Definition of "I"

[…] It ill beſeemes a knight of gentle ſort, / Such as ye haue him boaſted, to beguyle / A ſimple maide, and worke ſo hainous tort, / In ſhame of knighthood, as I largely can report.

1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, page 414

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1854, Gustave Chouquet, Easy Conversations in French‎, page 9:Here I am, sir.

I know I have a pen, though… Audio (US)(file)

2016, VOA Learning English (public domain)

Sweet Baſſanio, My ſhips haue all miſcarried, my Creditors grow cruell, my eſtate is very low: my bond to the Iew is forfet, and ſince in paying it, it is impoſſible I ſhould liue, all debts are cleered betweene you and I if I might but ſee you at my death.

c. 1596–1598 (date written), W[illiam] Shakespeare, The Excellent History of the Merchant of Venice. […] (First Quarto), [London]: […] J[ames] Roberts [for Thomas Heyes], published 1600, [Act III, scene ii]

Old pirates, yes, they rob ISold I to the merchant shipsMinutes after they took IFrom the bottomless pit.

1980, Bob Marley, Redemption Song

They are called men, becauſe each of them poſſeſſeth the whole man, though not wholly. There are by their means two I’s in every believer, Rom. vii. 15. For that which I do, I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. There is not one part of the man that is in Chriſt, but grace has a part of it, and corruption has a part of it: as in the twilight there is light over all, and darkneſs over all too, the darkneſs being mixed in every part with the light. So my renewed part is I, a man having an underſtanding enlightened, a will renewed, affections ſpiritualized, uſing my body conform: but my unrenewed part is I too, having an underſtanding darkened, a will rebellious, affections corrupted, and uſing my body accordingly.

a. 1733, Thomas Boston, edited by [Thomas Boston the younger], Sermons and Discourses on Several Important Subjects in Divinity. […], volume I, Edinburgh: […] William Gray, […], published 1753, page 333

In other words, he said: “I have two natures. I have a flesh nature, an outside nature, and that keeps sinning; and then I have another nature—an inside, a spiritual nature—and that does not like sinning; and with my heart-power, my conscience-power, my love-power, with the power of the divine element that is in me, I look and see what this body outside, which clothes me, is trying to do. And here are two I’s that are fighting. The inside I is arrayed against the outside I; and the outside has the advantage.”

1873, Henry Ward Beecher, “Paul”, in The Great Bible Renowns, page 45

Am I a double personality? Are there two “I’s” in my anatomy—one a conscious “I,” giving attention to what I am doing, and another unconscious “I,” giving attention to something entirely different?

1916, S. A. Steel, “Down the James Long Ago—I”, in Christian Advocate, volume 77, page 1094, column 1

B. (smiling): Have you come to examine me? You must say who you are. / D.: However much I may try, I do not seem to catch the ‘I’. It is not even clearly discernible. / B.: Who is it that says that the ‘I’ is not discernible? Are there two ‘I’s in you, that one is not discernible to the other?

1962, Arthur Osborne, editor, The Teachings of Bhagavan Sri Ramana Maharshi in His Own Words, London: Rider & Company, published 1975, page 122

Who is it that says that ‘I’ is not perceptible? Is there an ignorant ‘I’ and an elusive ‘I’? Are there two ‘I’s in the same person? It is the mind that says that ‘I’ is not perceptible. Where is that mind from? Know the mind. You will find it a myth. / We all feel that there is only one I; not two, one ignorant of the other.

2011, Michael Gluckman, Making Your Wisdom Come Alive: A Guide to the Source of Your Wisdom and Joy, Light Up Your Life