Word.ws English Dictionary

to thine own self be true

to thine own self be true proverb: be yourself; be true to yourself; do not engage in self-deception.

Proverb

to thine own self be true

  1. Be yourself; be true to yourself; do not engage in self-deception.
    • This aboue all, to thy owne ſelfe be true,
      And it muſt follow as the night the day,
      Thou canſt not then be falſe to any one, […]c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shake-speare, The Tragicall Historie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke: […] (First Quarto), London: […] [Valentine Simmes] for N[icholas] L[ing] and Iohn Trundell...
    • "To thine own self be true," I saw, was what produced vitality, confidence, and genuine expression in one's interpersonal relations.1977, Robert P Marinelli, Arthur E. Dell Orto, editors, The Psychological and Social Impact of Physical Disability, Springer Publishing Co., →ISBN, page 306

Examples of to thine own self be true in a sentence

  • "To thine own self be true" whatever the consequences was taken as the principle of true freedom and humanity by the romantics.2004, James M. Morris, Andrea L. Kross, Historical Dictionary of Utopianism, Scarecrow Press, published 2004, →ISBN, page 262:
  • As Shakespeare wrote, "To thine own self be true," at least according to what kind of person you believe yourself to be.2012, Mark D. White, “The Sound and the Fury Behind 'One More Day'”, in Jonathan J. Sanford, editor, Spider-Man and Philosophy: The Web of...

Origin of to thine own self be true

From a monologue delivered by the character Polonius in Act I Scene III of Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

Questions about to thine own self be true

What does to thine own self be true mean?
To thine own self be true means be yourself; be true to yourself; do not engage in self-deception.
How do you use to thine own self be true in a sentence?
"To thine own self be true" whatever the consequences was taken as the principle of true freedom and humanity by the romantics.
What part of speech is to thine own self be true?
To thine own self be true is a proverb.

Words near to thine own self be true in the dictionary

  1. to the turn of a hair
  2. to the victor belong the spoils
  3. to the victor go the spoils
  4. to the victor the spoils
  5. to the wide
  6. to thine own self be true
  7. to think that
  8. to this day
  9. to this effect
  10. to this end
  11. to those it may concern

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: to thine own self be true (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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