Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian writer whose work, both fiction (“Half of a Yellow Sun”) and nonfiction (“Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions”), tackles social issues such as race, identity, and gender equality. Her voice, celebrated for its uncompromising confidence, is perfectly captured in this quote, which reminds us — and women especially — that spending too much time worrying about what others think can be distracting and detrimental to our lives and our work. Instead, Adichie urged, it’s important to embrace exactly who we are; in doing so, we can find and live our whole truth.