120 Mask Quotes About Revealing Your Most Authentic Self

These mask quotes not only address the wearing of masks but what happens when we take them off.

There has been a lot of debate over wearing literal masks, and that got me thinking about the metaphorical masks that people wear.

Do you think you, or the people you love, wear a mask in their daily lives?

I think if we are honest with ourselves, we would realize that we wear a mask in many of life’s situations, including work, love, and life.

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A survey by the American Psychological Association found that 86% of adults feel that authenticity is essential in their lives.

Masks are often worn to hide or conceal one’s true identity or emotions, but removing the mask can reveal one’s most authentic self.

Just what do we hide behind these masks?

Some say it’s the truth, others claim it’s horrors, and some claim it’s our basest urges.

Keep reading through these mask quotes from people like Oscar Wilde and Nicholas Sparks for their thoughts.

Does wearing a mask make us a liar or a truer version of ourselves?

Are you different with your mask on that you wonder if people’s feelings would change if they saw glimpses of the real you?

Don’t forget to also check out these authenticity quotes about being your authentic self.

If you like this article, we suggest you explore our most popular quotes article, a list of short inspirational quotes for daily encouragement.

Look through our complete collection of inspirational quotes here.

Famous mask quotes about love, life, and other virtues

According to a study by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, individuals who are more authentic in their interactions with others are generally more well-liked and have more positive social interactions. 

This suggests that being authentic and revealing your true self to others can positively impact your social relationships.

1. “Do they love you or the mask you put on every day?” ― Shimika Bowers

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2. “I learned in high school if I hold up an effigy, a mask, or a lie, that mask will get all the love, not me.” ― Lynn Breedlove

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3. “If you want people to love you for who you are, take the mask off.” ― Quetzal

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4. “Love has a powerful way of removing the mask we all insist on wearing.” ― Jessy

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5. “Ironically, when we own the shadow aspects of our self and put down our masks – this is when we become truly lovable.” ― Jane Monica-Jones

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6. “I’d rather fall in love with a delicate heart than a perfect mask.” ― Sai Pradeep

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7. “We have always been wearing masks its just that it has become mandatory when one’s own life is threatened.” ― Amit Abraham

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8. “Are you sincere? Are you yourself? Are you as you look? You don’t have a mask on your face? You speak what you think? Then you are real, then you are not fake!”― Mehmet Murat ildan

Mask quotes on the truth behind every mask

According to a study by researchers at the University of Queensland, Individuals who were more authentic in their self-expression were found to have greater self-esteem and life satisfaction. 

This highlights the importance of taking off the mask to embrace one’s true self in order to improve one’s overall well-being.

9. “Man is least himself when he talks in his own person. Give him a mask, and he will tell you the truth.” ― Oscar Wilde

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10. “If you want to say something and have people listen, then you have to wear a mask. If you want to be honest, then you have to live a lie.” ― Banksy

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11. “The irony of life is that those who wear masks often tell us more truths than those with open faces.” ― Marie Lu

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12. “They say truth is hidden behind their masks, but I believe Truth comes out when they are masked!” ― Twinkle

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13. “Something happens to people when they’re masked. They become too free, uncivilized. They may do anything.” ― Alexandra Ripley

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14. “Give a man a mask, and he’ll tell you deeper and darker truths. But he’ll also be more abusive, unaccountable, and demonic.” ― Cory Duchesne

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15. “What I wear on and off stage is my mask. You see, a mask doesn’t hide you, it exposes you.” ― Nuno Roque

Revealing mask quotes

According to a survey conducted by YouGov in August 2021, 72% of Americans believe that wearing a mask is an act of respect for others.

This statistic shows that many people view wearing masks not only as a way to protect themselves but also as a way to show consideration and kindness towards others.

16. “In a mask, we are faceless and classless, ageless and anonymous. Masks reveal the primal urge to behave like the beast in rut that leaps on the stranger or waits in the penumbra to be leapt upon.” ― Chloe Thurlow

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17. “Masks reveal the shape of your soul and the state of the world and, in today’s world, everyone wears a mask.” ― Chloe Thurlow

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18. “Masks reveal. They don’t conceal. Masks reveal your cravings, your passion, your deepest most secret desires.” ― Chloe Thurlow

19. “The mask in which you choose to disguise yourself uncovers who you subconsciously are or want to be. Masks reveal in the eyes the face that lies hidden as if the mask is a dark glass mirroring your soul.” ― Chloe Thurlow

