Quotes About Self-esteem

I don't like being retired. It's like announcing an end to your worth, whatever that worth was, and the longer you go on, the more you realize that that worth wasn't worth anything like you once thought it was, and that just makes it worse.

Confidence was a seed that could grow in any soil, no matter how impoverished. She had seen as much again and again.

Exploit aggression, but only in self-defence, the kind of self-defence that announces to all the implacability of your armour, your self-assurance, and affirms the sanctity of your self-esteem. Attack when you must, but not in arrogance. Defend when your values are challenged, but never with the wild fire of anger. Against attackers, your surest defence is cold iron. Against defenders, often the best tactic is to sheathe your weapon and refuse the game.

To listen to critics, pro or con, and take their words to heart is to subcontract your self-esteem to strangers. (from Workbook)

Regard—the ability to recognize your strengths and weaknesses and to feel good about yourself despite your weaknesses; and Self-Actualization—the ability to persistently try to improve yourself and pursue meaningful goals that lead to a richer life.

Kessa ran her fingers over her stomach. Flat. But was it flat enough? Not quite. She still had some way to go. Just to be safe, she told herself. Still, it was nice the way her pelvic bones rose like sharp hills on either side of her stomach. I love bones. Bones are beautiful.

From the newsstands a dozen models smiled up at her from a dozen magazine covers, smiled in thin-faced, high-cheekboned agreement to Kessa's new discovery. They knew the secret too. They knew thin was good, thin was strong; thin was safe.

She used to look forward to changing in the locker room when other girls stole shocked glances at her emaciated body last spring. Now they would look at her and think she was fat--just as fat as all the other girls, maybe even fatter. Nothing separated her from the parade of thunder thighs trooping up the stairs from the locker room to the gym.

She sat for a long time in the chair, rocking gently, wishing she were thinner. Somehow that would make all of this turmoil vanish.

Conspiracy theories may also allow people to feel that they possess rare, important information that other people do not have, making them feel special and thus boosting their self-esteem.

I have an inferiority complex, but it's not a very good one.

Always try to be modest, and be proud of it!

You can't base your life on other people's expectations.

I think if you exercise, your state of mind - my state of mind - is usually more at ease, ready for more mental challenges. Once I get the physical stuff out of the way it always seems like I have more calmness and better self-esteem.

I felt gaunt and old and hideous; all this without a mirror before me, other than his eyes.

Calling them creatures merely assists them to intimidate you.

Pride is a powerful narcotic, but it doesn't do much for the auto-immune system.

We don't want to eliminate the ego completely. Otherwise we'd be wandering around the house each morning, drinking coffee for hours, saying, 'Who the hell am I?' We need the ego to sustain a sense of identity.

Most people were raised to think they are not worthy. School is a process of taking beautiful kids who are filled with life and beating them into happy slavery. That's as true of a twenty-five-thousand-dollar-a-year executive as it is for the poorest." Bill Talcott - Organizer

My husband would look at the women in those nudie magazines and say, "How come you don't have any chest?" And I said to him, "When you married me, I didn't have a chest. But when I married you, you had a full head of hair."

Insecure people have a special sensitivity for anything that finally confirms their own low opinion of themselves.

The tyranny of Venus is felt whenever a woman thinks—or whenever a man thinks and tells a woman—that her hips are too wide, her thighs are too large, her breasts are too small, her waist is too high, her legs are too short to meet the current erotic standard.

From the age of ten I was a full blown fuzz ball to the point that my so-called friends called me 'Hairy McLary From Donaldson's Dairy.'

Jon Stewart says that he was a little kid with a big head. He had very little athletic ability. He went out to the soccer field, and it was awful.