you are not what you think you are; but what you think, you are.

I am not what I think I am, and I am not what you think I am. I am what I think you think I am.

You are but an appearance, and not absolutely the thing you appear to be.

If I am not what you say I am, then you are not who you think you are.

We are what we are, and half of what we are is what we are not.

I am what I am Are you what you are or What?

If you cannot figure out who you are, figure out who you are not and who you don’t want to be.

It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you're not!

Your ideas about yourself change from day to day and from moment to moment. Your self image is the most changeful thing you have. It is utterly vulnerable, at the mercy of a passerby. A bereavement, the loss of a job, an insult, and your image of yourself, which you call your person, changes deeply. To know what you are, you must first investigate and know what you are not. And to know what you are not, you must watch yourself carefully, rejecting all that does not necessarily go with the basic fact: “I am.” Our usual attitude is of “I am this.” Consistently and perseveringly separate the “I am” from “this” or “that” and try to feel what it means to <i>be</i>, without being “this” or “that.” All our habits go against it and the task of fighting them is long and hard sometimes, but clear understanding helps significantly. The more clearly you understand that on the level of the mind you can be described in negative terms only, the more quickly you will come to the end of your search and realize your limitless being.

What seems is not what is. People are not what they appear to be.

It’s not what you are that counts, it’s what they think you are.

You see persons and things not as they are but as you are.

How do you know you are who you are? How do you know you’re not simply a clone of who you think you are?

I am not what you see and hear.