I mean, if a guy's a jerk and he just stays that way, isn't he being 'true' to 'himself'? Why shouldn't he, if being magnificently whatever he innately is is the standard to live by? He would be being true to himself. But we don't say that. We tell him, don't be such a jerk.
So I'm officially kicking a whole phrase into the pile of meaningless words (if unexamined) such as peace, freedom, education and so forth. I assert that you should not be true to yourself unless and until you have become a better person. That means asking yourself and answering honestly what actions and beliefs will make you positively better. Before you do that, I suggest that you should not be true to yourself. A child will always be a child unless he grows into adulthood. And jerks will stay jerks until they evolve past that.
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I agree -- everyone forgets which of Shakespeare's characters originally says it: Polonius: a pompous, superficial gasbag of a man. Hamlet correctly identifies him a "tedious old fool."
The same goes for all of Polonius' advice and observations.
"Brevity is the soul of wit." No, it is not. Sometimes you need to give a long speech, or write a long book -- or a long play -- to make your point clear.
"Neither a borrower nor a lender be." We would still be living in caves if mankind obeyed Polonius' dictum.
Just so for "To thine own self be true." That is the path to the unexamined life.
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