Insecurity Quotes

“It is not greed that drives the world but envy.”
― Warren Buffett

“I've always felt the need to prove myself against other people. I mean, I'm quite a weak person physically, and I think in school, I wouldn't say I was bullied but you do feel scared sometimes, or frightened, and the only thing I thought I had that was different from other people was the fact that I was actually quite intelligent. I like reading and passing exams or whatever. But even things like A-Levels - say somebody else got straight As - I would not feel as good as them, because I didn't know what percentages we had. I wanted to know that I had ninety-eight per cent and they had ninety-five per cent. It wasn't enough. I felt next to somebody with the same qualifications as me, I would not feel as good. You don't even know what it means. So you're constantly trying to get better and improve all the time.”
― Rob Jovanovic, A Version of Reason: In Search of Richey Edwards

“In my experience, insecure people constantly need to show that they are superior to others, whether they are or not, and they will often stoop to unscrupulous tactics to achieve this, the most common being to persistently mock, criticize, and put others down, the objective being to lower the status of the other person in the eyes of others, thus easing their own feelings of insecurity, and inadequacy. Secure people, on the other hand, do not have this need.”
― Robert Black, Laowai

“There are certain points I do not yet understand:
They will be clear later. I am also convinced
That you only hold a fragment of the explanation.
It is only because of what you do not understand
That you feel the need to declare what you do.
There is more to understand: hold fast to that
As the way to freedom.”
― T.S. Eliot, The Family Reunion

“Much of our waking life is spent in a desperate struggle to persuade others that we are not what we fear ourselves to be, or what they may discover us to be if they see through our pretenses. Most people, most of the time, have a profound and unhappy awareness of the contrast between what they are and what they ought to be.”
― David Smail, Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety

“The greatest feeling
of being with you,
was the fact that I was
no longer left alone with me.”
― Anan$i, 88

“Your ego lives inside you but she is not you; she is your close cousin. We always react more when a family member is hurt. That’s why you react when your dear cousin Ego gets hurt. Your core self is very secure and untroubled by what people say.”
― Shunya

“Even a soft pillow can become a problem if you permanently stitch it around your neck.”
― Shunya

“Other people's happiness is the single most annoying thing to bitter people.”
― Wayne Gerard Trotman

“The ones to fear are those who cannot realize it: the ones who just see the structure and bind themselves to it because they are otherwise afraid. They look at the structure, and they just see no other way. They cannot seek anything beyond it or do not want to. Yet, they will also vehemently deny that they are unable to venture beyond the structure and castigate others they perceive to have that inability so as to make themselves feel superior. They will even delude themselves into assuming that they are free of structural influence and will violently oppose any who say otherwise. They will say that the structures are a pragmatic necessity for social cohesion, but that they, even as willing participants in it, remain capable of acknowledging external terms and associations. They just choose not to—that’s the line they go with. They choose the structure for a lack of any better alternative and will not go
without one. Perhaps they are naïve, in that sense, and it is easy for them to believe that those who seek to negate their structures are either unscrupulous, foolish, or ego-driven.”
― Ashim Shanker, trenches parallax leapfrog

“For he himself had experienced to the full the gnawing fear at the bottom of each woman’s heart that she is a drag on the man she loves.”
― John Galsworthy, The Forsyte Saga

“For shy people the Other is everywhere, and it never occurs to them that they could be the Other for others, that anyone could care what they thought about things.”
― David Smail, Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety

“When you feel secure, you can be the best version of yourself. Insecurity brings out the worst version of you.”
― Shunya

“It is not greed that drives the but envy.”
― Warren Buffett

“What did you get, Mr Edwards?'
'Three As.'
'And what were you expecting?'
Mr Edwards looks right into the camera and, completely deadpan, says,
'Three As.'

For Edwards, the perfectionist, this still wasn't good enough. He wanted no, needed - to be the best and a simple grade wasn't enough to confirm this, even to himself.”
― Rob Jovanovic, A Version of Reason: In Search of Richey Edwards

“When I got my A-Levels, I got straight As, but I thought they weren't as good as other people's straight As,' said Edwards. 'They would look at me as if their As were better. We didn't get percentage marks, so three As weren't enough. I wanted to know I'd got, like, ninety-flve per cent. Three As is meaningless unless you're arrogant enough to think you're as good as them. Which I'm not. I need to see it written down to know.”
― Rob Jovanovic, A Version of Reason: In Search of Richey Edwards

“Insecurity, most times, is not borne out of flaws which are self-evident. It's most times the deep understanding that you can be much more—beautiful, responsible, eloquent, graceful, intelligent, articulate, braver, adventurous—regardless of all your flaws. And the realisation that that which inhibits you is merely fear or indiscipline.”
― Ufuoma Apoki

“What’s the best thing to do with insecurity? Get rid of it.”
― Emma González

“Insecurity, inferiority complex, past failures, and comparison are not your friend. Don't allow them to grow roots. The world is waiting for everything you've got to bring to the table.”
― Andrena Sawyer

“People die more in fear of death than death itself.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Martyr Meets World: To Solve The Hard Problem of Inhumanity

“Men pursue younger women for sport all the time—whenever they start feeling a little insecure. But when a woman does it, it’s another thing altogether.”
― Patry Francis, The Liar's Diary

“Only sensitivity to our own experience can drag us back from self-deception.”
― David Smail, Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety

“Perhaps the anxious person's shame at his or her supposed 'difference' from others would be lessened by the realization that all of us, most of the time, do not know why we are doing what we are doing.”
― David Smail, Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety

“A major sign of insecurity is constantly comparing oneself with others.”
― Omar Cherif

“Insecurity can be so self-defeating, that it often leads to a non-life.”
― Omar Cherif

“A leader is someone who is able to tolerate super talented and creative achievers who demonstrate foresight too, in their team without feeling insecure.”
― Ramesh Sood #SimplySood

“If there are whole parts of yourself that you are always running from, that you even feel justified in running from, then you’re going to run from anything that brings you into contact with your feelings of insecurity.
And have you noticed how often these parts of ourselves get touched? The closer you get to a situation or a person, the more these feelings arise. Often when you’re in a relationship it starts off great, but when it gets intimate and begins to bring out your neurosis, you just want to get out of there.
So I’m here to tell you that the path to peace is right there, when you want to get away.
You can cruise through life not letting anything touch you, but if you really want to live fully, if you want to enter into life, enter into genuine relationships with other people, with animals, with the world situa-tion, you’re def i nitely going to have the ex-perience of feeling provoked, of getting hooked, of shenpa. You’re not just going to feel bliss. The message is that when those feelings emerge, this is not a failure. This is the chance to cultivate maitri, unconditional friendliness toward your perfect and imperfect self.”
― Pema Chödrön, Practicing Peace in Times of War

“Oz really isn’t so terrible, Judy. It’s just that our parents always ignored us, so he started going around with people who made him feel important. They were spreading hate and used him just as they used me.”
― Margaret Sutton, Search for the Glowing Hand

“En zij liep met hare onzekerheid rond als met een lossen tand die zij niet trekken kon maar waaraan zij telkens voelen moest.”
― Frederik van Eeden, Van de koele meren des doods

“We hide our deepest insecurities and our brokenness from a world of judgement and hurt.”
― Gabrielle McMaster, Twist in the Wind