Quote of the Day: Dr. Seuss on Life & Wisdom

Our lives now arrive as notifications: a Slack ping before breakfast, an algorithmic “memory” at lunch, a comment thread that keeps arguing while we sleep. In a world where visibility is currency and selfhood can feel like a brand, the old problem is newly sharpened, how to live without auditioning. “Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.”

The sentence works like a small lever. First it insists on self-possession, be yourself, speak plainly, then it offers a social sorting mechanism that can save you years of anxiety. If someone is threatened by your sincere self, their discomfort is information, not a verdict. The people worth keeping don’t require you to shrink, sanitize, or translate your interior life into something more palatable.

Still, this isn’t an anthem for bluntness. “Say what you feel” doesn’t mean say everything you think, whenever you think it. Authenticity without care becomes performance in a different costume. The better reading is boundaries: let your life be oriented around freedom from compulsive approval-seeking, while practicing the kind of honesty that can coexist with dignity.

There’s also a useful footnote here. The line is widely attributed to Seuss, though versions have been traced to earlier voices, including Bernard M. Baruch. But its staying power comes from utility, not paperwork: it gives a quick test for choosing communities in an age of curated personas and instant feedback. Approval bought by self-erasure is a bad bargain; integrity sometimes costs “likes,” but it earns you real company.

As Dr. Seuss showed across a career that reshaped children’s literature, outsiders can find belonging without surrendering their oddness, whether among Sneetches, Whos, or hesitant travelers on uncertain roads. If no headline on this December Saturday demands your attention, let this one demand your discernment: invest your energy in courage to be fully present, and in the few relationships spacious enough to hold it.