To Thine Own Self Be True

"To thine own self be true. And it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man." William Shakespeare

I have often quoted the first six words of that quote and always understood it to mean we should be honest with and serve ourselves first. The truth is, when we are honest with ourselves, we find it nearly impossible to be dishonest with everyone else. Why is this the case?

We have developed a habit. A habit of being honest means we want to share that same courtesy with everyone around us. Honesty brings peace of mind and self-confidence. We have given ourselves a solid roadmap to follow in our lives.

Some people live their entire lives like a novelist writing a book. They didn't feel their lives were interesting enough. So they made up some stories to add spice.

A novel is all made-up stories. Writers put their stories in a novel to entertain people, not to mislead people in real life. We do get to make people wonder if any of it is true, though. To paraphrase Shakespeare's quote, "If you don't lie to yourself, you won't lie to other people."

To thine own self be true,
Tony