Quotes About Insecurity

Her life was a series of zigzags. At nineteen, she was anxious.

Was life, were human relations like this always, Therese wondered. Never solid ground underfoot. Always like gravel, a little yielding, noisy so the whole world could hear, so one always listened, too, for the loud, harsh step of the intruder's foot.

Therese had read about that special pleasure people got from the fact that someone they loved was attractive in the eyes of other people, too. She simply didn't have it.

This was the end of Dickie Greenleaf, he knew. He hated becoming Thomas Ripley again, hated being nobody, hated putting on his old set of habits again, and feeling that people looked down on him and were bored with him unless he put on an act for them like a clown, feeling incompetent and incapable of doing anything with himself except entertaining people for minutes at a time.

Was life, were human relations like this always, Therese wondered. Never solid ground underfoot. Always like gravel, a little yielding, noisy so the whole world could hear, so one always listened, too, for the loud, harsh step of the intruder's foot.

It might destroy everything, even the solidity of Carol's body beside her, and the bend of Carol's body in the black sweater seemed the only solid thing in the world.

I had depressing thoughts that the theme, even though I had thought of it, was better than I was as a writer. Henry James or Thomas Mann could easily write it, but not I. 'I'm thinking of writing it from the point of view of someone at the hotel who observes her,' I said, but this did not fill me with much hope. Then my friend, who is not a writer, suggested I try it from the omniscient author's point of view.

And she wondered, as she had often wondered before, if Richard liked her only because she was more sympathetic with his ambitions than anyone else he happened to know now, and because he felt her criticism was a help to him.

Schopenhauer had said it years ago: "Vulgar people take huge delight in the faults and follies of great men.

Vulgar people take huge delight in the faults and follies of great men.

If you had as much sense as a half-witted hummingbird, you would realize that I am interested in how big I am—not how big you are. All this talk about your enormous success makes me feel small and unimportant.]

Madmen in authority, who hear voices in the air, are distilling their frenzy from some academic scribbler of a few years back.

She feels ugly when she cries, like a tomato breaking open

Small minds have always lashed out at what they don't understand.

Only one form of contagion travels faster than a virus. And that's fear.

Fear cripples faster than any implement of war.

It sounds as if you are trapped in a cycle of thinking about yourself and how you don't belong in the world.

Only one form of contagion travels faster than a virus, Sinskey thought. And that's fear.

El miedo mutila con más rapidez que cualquier arma de guerra

She looked at me as if I might be one of them a spy from the world of the ignorant.

You don't worry unless you care. Concern reveals thoughtfulness and sensitivity. Insecurity reflects a desire to do well and to prove yourself. Shyness reminds you that you want to be liked and to make a good impression. Anger indicates passionate involvement or desire to be involved. Depression may indicate a sensitive soul, grieving for the world. Accepting your emotions sometimes means appreciating the positive lessons contained in negative emotions.

Hobbes's Leviathan. Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

She doesn't know how to talk about herself. She is very, very good at telling other people's stories. She is known, as a producer, to be an unusually good reader of scripts when it comes to character and motivation. She has an excellent sense of structure. But her cheeks redden and she stumbles when she tries to share in meetings. It's as if the whole of her life rushes in, and she doesn't know where to begin.

Threats to our standing in the eyes of others are remarkably potent biologically, almost as powerful as those to our very survival.