This line says that a person’s real wealth is inner ownership. If you do not possess yourself your values, your choices, your voice then everything else you own amounts to nothing of substance.
The plain meaning
- A good life depends on self possession.
- Status, comfort, and praise are empty if they cost you your integrity.
- To have yourself means you choose your path, accept the consequences, and can look yourself in the eye.
The deeper ideas behind it
- Agency
You are the primary author of your life. Without agency you drift on other people’s plans. - Integrity
Your actions match your beliefs. Integrity turns a life into a coherent story rather than scattered scenes. - Responsibility
Owning choices includes owning outcomes. Blame is a way to avoid the work of being someone. - Courage
Choosing for yourself often requires facing fear, loss, or disapproval. Courage protects integrity when it is tested. - Authenticity
You measure success by fidelity to your character, not by applause or comparison.
What this line rejects
- Living for approval instead of principle.
- Trading conviction for convenience.
- Defining worth by possessions, titles, or trends.
- Hiding behind excuses when decisions go badly.
Everyday examples
- Career
Turning down a promotion that violates your ethics, or leaving a stable job to build work that aligns with your values. - Relationships
Saying a clear yes or no, setting boundaries, and choosing partners based on shared principles rather than pressure. - Creative work
Publishing what you truly believe, even if it attracts fewer clicks, because your name is on it. - Sport or training
Refusing shortcuts that undermine the meaning of the achievement, so the result remains yours in fact and in feeling.
How to live it
- Ask before big choices: If I say yes, do I lose or keep myself
- Write down your core rules, then audit your week against them.
- Accept the bill for your decisions. Pay it without self pity.
- Practice small acts of honesty to keep your inner compass calibrated.
- Build a circle that respects truth over flattery.
Bottom line
To “have himself” is to keep authorship of one’s life. Everything external fades if it is won by abandoning that authorship. Everything modest becomes meaningful if it is chosen with integrity.
