To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance.

—Oscar Wilde

Love yourself. Love the things that make you you.Your values and talents and memories.Your clothes, your nose, your woes. If you love yourself, you can jump into your life from a springboard of self-confidence. If you love yourself, you can say what you want to say, go where you want to go.

The world can be a tough place, and some of the billions of people out there will try to knock you down. Don’t join them. Do things that make you proud, then take pride in what you do. And in who you are.

Who are you anyway? What makes you you? How are you like your siblings and neighbors and friends? How are you different? If you were your own secret admirer, what would you most admire?

“My great mistake, the fault for which I can’t forgive myself,” Oscar Wilde wrote, “is that one day I ceased my obstinate pursuit of my own individuality.” Keep pursuing your individuality. Keep being yourself. Becoming yourself. It can be comforting to dress and act like everyone else. But it is grander to be different, to be unique, to be you.

I’m the only me in the whole wide world.

There is always one true inner voice. Trust it.

—Gloria Steinem

V

Sometimes it’s hard to know who you are and what you want and whom you like and why you like that person.The answers change because you’re changing. Growing.

But deep inside, you are you.You were you as a baby, you were you as a kid, and you are you right now.

“Let me listen to me and not to them,” wrote Gertrude Stein. It makes sense to consider the advice and opinions of other people. But don’t let their noise drown out your inner voice. And don’t let the way you sometimes talk or behave in front of others make you lose sight of who you are when you are alone, when you are most you.

“You can live a lifetime and, at the end of it, know more about other people than you know about yourself,” aviator Beryl Markham cautioned. Get acquainted with yourself. Tune in to the dreams you have by day and by night. Blend in when you choose to, but appreciate what sets you apart. “The more I like me, the less I want to pretend to be other people,” said Jamie Lee Curtis.

Anybody can be one of the crowd.

爱自己是一场毕生浪漫的开始。

——奥斯卡·王尔德

爱自己。热爱一切使你之所以成为你自己的事物。你的价值，你的才能，你的回忆。你的服饰，你的鼻子，你的悲伤。如果你爱自己，你就能在自信的跳板上跃入生活。如果你爱自己，你能畅所欲言，所向披靡。

世界是冷酷的，成万上亿的人试图在竞争中超越你。别和他们一样。做能让你自豪的事情，然后为你所做的事情自豪，为你自身感到骄傲。那么你究竟是谁呢？是什么使你成为你自己呢？你和你的兄弟姐妹、左邻右舍又有着怎样的相似点呢？你有多不同？如果你赞赏自己的秘密，哪个部分又是你最为欣赏的？

“我最大的错误，我无法原谅自己的错误，”奥斯卡·王尔德写道：“就是某天我停止追逐自己的个性。”追求你的个性。做你自己。成为你自己。同旁人一样地穿衣、举止是件容易的事情。但更伟大的事情在于做到与众不同，独特如你自己。

广阔世界，唯我是我。

总有一个真实的内在的声音。听从它。

——葛萝莉亚·史丹能

有时很难想明白你到底是谁，你想要什么，你喜欢谁，你为什么喜欢这些人。你在变，在成长，答案也在变。

但在内心深处，你就是你。从婴儿到孩童，到现在，你就是你。“让我听从自己的，而不是他们的意见。”葛楚德·史坦如是写道。你可以参考别人的建议和观点。但是不要让他们的意见盖过你内心的想法。

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