20. “No one reveals himself as he is; we all wear a mask and play a role.” ― Arthur Schopenhauer

21. “Modern man has too many masks to wear. We must unmask and be ourselves, sincerely, earnestly and live truly as we are.” ― Gyomay M. Kubose

22. “Horror is the removal of masks.” ― Robert Bloch

23. “Everyone wears metaphorical masks during their lives. We all have different faces we show to work colleagues, or friends, or family. Sometimes we wear so many masks, we forget who we are underneath it all, but you have to find the courage to drop all the bullshit and reveal your true self.” ― Leisa Rayven

24. “Halloween is a day in which some people choose to wear a mask… while others finally feel safe to take theirs off.” ― Steve Maraboli

Mask quotes about the downsides of wearing one

A study published in the journal The Lancet Digital Health in April 2021 found that wearing masks can also help prevent the spread of other respiratory illnesses, such as influenza.

The researchers conducted a systematic review of 15 studies and concluded that mask-wearing can be an effective measure to reduce the transmission of various respiratory viruses.

25. “We understand how dangerous a mask can be. We all become what we pretend to be.” ― Patrick Rothfuss

26. “We all wear masks, and the time comes when we cannot remove them without removing some of our own skin.” ― André Berthiaume

27. “Wearing a mask wears you out. Faking it is fatiguing. The most exhausting activity is pretending to be what you know you aren’t.” ― Rick Warren

28. “You wear a mask for so long, you forget who you were beneath it.” ― Alan Moore

29. “A mask can be expedient when it’s a mask you know you’re wearing and can take off at will, but masks which are worn habitually cannot be removed without tearing off some of your real face.” ― Glenn Haybittle

30. “We put on masks we believe will be more acceptable to the world than the truth of who we are. In doing so, we sacrifice the gift of self-acceptance.” ― Jane Monica-Jones

31. “He often felt that too many people lived their lives acting and pretending; wearing masks and losing themselves in the process.” ― Nicholas Sparks

32. “The question to ask about the writer isn’t ‘Why does he behave so badly?’ but ‘What does he gain by wearing this mask?’” ― Philip Roth

33. “Masks are elaborate and everyone has one. It takes a while to get to know people. This doesn’t make them mysterious, it makes them like everyone else.” ― Donna Lynn Hope

Mask quotes about the humanity of wearing one

A survey conducted by the Pew Research Center in August 2020 found that 85% of Americans reported wearing masks in stores or other businesses all or most of the time.

This statistic suggests that mask-wearing has become a widely accepted practice in the United States, with the majority of people making a conscious effort to wear masks in public places.

34. “People seldom change. Only their masks do. It is only our perception of them and the perception they have of themselves that actually change.” ― Shannon L. Alder

35. “People wake up in the morning; there are many masks in their rooms, and today they decide which mask to wear! Man has only one face, but a thousand masks!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

36. “I imagine everyone wears layered masks, and parades around a variety or panoply of false selves depending on the occasion.” ― Wendy Hoffman

37. “Masks cannot change the real faces!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan

38. “People do not change. It is just that they change the masks they wear and the acts they put on, with new costumes, new dialogues, and new settings. That is human nature.” ― Ama H. Vanniarachchy

39. “I lie without a mask, thus I am an honest man.” ― Lionel Suggs

40. “Behind every mask, there is a face, and behind that a story.” ― Marty Rubin

41. “The human face is, after all, nothing more nor less than a mask.” ― Agatha Christie

42. “A name is a mask, a hiding place. We are all nameless inside.” ― Marty Rubin

Short mask quotes and sayings

43. “Virtue has a veil, vice a mask.” ― Victor Hugo

44. “With his mask and my sword, we could subdue even the shadows.” ― Nadine Brandes

45. “A red nose is the clown’s mask and my mustache is mine.” ― Nuno Roque

46. “We all wear masks, but it’s the one we choose to wear that makes a difference.” ― Kim Yannayon

47. “Every face is born with a thousand masks to go with it.” ― Marty Rubin

48. “Kings have no need of masks. A mask is a release from oneself, a respite.” ― Lydia Zinovieva-Annibal

49. “He smiled at her, the same smile stapled to the mask of every career politician.” ― Mandy Ashcraft

50. “Without wearing any mask we are conscious of, we have a special face for each friend.” ―Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

