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About this quote

What does it mean?
Identity comes from being rather than titles or reflections.
In plain terms
You exist because you are yourself, not because of what you hold.
What can you take from it?
True self is defined by being, not status.

Where it applies

  • midlife crisis
  • identity search
  • meditation

Putting it to work

  • affirming self-worth
  • simplifying labels

Questions to consider

  • Who are you without your job or titles?
  • What makes you feel like yourself?

Another view

It ignores how social context shapes identity.

More from Wallace Stevens

  1. Is it he or is it I that experience this?

    Permalink to quote #165
  2. These external regions, what do we fill them with Except reflections

    Permalink to quote #167
  3. What am I to believe? If the angel in his cloud, Serenely gazing at the violent abyss, Plucks on his strings to pluck abysmal glory, Leaps downward through eve…

    Permalink to quote #164

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