Quotes About Self-doubt

I never felt that I had the natural intellectual gifts that the people who graduate first in their class from Harvard Law had.

I never thought that I was very intelligent.

I don't think I'm that intelligent. I think I'm semi-intelligent.

I don't think I'm intelligent to become an MP!

It's been so difficult to watch people criticize me and my intentions.

I came to darts from rugby and I was chucked into the deep end. Back then I never thought I could talk to anyone in an interview. But if you put me up to speak in front of 10 or 20 people now I still couldnt do that.

I bumped into every kind of disappointment, and was frustrated at every turn. Roles promised me were given to other players, pictures that offered me a chance were shelved, no one was particularly interested in me, and I had not developed a strength of personality to make anyone believe I had special talents. I wanted so desperately to succeed that I drove myself relentlessly, taking no time off for pleasures, or for friendships." - Jean Arthur

Joan Blondell] biographer, Matthew Kennedy, quotes her as admitting, "If I had taken myself more seriously . . . if I had fought for better roles as, say, Bette Davis did . . . I think I might have been a damned good dramatic actress. But it was just my way; I don't think I ever had the security of feeling confident in myself, really, ever. I used to think, 'I'm just lucky to be here!

The average person thinks he isn't.

You knock yourself down. You don't think much of yourself. That's an uncomfortable feeling. So you project it on others and say, 'They don't like me.

I am not good. Something in Faith's head broke free, beating black wings into the sky. Nobody good could feel what I feel. I am wicked and deceitful and full of rage. I cannot be saved. She did not feel hot or helpless any more. She felt the way snakes looked when they moved.

The Great Outside that had filled Neverfell's thoughts had noticed her and judged her. It had found her wanting. No, worse than that, it had screamed in horror and disgust and fled from her.

Those people who look so together. They're as insecure as anyone. Maybe more so. You're as smart as any of them.

To be a screenwriter is to deal with an ongoing tug of war between breathtaking megalomania and insecurity so deep it takes years of therapy just to be able to say "I'm a writer" out loud.

Every day I must prove to myself I am a writer. The knowledge goes away in my sleep. What I wrote yesterday was paltry, meager, so flawed it is barely anything. Or, if it is good, I am no longer the person who could write it.

It's as if I have my own persona satan trolling at my shoulder, sowing doubt at every turn. The little divil sprays emotional graffiti all over the walls of my self-respect. But the little divil is me, so why would I put myself through this?

part of the human condition is that all decent people think they are phonies and don't belong at some point or another.

You want to do something, but you are afraid, seriously afraid. You can't move. Your legs feel like rubber. Your arms tingle. And you hate yourself for that.

She gave lip service to the world: she went through the motions of complying with the regulations governing the behavior of teenaged girls from good families; she developed a halfway interest in clothes, boys, hairdos, gossip, and female aspirations; but she was uneasy all the time she was away from the security of those who she knew loved her.

When Alexandra went to finishing school, self-doubt could not be found in any textbook, so she knew not its meaning; she was never bored, and given the slightest chance she would exercise her royal prerogative: she would arrange, advise, caution, and warn.

Questioning ourselves for being oversensitive is a common way that women, in particular, disqualify our legitimate anger and hurt. ...The fact that some of us feel more vulnerable than others in a particular context does not mean we are weak or lesser in any way.

The thing I'm most afraid of is me. Of not knowing what I'm going to do. Of not knowing what I'm doing right now

What if I've forgotten the most important thing?

I can never say what I want to say, it's been like this for a while now. I try to say something but all I get are wrong words - the wrong words or the exact opposite words from what I mean. I try to correct myself, and that only makes it worse. I lose track of what I was trying to say to begin with. It's like I'm split in two and playing tag with myself. One half is chasing this big, fat post. The other me has the right words, but this can't catch her.