More mask quotes to ponder on

51. “No man, for any considerable period, can wear one face to himself and another to the multitude, without finally getting bewildered as to which may be the true.” ― Nathaniel Hawthorne

52. “Masked, I advance.” ― Rene Descartes

53. “Nothing is more real than the masks we make to show each other who we are.” ― Christopher Barzak

54. “We have to walk out on ourselves, expel ourselves from our inner castle, and drop our formatted masks if we want to encounter people in the flesh, without makeup. (“Steps in the unknown”)” ― Erik Pevernagie

55. “It’s good to see the snakes revealing themselves. They weren’t actually hidden at all. People hide behind the masks, but eventually you see them for who they truly are.” ― Amaka Imani Nkosazana

56. “I say what other people only think, and when all the rest of the world is in a conspiracy to accept the mask for the true face, mine is the rash hand that tears off the plump pasteboard, and shows the bare bones beneath.” ― Wilkie Collins

57. “Seven times have I despised my soul: The sixth time when she despised the ugliness of a face, and knew not that it was one of her own masks.” ― Kahlil Gibran

58. “I don’t care about a person’s culture. The person behind the cultural mask is what interests me.” ― Marty Rubin

59. “The more titles you carry with you, the more masks you find yourself hiding behind.” ― Alyssa Moon

60. “Sometimes, days and months of conversation cannot do what an hour of play can achieve. It might take an hour of play to know a person, real person lurking behind the mask.” ― Pragya Tiwari

Powerful mask quotes that will make you think

61. “Love takes off masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within.” ― James A. Baldwin

62. “Every profound spirit needs a mask.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

63. “I see behind each mask that wonder a kindred soul.” ― Walt Whitman

64. “I wear the mask. It does not wear me.” ― Phillippe, ‘Man in the Iron Mask’

65. “During times of war, hatred becomes quite respectable even though it has to masquerade often under the guise of patriotism.” ― Howard Thurman

66. “Stripped of all their masquerades, the fears of men are quite identical: the fear of loneliness, rejection, inferiority, unmanageable anger, illness and death.” ― Joshua L. Liebman

67. “The trouble with a mask is it never changes.” ― Charles Bukowski

68. “As we ascend the social ladder, viciousness wears a thicker mask.” ― Erich Fromm

69. “People are more complicated than the masks they wear in society.” ― Robert Greene

70. “The closing years of life are like the end of a masquerade party, when the masks are dropped.” ― Cesare Pavese

Mask Quotes To Unveil Your True Self

71. “So I learned to hold my tongue and to turn my features into an indifferent mask so that no one could ever read my thoughts.” ― Suzanne Collins

72. “Vice knows [its] ugly, so [it] puts on [a] mask.” ― Benjamin Franklin

73. “Wit is often a mask. If you tear it you will find either genius irritated or clever juggling.” ― Khalil Gibran

74. “Sometimes it’s not the people who change, it’s the mask that falls off.” ― Haruki Murakami

75. “Choose your self-presentations carefully, for what starts out as a mask may become your face.” ― Erving Goffman

76. “Acting is largely about putting on masks, and music is about removing them.” ― Hugh Laurie

77. “Dignity is a mask we wear to hide our ignorance.” ― Elbert Hubbard

78. “Sometimes wearing a mask is the best way to show our true selves.” ― Lisa Mangum

79. “Most lives are spent putting on and taking off masks.” ― Gore Vidal

80. “Behind this mask there is more than just flesh. Beneath this mask there is an idea… and ideas are bulletproof.” ― Alan Moore

Mask Quotes To Encourage You To Be Your Real Self

 81.”The only proper mask to wear in life is your own damn face.” —  Toni Cade Bambara.

82. “It’s true, we’re locked in an image, an act, and the sad thing is, people get so used to their image, they grow attached to their masks.” — Jim Morrison.

83. “A mask tells us more than a face.” — Oscar Wilde

84. “Masks were meant to be used for a reason and not to hide behind.” ― Anthony T. Hincks

85. “Do you not know that there comes a midnight hour when everyone has to throw off his mask?” — Soren Kierkegaard

86. “There come a time, when good man must wear mask.” — Tonto

87. “There are three masks: the one we think we are, the one we really are, and the one we have in common.” — Jacques Lecoq

88.  “When you wear the mask, the mask becomes you.” — Qiu Xiaolong

89. “We wear masks not to be something different, but to deny the ‘something different’ that we are without the mask.” ― Craig D. Lounsbrough

