Quotes About Self-doubt

Almost all the ideas we have about being a man or being a woman are so burdened with pain, anxiety, fear and self-doubt. For many of us, the confusion around this question is excruciating.

I'm too shy for personal appearances, and I've found out that anytime I talk about my writing, I can't do any writing for many weeks afterward.

Sometimes confidence can lead you to accept the first decent idea instead of to really strive to even discard that and go for the ultimate great idea. So in a weird way, I think confidence is overrated sometimes.

I personally think I have a weird face.

I've not always played well for City, but I'd never been the scapegoat, coming off at half-time when in my head I thought I was having a decent game. It was weird, unnatural, it had never happened to me before and it felt like no matter what I did it wasn't good enough any more.

Public speaking is not something my mind and body are able to do easily. I sweat profusely with shaky hands to match a voice that sometimes cracks. I wake up in the middle of the night obsessing over what I said and if it sounded weird or if I shouldn't have said that.

I always thought models had to fit a certain mould. I never thought I had what it takes. I'm too small and my look's pretty weird.

The weird thing was that while the bullying was happening, I thought I was doing something wrong, that I was the bad person. Now I understand it wasn't like that at all.

My dad, he would go through these periods of self-doubt. We'd do something that was controversial or that wasn't welcomed by everybody, and he'd go, 'Well, Shirley, our parents cursed us with ethics, and we passed it on to our children.'

We face a conflict between civilisation and culture, which used to be on the same side. Civilisation means rational reflection, material wellbeing, individual autonomy and ironic self-doubt; culture means a form of life that is customary, collective, passionate, spontaneous, unreflective and irrational.

While Muslim men describe themselves as insecure in their harems, real or imagined, Westerners describe themselves as self-assured heroes with no fears of women. The tragic dimension so present in Muslim harems - fear of women and male self-doubt - is missing in the Western harem.

Famous people I've interviewed - powerful people, brilliant people, people whom you look at and think, 'Seriously, do you not have pores?' - have turned to me after interviews and asked, 'Was I okay? I hope I was okay.'

I always had a thought about acting but it never seemed practical to take it as an option because I do not have acting or theatre background.

I think I'm somebody who takes praise with a very big - probably too big - pinch of salt.

Could I be a good mom? That's a dream, I pray that I'll be the best mom ever. But I don't know. It's so important to me.

Thinking things like, 'I will never get hired for this job,' or 'Nobody ever listens to me,' can alter your behavior in a way that makes those predictions come true.

What happened during my first pregnancy was that I took a lot of hormones. I had problems with my pregnancy and I was bed-ridden. I had tonnes of issues but it was my mental state that consumed me. I felt like I failed at myself.

I've never had that dream in my head: 'I want to play Bundesliga or Premier League.' I was a fan, but it was never the dream that one day I was going to make it, because a lot of people had told me already that I wouldn't.

I just can't stand the sound of my voice sometimes, or how my face looks. There are always a few times at every premiere when I just have to cover my eyes when I'm up there.

I'm never going to write a book like Anthony Sher did, you know, 'The Broadcaster Prepares.' I'm only talking to myself. I'd have liked to be a writer, or a journalist, but if things don't come easy to me I don't do them. I think if you're always thinking how difficult something is, you shouldn't be doing it.

The problem is that right from the beginning, there was this whole pressure that I've had to make it big. I don't know if it's my fault or if someone else created this atmosphere around me, but it's been there.

I'd like to think I could do something great - a performance like Meryl Streep's in 'Sophie's Choice' - at some point in my life. At the same time, though, I don't want to put too much pressure on myself to be great.

At this level, you put a lot of pressure on yourself as a player to perform and do well.

When you get to an event like the Olympic Games, you can put too much pressure on yourself.