Always be a first-rate ...

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
 Judy Garland

More phrases

If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable.
What a distressing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of the child and the feeble mentality of the average adult.
We are masters of the unsaid words, but slaves of those we let slip out.
I have always found that mercy bears richer fruits than strict justice.
A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.

Quotes from the same author

For it was not into my ear you whispered, but into my heart. It was not my lips you kissed, but my soul.
 Judy Garland
[On daughter Liza Minnelli] I think she decided to go into show business when she was an embryo, she kicked so much.
 Judy Garland
When you have lived the life I've lived, when you've loved and suffered, and been madly happy and desperately sad -- well, that's when you realize you'll never be able to set it all down. Maybe you'd rather die first.
 Judy Garland
'Twas not my lips you kissed but my soul.
 Judy Garland
He gave me a look at myself I've never had before. He saw something in me nobody else ever did. He made me see it too. He made me believe it.
 Judy Garland