90. “No one can wear a mask for very long.” — Seneca the Younger

Mask Quotes To Cover Your Pain

91. “In order to find peace, we must expose the masks we use to hide behind.” ― Debbie Ford

92. “All of us have ways in which we mask and cover our pain.” ― Iyanla Vanzant

93. “She had never imagined that curiosty was one of the many masks of love .” ― Gabriel Garcia Marquez

94. “One of your greatest protections against making bad choices is to not put on any mask of anonymity.” ― Quentin L. Cook

95. “There’s nothing grimmer than the tragedy that wears a comic mask.” ― Edith Wharton

96. “It’s amazing what lies people can sustain behind the mask of their real faces.” ― Philip Roth

97. “The world puts off its mask of vastness to its lover. It becomes small as one song, as one kiss of the eternal.” ― Rabindranath Tagore

98. “I felt the mask crumple, the great poisonous store of corrosive ashes begin to spew out of my mouth.” ― Sylvia Plath

99. “I like the masks; because the real face of the mask is again itself!” ― Mehmet Murat Ildan

100. “No mask like open truth to cover lies, As to go naked is the best disguise.” ― William Congreve

Mask Quotes To Be In Your Most Comfortable State

101. “If you really want a life which has no boredom in it, drop all masks, be true. Sometimes it will be difficult, I know, but it is worth it. Be true.” — Rajneesh

102. “Do not mistake me for my mask. You see light dappling on the water and forget the deep, cold dark beneath.” — Patrick Rothfuss

103. “Unity of plan everywhere lies hidden under the mask: of diversity of structure-the complex is everywhere evolved out of the simple.” — Thomas Huxley

104. “It’s not often real that you encounter the real person behind a good-natured mask, the darkest part of someone. It’s not comfortable what you do.” — Veronica Roth

105. “If life gives you lemons, drink the juice in order to mask the presence of performing-enhancing drugs.” — Lance Armstrong

106. “I know that even the meanest person has still at his disposition high-sounding words wherewith to mask his real character.” — Henryk Sienkiewicz

107. “He wore his happiness like a mask and the girl had run off across the lawn with the mask and there was no way of going to knock on her door and ask for it back.” — Ray Bradbury

108. “My own mask stayed just where it ought. I’ve had lots of practice.” — Franny Billingsley

109. “If you want a lover I’ll do anything you ask me to. And if you want another kind of love I’ll wear a mask for you.” — Leonard Cohen

110. “The truth was only another mask, even if it was the best fit, the closest to skin and all that lay beneath.” — Michelle Sagara

Mask Quotes on The Duality of Masks

111. “A mask is a disguise that reveals as much as it conceals.” ― Carl Jung

112. “The mask is a symbol of one’s true self.” ― Søren Kierkegaard

113. “The mask is the face one gives to the world.” ― Confucius

114. “The mask can be a liberating experience, but it can also be a trap.” ― Virginia Woolf

115. “The mask is a disguise for the soul.” ― Plato

116. “The mask is a prison for the true self.” ― Friedrich Nietzsche

117. “The mask is a way of hiding what is harmful, but it can also hide what is beautiful.” ― Alexander McQueen

118. “The mask is a tool for transformation, but it can also be a barrier to authentic self-expression.” ― RuPaul

118. “The mask is a symbol of the masks we all wear in life.” ― Anne Hathaway

120. “The mask is a manifestation of the duality of human nature.” ― Noam Chomsky

What did you learn from these mask quotes?

Mask wearing is not a new concept and happens because people are vulnerable.

The root of the reason behind why we wear them comes down to coping and protecting ourselves.

Most people will try to fit into whatever box they feel like society has put them in.

Imposter syndrome and low self-esteem are other reasons someone might wear a mask.

Fear and insecurity are feelings most humans wish to avoid.

We don’t want someone to see the real us and find us lacking.

So it’s easier to define ourselves by titles, roles, and belief systems.

Beneath all of that, though, we are each just who we are.

The beauty is that that’s enough even though it might be scary.

I hid behind the mask of having a master’s and being a professional, so people wouldn’t know I was the unwanted daughter of a drug addict.

I didn’t want to be that, so I set off to live a life as far removed from it as possible.

However, the truth is I always wanted to be a writer, and someone gifted me with a story to tell.

So, I stopped fighting it, and life is much simpler.

What’s your biggest takeaway from these mask quotes and sayings?

What mask have you taken off recently?

Share your story in the comment section below.