“To Thine Own Self Be Untrue!”

Always Be True To Yourself

What does, “To Thine Own Self Be True!” mean to you? To me it means being honest with yourself and if you can be honest to yourself I would suspect it would come natural for you to be honest to others.

“To Thine Own Self Be Untrue.” would be just the opposite. You would be lying to yourself and of course the chances are great you would be lying to others.

How does this all relate to tobacco abuse or for that matter any other addiction? It would be so easy to not say a word to anyone that you are smoking again. TOTAL DENIAL TO SELF AND OTHERS! “I can quit anytime I want and it is no ones business but my own.”, “If I told anyone else it would make me look bad and I might lose the love and friendships of those who believed in me.” these are just a few examples of what I see as, “To Thine Own Self Be Untrue.” 

Lets look at my own situation, I relapsed after almost six years and started smoking again. Imagine it happened to you and you know you did wrong and you know it is self-destructive but yet you tell yourself, your therapist, your family, your friends or even your children. “No one is perfect, I’ve messed up…..again. It is no one’s fault but my own.” You are not only being truthful to yourself but you are on the road to repairing the damage you have done. You are on the road to recovery. For others you’ve told, they either accept and respect your honesty or they’re going to tell you are a failure, a loser, you’re a weakling. That is ok, let them say what they want because it is your life and you are being true to yourself and you will pick yourself up and be a better person for it.

The saying “no one is perfect” is more true than any of us could ever know. We have to forgive ourselves and move on.

I found this in a yahoo forum and this guy hit the nail on the head, it is the best explanation I have ever seen about my favorite quote given to me long ago by Janet Kish and it has stayed with me ever since. It has even helped me get through some of my most difficult times:

What does “to thine own self be true” mean?

by Omar Khafagy

“How many people do you know in your life who pretend to be something that they’re not?

Maybe they’re trying to make their parents proud. Maybe they’re pretending they’re not hurt by something so that no one sees their “weaknesses”.

And maybe they’ve squashed all their passions, all their life’s desires to meet what they think society expects of them.

These people are not being TRUE to themselves.  They’re ignoring what they would TRULY want because they fear the fallout should they pursue it.

But that’s not all that the quote is about…

“This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”

That is the full quote.  When people ignore what their heart tells them, they deceive themselves.  And because they do not know better, they believe the deceit to be truth… and therefore wind up lying to everyone.

So if one is true to themselves, it follows (just like night must follow day) that one will not lie to others.

The line is from Hamlet, a beautiful play.”