This Side of Paradise quotes about identity

“I know myself,” he cried, “but that is all.”

You’re a slave, a bound helpless slave to one thing in the world, your imagination.

There is no virtue of unselfishness that I cannot use. I can make sacrifices, be charitable, give to a friend, endure for a friend, lay down my life for a friend—all because these things may be the best possible expression of myself; yet I have not one drop of the milk of human kindness.

Don’t worry about that; for you not posing may be the biggest pose of all.

He found something that he wanted, had always wanted and always would want—not to be admired, as he had feared; not to be loved, as he had made himself believe; but to be necessary to people, to be indispensable

I know I’m not a regular fellow, yet I loathe anybody else that isn’t.

Don’t let yourself feel worthless; often through life you will really be at your worst when you seem to think best of yourself

Beware of losing yourself in the personality of another being, man or woman.

It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being.