What does ';to thine own self be true'; mean?

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.What does ';to thine own self be true'; mean?
'To thine self be true.' It means 'To yourself be true.' It is Olde English and almost Shakespearean or Biblical.





It means to be genuine or congruent to yourself. meaning you are yourself at all times because you are comfortable with yourself you won't have a mask or another personality that might pop up and if you did then at times you would not recognize yourself so that might be a clue as to if you were congruent to your self or not.What does ';to thine own self be true'; mean?
when you are not true to yourself, you do something to please someone even though YOU wouldn't really want to in normal circumstances. in pop culture, a wanna-be. or like being someone you are not. for example, you know you're gay that your blood's almost pink. but you tell everyone you aren't. sometimes it isn't bad, i mean, nothing is really simply black or white or right or wrong. it's just the values that you sacrifice when you lie to yourself that makes it an issue.
it mean to be true with ur self n sometime we need to lie to ourself to make us feel better about wt we do like when we do something bad to someone we keep thinking that we do it for the right reason but deep in side us we know we were wrong but we try to not believe that cause it will hurt us so we try to deny it n lie to ourself
be true to yourself, don't try to lie to yourself, and remember you're the only one you got.
Don't change for other people, but remain true to what you believe in.