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Self-Acceptance
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“To live with the terrible truths about ourselves is the only way of not living them out. A need denied has infinitely more power than a need accepted.”
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“Self-affirmation cannot be found in love; it is a prior condition of genuine love.”
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“Might I be the one I am looking for?”
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“Love of others is the appreciation of one's self.”
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“Don't you love nobody better'n you do yo'self. Do, you'll be dying befo' yo' time is out.”
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“In so far as one denies what is, one is possessed by what is not, the compulsions, the fantasies, the terrors that flock to fill the void.”
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“We have to dare to be ourselves, however frightening or strange that self may prove to be.”
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“Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else in the world.”
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“Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me. I am who I am, doing what I came to do, acting upon you like a drug or a chisel to remind you of your me-ness, as I discover you in myself.”
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“For the possibilities of being different from what one is are infinite. Once one has negated oneself, however, there are no longer any particular choices.”
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“I am not just a lesbian. I am not just a poet. I am not just a mother. Honor the complexity of your vision and yourselves.”
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“... it's perfectly possible to hate one's fat and to love one's body at the same time.”
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“I love what I cannot be / as well as what I am.”
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“We do not accept ourselves for what we are, we retreat from our real selves, and then we erect a personality to bridge the gap.”
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“Your thorns are the best part of you.”
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“All that matters / is to be in step / with one's self.”
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“One must accept the fact that we have only one companion in this world, a companion who accompanies us from the cradle to the grave — our own self. Get on good terms with that companion — learn to live with yourself.”
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“Self-affection is the real dwelling to which we must always return with a view to a faithfulness to ourselves and an ability to welcome the other as different.”
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“There are three things I commit to on a daily basis: Exercising for an hour a day, tops. Never skipping meals. And accepting the size and shape I was born with.”
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“... my trouble / is that I have the spirit of Gertrude Stein / but the personality of Alice B. Toklas ...”
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“Learning to live with what you're born with / is the process, / the involvement, / the making of a life.”
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“And I have not learned happily / to live with my face.”
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“It is curious how believable I can be when I criticize myself, how unconvincing when I give myself praise.”
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“Until we can tolerate our own company, we cannot expect other people to be overjoyed by our presence.”
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“What a desire! ... to live in peace with that word: Myself.”
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“... when I'm trusting and being myself as fully as possible, everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously.”
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“Self-acceptance begets acceptance from others, which begets even deeper, more genuine self-acceptance. It can be done. But no one is going to bestow it on you. It is a gift only you can give yourself.”
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“During much of my life, I was anxious to be what someone else wanted me to be. Now I have given up that struggle. I am what I am.”
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“I am what I am.”
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“Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have.”
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“... the best-adjusted people are the 'psychologically patriotic,' who are glad to be what they are.”
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“There's a point, around age twenty . . . when you have to choose whether to be like everybody else the rest of your life, or to make a virtue of your peculiarities.”
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“Happiness comes from being who you actually are instead of who you think you are supposed to be.”
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“Accepting oneself does not preclude an attempt to become better.”