Top 40 Tamara Ireland Stone Quotes (2025 Update)

1. “Shy, insecure, afraid to speak up? “Act as if,” they say. Act as if you’re not. Stand tall when you walk. Project your voice when you talk. Raise your hand in class. Act as if. Speak your mind. Cut your hair. Be the part. Look the part. You can do this. Just act as if. If you really knew me, If you could see inside, You’d find shy and insecure and afraid. Acting as if. Ironic, isn’t it? The only time I’m not Acting “as if”? When I’m on a stage.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

2. “It’s me, asking him to let me in. Asking all of them to give a chance to show them that, deep down, I’m not who they think I am. Or, maybe I’m exactly who they think I am, but I no longer want to be.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

3. “I don’t see any reason to be fake. That’s a lot of work.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

4. “Everyone’s got something. Some people are just better actors than others.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

5. “You look around at the people in your life, one by one, choosing to hold on to the ones who make you stronger and better, and letting go of the ones who don’t.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

6. “OCD. I’m more obsessive than compulsive, so most of the ‘disorder’ part takes place in my own head. That makes it pretty easy to hide. No one knows.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

7. “If you could read my mind, you wouldn’t be smiling.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

8. “I’m merely reminding you to embrace who you are and surround yourself with people who do the same.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

9. “I didn’t go there looking for you. I went looking for me.” My voice is soft, low, and shaky. “But now, here you are, and somehow, in finding you, I think I’ve found myself.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

10. “You’re still here stitched into me, like threads in a sweater. Feeding me words that break me down and piece me back together, all at once. Tightening your grip, reminding me that I’m not alone. I never was. None of us ever are. You are still here stitched into the words on these walls. Every last one.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

11. “But now, everything is so quiet. Not just the pool, but my mind, too. I don’t even feel the urge to swim to the beat of a song. I’m mentally spent. Out of words. Out of thoughts. It feels so good to be this empty. It’s so peaceful.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

12. “Mistakes. Trial and error. Same thing. Mistakes are how we learned to walk and run and that hot things burn when you touch them. You’ve made mistakes all your life and you’re going to keep making them.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

13. “The trick is to recognize your mistakes, take what you need from them, and move on” -Sue.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

14. “Technology is a trap.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

15. “What you see... And on the other side: It isn’t me.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

16. “I’m going to show you something that will change your whole life.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

17. “You seem to know how to articulate your feelings and share them with other human beings. I’m afraid my gift is the exact opposite; I’m skilled at holding everything in.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

18. “I, for one, am ready for a lot more adventure and a lot less nothing.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

19. “You are still here stitched into the words on these walls.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

20. “Yesterday, when I took the stage for the sixth time, I read a poem about unreliable friends, people you love and feel bonded to but can never truly trust. It was about feeling alone and vulnerable, and never being able to fully let your guard down.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

21. “I like to know where I stand with people, and I figure I owe them the same courtesy.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

22. “Alliteration is alarmingly addictive.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

23. “The few lamps we left on softly illuminate the walls, and I think about all the paper around us, all this love and pain and fear and hope. We’re surrounded by words. Nothing about this moment could be more perfect, because I’m absolutely in love with this room and the people in it, on the wall and otherwise. And with this one boy in particular.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

24. “The thoughts start gathering, butting up against the caution tape surrounding my brain, strategizing and preparing to rush in and take over. I.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

25. “Feeling all the pain of letting them go. And knowing I did the right thing.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

26. “What you see, it isn’t me.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

27. “When I look around at this ‘normal’ life you’re so eager to leave, I don’t see boring or predictable – I see friends who love you and a family that would make any sacrifice for your happiness. I see the kind of security I’ve never had and always wanted. I may have given you access to the world I know best, but you and your family have given me a world that doesn’t exist on a map.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

28. “I am silently correcting your grammar.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

29. “Dad’s heart was in the right place, but it bugged me when he talked about Covenant like that, as if he’d singlehandedly created this perfect teenage utopia where everyone got along, talked openly about feelings, and never said or did anything to hurt anyone. Nice visual, but it wasn’t true. We judged each other; we just did it more subtly and about different things, like who was the better Christian.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

30. “Crappy mall food cures everything.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

31. “We’d say things like, “You know you can tell me anything, right?” and we meant it deep in our souls. But no matter how long two people have known each other, or how many times they’ve said those words, there are still some things you think but should never say to your best friend.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

32. “Did you learn something?′ I hide my face behind my hand, nodding fast. “Then this particular mistake has done its job. Forgive yourself and move on.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

33. “Telling someone with OCD to stop obsessing about something is like telling someone who’s having an asthma attack to just breathe normally.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

34. “I was tired all the time, because trying to function while you’re trying to ignore all those swirling thoughts is physically and mentally draining.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

35. “I think of my naming strategy as a hobby, even though my psychiatrist doesn’t see it that way. I don’t simply listen to music, I study the lyrics, and when I’m done making a playlist, I pick three words from one of the songs – three words that perfectly encapsulate the collection – and that becomes its title.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

36. “But now, here you are, and somehow, in finding you, I think I’ve found myself.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

37. “My room’s a mess. I scurry around, scooping up piles of clothes and stuffing them into the laundry hamper. “I thought people with OCD were supposed to be neat,” she says. “Popular misconception,” I say as I kick all the textbooks strewn across the floor into a haphazard pile.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

38. “I think the world would be a better place if people stopped every once in a while and questioned everything they thought they knew.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

39. “It reminded me of our summer plans. Our road trip. Our pact not to think about the end so we wouldn’t miss out on the present.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

40. “Get rid of any distractions. Silence your phone. Close your door. Set a timer and be sure nothing comes in between you and these ten minutes.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

41. “I turned the ringer off and got back into position. Legs folded. Spine straight. Hands resting comfortably on thighs. Chin tucked. Eyes closed. Breathing in. Breathing out. Breathing in. Breathing out. Watching thoughts drift in. Feeling frustrated when I couldn’t get them to drift back out.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

42. “I walk through the cafeteria doors, leaving my friends behind. Feeling all the pain of letting them go. And knowing I did the right thing.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

43. “Each choice, good and bad, branched out and created a new path, and on and on, piecing itself together along the way, with no real vision for how it would all come together in the end. God wasn’t in control. None of us were really in control either.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

44. “It all felt very Zen. Like meditation, it was all about being present in the moment and appreciating everything about it, the good, the bad, the everything. It was about finding your own truth and letting everyone else find theirs. It was about being in the world without hating and judging, just being and letting everyone else be, too.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

45. “My family loved me. Emory loved me. They were the reason I stayed, the reason I fought, and they were worth every second of pain I had to endure.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

46. “But this feels pretty permanent.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

47. “And I start filling the page with words.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

48. “You start being kind to yourself, making decisions that are best for you, not best for everyone else. You look around at the people in your life, one by one, choosing to hold on to the ones who make you stronger and better, and letting go of the ones who don’t.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone

49. “She always used to say I made her brave, but she makes me smart.”

— Tamara Ireland Stone