Quotes About Self-perception

TAL HAD TO laugh. Hardly presentable! Wasn't it strange, the way humans looked at themselves with eyes of flesh and not of the Spirit? Certainly that dear woman had been through mire and filth of every degree; she was scarred, exhausted, ragged, and dirty. But to the angels, she appeared as God Himself saw her, just as any other redeemed saint of the living God: pure, shining, clean, dressed in garments as white as snow.

Intellectuals are not defined according to the jobs they do, but [by] the manner in which they act, the way they see themselves, and the values that they uphold.

you were made in the image of god I was not I was made in the image of a sissy truck-driver

I may be wicked, but I'm not bad.

Language-trained apes often give the impression that they regard themselves as almost human, such as when, while sorting pictures of humans from those of other animals, they put their own portrait on the human pile. They obviously sympathize with the people that surround them: they want to fit in, and to be like them.

The oppressed will always believe the worst about themselves.

Age is whatever you think it is. You are as old as you think you are. —MUHAMMAD ALI

Every man is a hero of his own story.

Power was an illusion of perception, as Jasnah had said. The first step to being in control was to see yourself as capable of being in control.

Your ego doesn't count as a separate individual, Shallan.

Me considero un hombre de principios. Pero ¿qué hombre no se considera tal? Incluso el asesino, según he advertido, interpreta sus acciones como «morales». Tal vez otra persona, al leer mi vida, me considere un tirano religioso. Puede llamarme arrogante. ¿Qué hace que la opinión de ese hombre sea menos válida que la mía propia? Supongo que todo se reduce a una sola cosa: al final, soy yo quien tiene los ejércitos de su parte.

if he believed he didn't have to care, then he didn't need to hurt when he failed.

I genuinely believe that I'm an advanced, well-armed, stealth-capable ship because it will help me harvest fungi better. This is not at all irrational.

Shame is the intensely painful feeling or experience of believing that we are flawed and therefore unworthy of love and belonging. 1

Researchers Tamara Ferguson, Heidi Eyre, and Michael Ashbaker have found that "unwanted identity" is one of the primary elicitors of shame. They explain that unwanted identities are characteristics that undermine our vision of our ideal selves.

We feel shame. We think self-esteem. Our self-esteem is based on how we see ourselves—our strengths and limitations—over time. It is how and what we think of ourselves. Shame is an emotion. It is how we feel when we have certain experiences. When we are in shame, we don't see the big picture; we don't accurately think about our strengths and limitations. We just feel alone, exposed and deeply flawed. My friend and

The majority of shame researchers and clinicians agree that the difference between shame and guilt is best understood as the difference between "I am bad" and "I did something bad." Guilt = I did something bad. Shame = I am bad.

What's the difference between shame and guilt? The majority of shame researchers and clinicians agree that the difference between shame and guilt is best understood as the differences between "I am bad" and "I did something bad." Guilt = I did something bad. Shame = I am bad.

the difference between shame and guilt is best understood as the differences between "I am bad" and "I did something bad." Guilt = I did something bad. Shame = I am bad. Shame is about who we are, and guilt is about our behaviors.

We know from the research that unwanted identity is the most powerful elicitor of shame.

I highly recommend Kilbourne's and Katz's DVDs—they've changed the way I see the world and myself. (Jean Kilbourne's latest DVD is Killing Us Softly 4,6 and Katz's DVD is titled Tough Guise: Violence, Media, and the Crisis in Masculinity.7)

we unwittingly project onto God our own attitudes and feelings toward ourselves... But we cannot assume that He feels about us the way we feel about ourselves -- unless we love ourselves compassionately, intensely, and freely.

And Grace calls out, 'You are not just a disillusioned old man who may die soon, a middle-aged woman stuck in a job and desperately wanting to get out, a young person feeling the fire in the belly begin to grow cold. You may be insecure, inadequate, mistaken or potbellied. Death, panic, depression, and disillusionment may be near you. But you are not just that. You are accepted.' Never confuse your perception of yourself with the mystery that you really are accepted.

We hide what we know or feel ourselves to be (which we assume to be unacceptable and unlovable) behind some kind of appearance which we hope will be more pleasing. We hide behind pretty faces which we put on for the benefit of our public. And in time we may even come to forget that we are hiding, and think that our assumed pretty face is what we really look like.