Quotes about authentic identity by Oscar Wilde

"Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth."

Wilde, Oscar. “The True Function and Value of Criticism.” The Nineteenth Century, 1890.

Perhaps one never seems so much at one’s ease as when one has to play a part.

Wilde, Oscar, and Oscar Wilde. Picture of Dorian Gray. Penguin Books, 2020.

Sir Robert Chiltern: You prefer to be natural?
Mrs Cheveley: Sometimes. But it is such a very difficult pose to keep up.

Wilde, Oscar. An Ideal Husband. Mint Editions, 2021.

It is tragic how few people ever “possess their souls” before they die. “Nothing is more rare in any man,” says Emerson, “than an act of his own.” It is quite true. Most people are other people. Their thoughts are some one else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.

Wilde, Oscar. De Profundis. Mint Editions, 2021.