Authenticity Quotes – which resonate with you?

Truth, authenticity, integrity. Big stuff. But where would we be without it? Which one’s resonate most with you? Any more to add?

“No one man can, for any considerable time, wear one face to himself, and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which is the true one.”
- Hawthorne

“Our view of reality is like a chart of the sea – the truer it is, the less likely we will become lost.”
- Al Watts

“If any man seeks for greatness, let him forget greatness and ask for truth, and he will find both.”
- Horace Mann

“Man will occasionally stumble over the truth, but usually manages to pick himself up, walk over or around it, and carry on.”
- Winston Churchill

“Honesty and transparency make you vulnerable. Be honest and transparent anyway.”
- Mother Theresa

“No legacy is so rich as honesty.”
- Shakespeare

“If you tell the truth you don’t have to remember anything.”
- Mark Twain

“The men who succeed best at public life are those who take the risk of standing by their own convictions.
- James A. Garfield

“To find yourself, think for yourself.”
- Socrates

“How desperately difficult it is to be honest with oneself. It is much easier to be honest with other people.”
- Edward F. Benson

“There is no wisdom save in truth.”
- Martin Luther

“What is true is invisible to the eye. It is only with the heart that one can see clearly.”
- Antoine de Saint-Exupery

“Example is not the main thing in influencing others. It is the only thing.”
- Albert Schweitzer

“Only in quiet waters things mirror themselves undistorted. Only in a quiet mind is adequate perception of the world.”
- Everett W. Lord

“Nothing more completely baffles one who is full of tricks and duplicity than straightforward and simple integrity in another.”
- Colton

“The sincere alone can recognize sincerity.”
- Carlyle

“Just be what you are and speak from your guts and heart – it’s all a man has.”
- Hubert Humphrey

“To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
- William Shakespeare in Hamlet

“How shall we learn to know ourselves? By reflection? Never; but only through action. Strive to do thy duty; then shalt thou know what is in thee.”
- Goethe

“All worthwhile men have good thoughts, good ideas and good intentions – but precious few of them ever translate those into action.”
- John Hancock Field

“Best keep yourself clean and bright; you are the window through which you see the world.” – George Bernard Shaw

“Like an ability or a muscle, hearing your inner wisdom is strengthened by doing it.”
- Robbie Glass

From http://www.integro-inc.com/authenticity_quotes.htm

Truth, Dialogue & Hyperlinks – a response to Fabian at LIFT08

Written in partial response to a very engaging post by new LIFT08 mate Fabian Kalker on the community blog.
……….

I want to offer this… as a social constructivist, educator who doesn’t hold a lot of store in absolute truth outside the physiological reality of the way hearts and lungs function, for example.

We construct our own truth by documenting it and reflecting on it. For women, even more than men, the dialogical process is essential. It is for all of us, certainly if we want to create consensual truth that takes us forward together.

When I teach blogging, I say, the first audience for your blog is YOU. So whether Libby or Fabian think your blog post is a load of old cobblers is NOT primary, it is secondary to the process. For me one of the most interesting processes is that of human becoming. How we can self-educate to realise who we are and what we are here to BE, to do.

I hold the fundamental belief that if people live more whole and authentic lives, that make sure their inherent talents and abilities are developed, their values and beliefs revealed and applied, then all will be better… will will evolve. I also hold the fundamental belief that everything is interconnected in ways we cannot yet fully understand. That the Quantum Physicists and Buddhists seem to have so much in common becomes less and less of a surprise. But oh… the mysteries. The questions.

Never before have we needed the wisdom of the crowd to prevail. If we leave it to the traditional custodians of “the truth” (eg. think industrial-military complex, church, media barons, tenured professors) then we will continue to get the same truth and consequences we have been getting. We will get closer and closer to the anhihalation of the human species. The earth will survive, but we will not.

The competition for truth doesn’t aid these processes, but healthy debate and dialogue, like LIFT and blogging offers, certainly does.

Yes, there are many iterative steps in these processes, a lot of half-backed ideas and opinions being expressed. But perhaps we can rejoice in the diversity of voices, the opportunity for the many rather than the few to experience their own voice and have it echoed and reflected, to be in the conversation. To be co-creating the highest truths we can aspire to. To be working together without artificial hierarchy. Thank god hyperlinks subvert hierarchy!

There is of course an increasingly important role for editing, aggregation and other ways for us to filter content to meet our needs.

Thanks for your stimulating post! I’ll get into it all some more soon.

Libby

Libel & Defamation

As I know some of you bloggers will be getting stuck into people and institutions from time to time, here’s the bbc’s take on how to handle yourselfs. Just be kind, but true I guess. And don’t say I didn’t warn you. You could also think media karma… but please do take part in truth.