Context

This line is spoken by Harry Angstrom in the book Rabbit, Run, written by John Updike (1960).

At this point in the story Harry "Rabbit" Angstrom is a 26-year-old married father of one who's just left his pregnant wife and shacked up with a former prostitute named Ruth. So you'd think things wouldn't be going well for him, right? Not quite. He's also met a minister named Jack Eccles who, in addition to trying to convince Rabbit to head back to his wife, has been telling him he's a really great guy. Huh?

Ruth, for one, recognizes that these are pretty dangerous ideas to be putting in the mind of a reckless man-child who can barely figure out what he wants to do with his life. Rabbit thinks he's being himself and that he's pretty awesome. Other people should look up to him. Maybe even bow down to him. Hey, why not? He is pretty special, after all. That's what Eccles thinks at least.

Um, not quite. Turns out, this whole "being yourself" thing doesn't work out so great for Rabbit in the end. Don't say Ruth didn't try to warn you, Rabbit.

Where you've heard it

This is a pretty narcissistic quote, but you may have heard it when folks are encouraging people to just be themselves…and leaving others to clean up the mess. (That last part usually gets glossed over.)

Pretentious Factor

If you were to drop this quote at a dinner party, would you get an in-unison "awww" or would everyone roll their eyes and never invite you back? Here it is, on a scale of 1-10.

Sure, it's always good to be yourself, but it's the last part of this quote that kind of gets us. Rabbit is a pretty pretentious character and you'll be pretty darn pretentious if you start quoting him, too. Watch out for this one.