The Self

Freeing yourself was one thing, claiming ownership of that freed self was another.
― Toni Morrison, Beloved

He allowed himself to be swayed by his conviction that human beings are not born once and for all on the day their mothers give birth to them, but that life obliges them over and over again to give birth to themselves
― Gabriel Garcí a Márquez, Love in the Time of Cholera

The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss - an arm, a leg, five dollars, a wife, etc. - is sure to be noticed.
― Søren Kierkegaard, The Sickness Unto Death