritual life may not be easy. It demands total authenticity. It brings you to dance to a unique song that only you can hear fully, and sometimes you dance alone because no others can hear the music.”
― Debra Moffitt

“Too many people spend their life in fear of making a mistake. However, here is the truth: Fear is the mistake. If you block out all the doubts and listen only to what you feel in your heart, then follow that course, you waste less time in indecision and spend more time being authentic. Life is too short to settle for parttime happiness.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“You will never change, unless you are honest with yourself or you are forced to be authentic by someone that was honest with him or herself.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“I need to be startlingly clear. This thing of finding your authentic voice, expressing your blessed weirdness and revealing your soul isn't an elegant process. You don't do it to be cool. You don't do it to get laid or get rich. It's only real when it is ruthless, relentless and inevitable. But it is also a matter of personal and collective survival. Yes, it's that important. You are that critical.”
― Jacob Nordby

“False humility is a form of psychosis which was imprinted on most of us since birth. It is a mental illness because it locks us in a victim state of keeping our light turned down, denying who we really are and silently begging for permission to simply show up as ourselves in the world. But there is good news. This is a jail whose lock is broken. We can walk free whenever we know the truth, and by so doing we show others an example of an end to madness. An example of freedom.”
― Jacob Nordby

“The spiritual freedom we seek cannot be found by grasping at, retreating to, or protecting our perceived safe spaces. Our freedom lies in remaining open continuously, not only to Life’s changes but also to the Divine Light within us and others. This is our choice. Although often perceived as a weakness, being open and surrendering to the experience of the present moment is our greatest strength. By authentically living Life in the Now, we submit to Divine guidance where we find the freedom to see everything equally and sacred in Truth.”
― Peter Santos, Everything I Wanted To Know About Spirituality But Didn't Know How To Ask: A Spiritual Seekers Guidebook

“It takes courage to dream, to face our futures and the limiting forces within us. It takes courage to be determined that, as we slow down physically, we are going to grow even more psychologically and spiritually. Courage, the philosopher Aristotle taught us, is the most important of all the virtues, because without it we can’t practice any of the others. Courage is the nearest star that can guide our growth. Maya Angelou said we must be courageous about facing and exploring our personal histories. We must find the courage to care and to create internally, as well as externally, and as she said, we need the courage “to create ourselves daily as Christians, as Jews, as Muslims, as thinking, caring, laughing, loving human beings.”
― Bud Harris

“When it comes to loving people, let's not allow it to be something we do on the side. Let's make it a lifestyle. Whether we are at the gas station, picking up groceries, even waiting to get our car repaired, there is always an open opportunity to love someone in need.”
― Jarrid Wilson, Jesus Swagger: Break Free from Poser Christianity

“What if we choose not to do the things we are supposed to do? The principal gain is a sense of an authentic act – and an authentic life. It may be a short one, but it is an authentic one, and that's a lot better than those short lives full of boredom. The principal loss is security. Another is respect from the community. But you gain the respect of another community, the one that is worth having the respect of.”
― Stanley Keleman, Myth & the Body - A colloquy with Joseph Campbell

“10 Reasons Why Authentic People Are Successful:

1. They live fearlessly on the road less traveled.
2. They communicate from a place of love.
3. They use their intuition.
4. They quickly create boundaries.
5. They love alone time.
6. They trust the process of life.
7. They see through the eyes of love.
8. They bring out the best in others.
9. They love deep conversations.
10. They're confident”
― Maria Flynn

“When you honor your most authentic self-—your Spirit—you are allowing your Light to shine and touch the world. Living authentically, in its simplest terms, is living your Truth, the truth in your heart and soul. It's allowing yourself to be guided by Divine Truth and Wisdom, each and every day, and doing your Highest, most authentic work in the world. It's joyfully creating and living your Highest purpose!”
― Valerie Rickel

“Often, our relationships become an unrealized quest for what is perfect, unfettered, and free of flaws. We expect our partners, spouses, and our friends to avoid missteps and to be magical mind readers. These secret expectations play a sinister part in many of the great tragedies of our lives: failed marriages, dissipated dreams, abandoned careers, outcast family, deserted children, and discarded friendships.

