Quotes About Self-doubt

No matter how many times the world had attempted to show me how special I was, I had always remained sure that it was all a hoax, that I really wasn't special after all. That I had nothing to offer.

Anna: Since my opening last year...I'm disgusting. Larry: You're phenomenal. You're so clever.

Why am I so diffident and apprehensive when it comes to something that means a lot to me?

You always assume you're the least-wanted person there. The one everyone else could do without.

Doesn't a part of you think you're making a big deal out of not very much? That if you were somehow not so weak, you could be happy and free just like everyone else?

It does not matter what you think, the monster said, because you mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day.

The answer is that it does not matter what you think, the monster said, because your mind will contradict itself a hundred times each day.

The World needs people like you. . . . You get things done. Not always the best way, or the most sensible way, but it gets done nonetheless. You're a rare creature. . . . Something bothers you, . . . and suddenly you're off. 'I'm not always so terribly sure of myself,' I admitted. Simmon smiled. 'I find that strangely reassuring.

Era...- Kvothe tenía la cabeza tan agachada que parecía que hablaba con sus manos, recogidas sobre el regazo-. ¿Que estoy haciendo? -Dijo con voz débil, como si tuviera la boca llena de grises cenizas-. ¿Para qué puede servir esto? ¿Cómo puedo explicárosla si yo nunca la he entendido?

By contrast, what did I have to offer? Nothing really. Less now. I was more like a curious stone that is picked up, carried a while, and finally dropped again with the realization that for all its interesting look, it is nothing more than hardened earth.

Bad enough to be a lettuce. How awful to think you are a lettuce too.

She looked at me. Looked away. "You think too much of me." I smiled. "Perhaps you think too little of yourself.

Imagine knowing that you're good at something, so good that the world would be in awe of you if they could see your work, and then keeping yourself a secret from the world.

Once you turn against yourself, it's hard not to believe that everyone else is against you, too

Picking a fight with the biggest guy in the room might look like a useful way to assess how tough I am, but if this is why I'm doing it, then I'm not tough at all—I'm painfully insecure. Similarly, choosing to mountain-climb in the service of mettle-testing might reflect your self-doubt, not your courage and taste for adventure.

He had to pause for his usual misgivings.

Because when you stopped being a teenager, you started feeling less sure of yourself, and not everything seemed like it was life and death.

What had happened was this. When still young, I had gotten the idea from somewhere that I might be able to write... Maybe the deadly notion came from liking to read so much. Maybe I was in love with the image of being a writer. Whatever. It had been a really bad idea. Because I couldn't write, at least not by the bluntly and frequently expressed standards of anyone in a position to offer any encouragement and feedback.

I'm kind of a failure. I mean, I'll be honest. I'm successful in that I'm getting to work on great stuff, but I think I'm a failure in all the personal stuff that is most important to me.

What was happening was not exactly calculated to make the boy happy, or gregarious. On the contrary. He withdrew still further within himself. He became more shy and self-accusing. He was convinced that he was no good for anything and never would be.

People who do good work often think that whatever they're working on is no good. Others see what they've done and think it's wonderful, but the creator sees nothing but flaws. This pattern is no coincidence: worry made the work good.

Toxic relationships are crazy-making. In them, we question our truths and doubt our reality.

Even though I've written more than a hundred short stories I always think that I will never come up with another decent one. It's agony.

He wondered if he'd completely lost his mind, but then figured that people who'd gone insane never wondered if they'd gone insane.