Quotes About Self-doubt

I worried so much about how i looked and whether i was doing things right, i felt half the time i was impersonating a girl instead of really being one. - Lily

I cannot ignore this murderous self: it is there. I smell it and feel it. . . . When it says: you shall not sleep, you cannot teach, I shall go on anyway, knocking its nose in. Its biggest weapon is and has been the image of myself as a perfect success: in writing, teaching and living. . . . My demon of negation will tempt me day by day, and I'll fight it, as something other than my essential self, which I am fighting to save.20

She was afraid to want things for herself. She didn't think she deserved them.

Fear of having done the wrong thing—fear that having done this one great thing, he would never again be able to accomplish anything of great worth—fear of age, of insufficiency, of unmet promise. All such endless fears, that are the doom of people given the gift of making, and lie always somewhere in their minds.

The Three P's": Perfectionism, Procrastination, and Paralysis.

Paul's stepfather had implanted in Paul the need to be perfect—Perfectionism. Paul's fear of failing to do things perfectly led him to postpone doing them—Procrastination. But the more Paul put things off, the more they overwhelmed him, and his snowballing fears eventually prevented him from doing anything at all—Paralysis.

On her worst days, she feared she was actually less. And that truth had defined the rest of her life.

You're letting the fear win and that makes you small.

What she hadn't counted on was the fact that she couldn't see a way out. Which would have been something she could manage if only she'd been able to pretend that she wasn't the problem. Because her being the problem implied the only thing standing between her and happiness was herself, and how on earth was she supposed to fix that?

I hated when people said I was talented. At this point I would have much preferred they told me that I sucked, that I should give it up, go back to school, find a new career.

Author describes that a failed sea captain, "vacillated miserably between self-recrimination and defensiveness.

right, are you lass? You're not

Like most good looking women, she was never sure of her beauty, and had to keep checking on it, to make sure it was still there.

Well, I mean I have forgotten how to go anywhere alone. There are things you have to do. Like throw money into a toll basket on a highway. I'd pull up to it now and panic. Or what if I had to hail a cab? It's hard to believe, but I used to be able to do things when I was twenty that are impossible now [...] It's more than the physical task. It's ...a vision of yourself. If you don't see yourself as being able to do it, then you can't, no matter how easy it is.

Looking up from the blank page to the blinking clock, he discovered it was only three-fifteen. He decided that today was perhaps the longest day of his life. Not only had he been called an idiot to his face, but he could do nothing to counter that opinion, because

Lincoln said at the end of the affair that he'd never marry, because "I can never be satisfied with any one who would be block-head enough to have me.

80% of people's problems are about how they feel about themselves.

How many geniuses die undiscovered, not only by others but, more sadly, by themselves?

I am afraid I shall disappoint people's expectations dreadfully.

But Reason's voice could not always be heard above the clamour of self-doubt

Getting out of bed in the morning is an act of false confidence.

Der Physiker, allein gelassen, erhebt die eigene Existenz zum Zweifelsfall und ermittelt gegen sich selbst.

Never talk yourself out of knowing you're in love or into thinking that you are.

You interrupted the daily conversation between my ears that went something like this: What is wrong with you Julia?