We readily forget what we once knew as children: our flaws are not only natural but integral to our beings. They are interwoven into our soul’s DNA and yet we continually reject the crooked, wrinkled, mushy parts of our life rather than embrace them as the very essence of our beings.

I once believed that aiming for perfection would land me in the realm of excellence. This, however, may not be the trajectory of how things happen. In fact, the pursuit of perfection may be the biggest obstacle to becoming whole.

It seems essential to value hard work and determination and yet recognize that the road to excellence is littered with mistakes and subsequent lessons. Imperfection and excellence are intertwined. There is joy in our pain, strength in weakness, courage in compassion, and power in forgiveness.”
― Ann Brasco

“When Dr. Jung said we must be able to look forward in old age to the next day and to look forward to the great adventure that is ahead, he was making life’s “imperative to grow” personal. As long as we are alive, we must be able to dream of the future, of a better world or better ways of life. We are also invited by our greater Self to dream new dreams of creativity and fresh ways of expressing ourselves, as many great artists have into their nineties.”
― Bud Harris

“If we are unfaithful to true self, we will extract a price from others. We will make promises we cannot keep, build houses from flimsy stuff, conjure dreams that devolve into nightmares, and other people will suffer - if we are unfaithful to true self.”
― Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak: Listening for the Voice of Vocation

“We need to insist on making culture out of our desire: making paintings, novels, plays and films potent and seductive and authentic enough to undermine and overwhelm the Iron Maiden.”
― Naomi Wolf, The Beauty Myth

“The last thing this world needs is another self-help or feel-good faith book, seven simple steps to whatever. Just the thought makes my stomach turn. The truth is that life is far too complex to be put in a box, labeled, and have the appropriate manual attached. I wonder, have these people who seem to have all the answers ever really experienced hardship or grief, true joy, or adventure? Have they ever really lived? For those of us who venture outside the cookie cutter lives that many settle for, a superficial, plastic faith with the corresponding instruction booklet will do nothing. When we take the brave step from the comfortable mainstream into the unknown, we quickly discover that we are all just travelers on a journey trying to find our way.”
― Erik Mirandette, The Only Road North: 9,000 Miles of Dirt and Dreams

“Few experiences are more satisfying than becoming someone we always imagined we could be.”
― Gina Greenlee, Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments on the Road

“Authenticity soothes the soul.”
― Arthur P. Ciaramicoli, The Stress Solution: Using Empathy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to Reduce Anxiety and Develop Resilience

“If you are feeling constrained by a group that you belong to, ask yourself,
“How can I participate in this community and still be who I am?”
― Gina Greenlee, Postcards and Pearls: Life Lessons from Solo Moments on the Road

“Living closer to the center of our being is the practice of a lifetime, but so, too, is skillfully living on the horizontal plane-the surface of life-where our purpose for being on the planet is uniquely expressed. Redefining moments are simply energy vortexes that draw the authentic self up (vertically) and out (horizontally) and into present moment awareness, revealing it to the light of day and the gifts it holds.”
― Dennis Merritt Jones, Your Redefining Moments: Becoming Who You Were Born to Be

“Surrendering to who you really are and why you are here may very well change the world.”
― Maria Flynn

“Consult as you may your masters; their musings. But look within when it's time for the choosing.”
― Garry Fitchett

“Howard [Stevenson] smiled impishly, as if he'd lured me into a trap on the chessboard—a trap he now sprung. “Ah, yes, all his social activities, his community engagement, his golf… On the surface, sure, his life looks well-rounded—three dimensional, if you will. But I’d be willing to bet a platterful of roast beef sandwiches that his life was in fact, ‘pseudo three-D’...[A]ll of if was—whether he knew it or not—part of his strategy for pursuing financial success, not distinct elements of a well-rounded life. An extension of one dimension that appears to be multifaceted—three dimensional—but really isn’t, Pseudo three-D.”
― Eric C. Sinoway, Howard's Gift: Uncommon Wisdom to Inspire Your Life's Work

“By no longer relying on approval from others for (false) reassurance or acceptance, you access a Divine channel of freedom.”
― Maria Flynn

“Never let a minister say you are a sinner for he or she is a sinner too. Nor never let a psychiatrist say you have a mental disorder for he or she has problems too.”
― Luis Enrique Cavazos, The Five Virtues That Awaken Your Life