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Self-Acceptance Quotes and Quotations
 I care not so much what I am to others as what I am to myself. I will be rich by myself, and not by borrowing.  You can succeed if nobody else believes it, but you will never succeed if you don't believe in yourself. Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Everybody wants to do something to help, but nobody wants to be first. It is not easy to be a pioneer-but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world. Do not attempt to do a thing unless you are sure of yourself, but do not relinquish it simply because someone else is not sure of you. No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Every man stamps his value on himself ... man is made great or small by his own will. The decision to speak out is the vocation and lifelong peril by which the intellectual must live. Let us not forget that among [women's] rights is the right to speak freely. Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, he will only feel satisfaction as he is satisfied in himself. I've always tried to go a step past wherever people expected me to end up. The widening of woman's sphere is to improve her lot. Let us do it, and if the world scoff, let it scoff-if it sneer, let it sneer. It's just like magic. When you live by yourself, all your annoying habits are gone! When people say: she's got everything, I've only one answer: I haven't had tomorrow. Cuteness in children is totally an adult perspective. The children themselves are unaware that the quality exists, let alone its desirability, until the reactions of grown-ups inform them. It is not the eyes of others that I am wary of, but my own. Do not let your peace depend on the hearts of men; whatever they say about you, good or bad, you are not because of it another man, for as you are, you are. In my business, you measure your respect by the enemies you make. Not knowing when the dawn will come, I open every door. We would worry less about what others think of us if we realized how seldom they do. A man cannot be comfortable without his own approval. I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. The worst loneliness is not to be comfortable with yourself. Perhaps the most important thing we can undertake toward the reduction of fear is to make it easier for people to accept themselves, to like themselves. I have had more trouble with myself than with any other man. What you think about yourself is much more important than what others think of you. What a man thinks of himself, that is what determines, or rather indicates, his fate. As soon as you trust yourself, you will know how to live. He who seeks for applause only from without has all his happiness in another's keeping. From self alone expect applause. Confronted by an absolutely infuriating review, it is sometimes helpful for the victim to do a little personal research on the critic. Is there any truth to the rumor that he had no formal education beyond the age of eleven? In any event, is he able to construct a simple English sentence? Do his participles dangle? When moved to lyricism, does he write "I had a fun time"? Was he ever arrested for burglary? I don't know that you will prove anything this way, but it is perfectly harmless and quite soothing. You can enjoy encouragement coming from outside, but you cannot need for it to come from outside. Next to God we are indebted to women, first for life itself, and then for making it worth living. I am not belittling the brave pioneer men but the sunbonnet as well as the sombrero has helped to settle this glorious land of ours. The older women were Sunbeams and I guess we were Cherubs or Lambs, but our mothers were Nightingales. Do not look for approval except for the consciousness of doing your best. I exist as I am, that is enough, If no other in the world be aware, I sit content, And if each and all be aware, I sit content. Nobody can be exactly like me. Sometimes even I have trouble doing it. No matter how lonely you get or how many birth announcements you receive, the trick is not to get frightened. There's nothing wrong with being alone. I was always willing to take a great deal of the burden of getting along in life on my own shoulders, but I wasn't willing to give myself a pat on the back. I was always looking to somebody else to give me that. ... That was all wrong. She lacks confidence, she craves admiration insatiably. She lives on the reflections of herself in the eyes of others. She does not dare to be herself. Blessed is he who expects no gratitude, for he shall not be disappointed. When you know you are doing your very best within the circumstances of your existence, applaud yourself! To accept ourselves as we are means to value our imperfections as much as our perfections. I've learned to take time for myself and to treat myself with a great deal of love and respect 'cause I like me.... I think I'm kind of cool. Spirituality is ... the awareness that survival is the savage fight between you and yourself. I am the only real truth I know. Not in the shouts and plaudits of the throng, but in ourselves, are triumph and defeat. If there are two hundred people in a room and one of them doesn't like me, I've got to get out. No man is defeated without until he has first been defeated within. To make the choice for independent survival, the great man's wife has to become convinced of her own intrinsic worth. I care not what others think of what I do, but I care very much about what I think of what I do. That is character! I am somebody. I am me. I like being me. And I need nobody to make me somebody. Life, I fancy, would very often be insupportable, but for the luxury of self-compassion. The work praises the man. Of all afflictions, the worst is self-contempt. If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor. Believing in our hearts that who we are is enough is the key to a more satisfying and balanced life. I... know what I do, and am unmoved by men's blame, or their praise either. My unreality is chiefly this: I have never felt much like a human being. It's a splendid feeling. The mind can store an estimated ioo trillion bits of information-compared with which a computer's mere billions are virtually amnesiac. The mind's cross-indexing puts the best librarian to shame. If school results were the key to power, girls would be running the world. There is no balking genius. Only death can silence it or hinder. An artist can show things that other people are terrified of expressing. True genius doesn't fulfill expectations, it shatters them. Next to genius is the power of feeling where true genius lies. If I had influence with the good fairy who is supposed to preside over the christening of all children, I should ask that her gift to each child in the world be a sense of wonder so indestructible that it would last throughout life as an unfailing antidote against the boredom and disenchant-ments of later years, the sterile preoccupation with things that are artificial, the alienation from the sources of our strength. You are unique, and if that is not fulfilled then something has been lost. The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which must also make you lonely. Everybody is talented, original, and has something important to say. Cherish forever what makes you unique, 'cuz you're really a yawn if it goes! I didn't belong as a kid, and that always bothered me. If only I'd known that one day my differentness would be an asset, then my early life would have been much easier. Genius is expansive, irresistible, and irresistibly expansive. If it is in you, no cords can confine it. Since you are like no other being ever created since the beginning of time, you are incomparable. Genius is the talent for seeing things straight. It is seeing things in a straight line without any bend or break or aberration of sight, seeing them as they are, without any warping of vision. Flawless mental sight! That is genius. Children see things very well sometimes-and idealists even better. Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. The person who can combine frames of reference and draw connections between ostensibly unrelated points of view is likely to be the one who makes the creative breakthrough. Art is the signature of civilizations. Every single one of us can do things that no one else can do-can love things that no one else can love. We are like violins. We can be used for doorstops, or we can make music. If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise. Love your self's self where it lives. I am what I am, so take me as I am! Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it. - Martial It is the chiefest point of happiness that a man is willing to be what he is. - Erasmus Who I am is the best I can be. Oh, I'm so inadequate. And I love myself! - Meg Ryan Learn what you are and be such. - Pindar What thou art, that thou art. I is who I is. People remain what they are, even when their faces fall to pieces. You have to deal with the fact that your life is your life. The search for a new personality is futile; what is fruitful is the interest the old personality can take in new activities. I seldom think about my limitations, and they never make me sad. Perhaps there is just a touch of yearning at times; but it is vague, like a breeze among flowers. In order to be irreplaceable one must always be different. The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable. Contentment, and indeed usefulness, comes as the infallible result of great acceptances, great humilities-of not trying to conform to some dramatized version of ourselves. A man should not strive to eliminate his complexes but to get into accord with them, for they are legitimately what directs his conduct in the world. Resolve to be thyself ... he who finds himself loses his misery! There's a period of life when we swallow a knowledge of ourselves and it becomes either good or sour inside. There is always a certain peace in being what one is, in being that completely. I'm not OK, you're not OK-and that's OK. We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own or to other people's models, learn to be ourselves, and allow our natural channel to open. All the discontented people I know are trying to be something they are not, to do something they cannot do. Be yourself. The world worships the original. Best be yourself, imperial, plain, and true! She soothed and solaced and celebrated, destroying her gift by maiming it to suit her hearers. It is better to be hated for what you are than loved for what you are not. Borrowed thoughts, like borrowed money, only show the poverty of the borrower. Do not wish to be anything but what you are. Every man must at last accept himself for his portion, and learn to do his work with the tools and talents with which he has been endowed. No person has the right to rain on your dreams. Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being. Our entire life ... consists ultimately in accepting ourselves as we are. The secret of my success is that at an early age I discovered I was not God. To find the good life you must become yourself. Man has to live with the body and soul which have fallen to him by chance. Be content with what you are, and wish not change; nor dread your last day, nor long for it. - Martial Change occurs when one becomes what she is, not when she tries to become what she is not. A man can stand a lot as long as he can stand himself. I've finally stopped running away from myself. Who else is there better to be? Human beings aren't orchids; we must draw something from the soil we grow in. We expect more of ourselves than we have any right to. I think knowing what you cannot do is more important than knowing what you can. Try as hard as we may for perfection, the net result of our labors is an amazing variety of imperfectness. We are surprised at our own versatility in being able to fail in so many different ways. Most of us have trouble juggling. The woman who says she doesn't is someone whom I admire but have never met. A sobering thought: what if, right at this very moment, I am living up to my full potential? Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections. We set up harsh and unkind rules against ourselves. No one is born without faults. That man is best who has fewest. - Horace One must not hope to be more than one can be. I long to see everything, to know everything, to learn everything! I can't write a book commensurate with Shakespeare, but I can write a book by me. I have done what I could do in life, and if I could not do better, I did not deserve it. In vain I have tried to step beyond what bound me. Don't try to teach a whole course in one lesson. The man with insight enough to admit his limitations comes nearest to perfection. Growth begins when we start to accept our own weakness. To dream of the person you would like to be is to waste the person you are. Shall a man go and hang himself because he belongs to the race of pygmies, and not be the biggest pygmy that he can? Of all the young men in America only a few hundred can get into major league baseball, and of these only a handful in a decade can get into the Hall of Fame. So it goes in all human activity. ... Some become multimillionaires and chairmen of the board, and some of us must be content to play baseball at company picnics or manage a credit union without pay. At thirty a man should know himself like the palm of his hand, know the exact number of his defects and qualities. ... And above all, accept these things. You can't make the Duchess of Windsor into Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. The facts of life are very stubborn things. Learn to ... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not. We cannot all be masters. No man can climb out beyond the limitations of his own character. Sometimes it is more important to discover what one cannot do, than what one can do. To do all that one is able to do is to be a man; to do all that one would like to do is to be a god. No one is expected to achieve the impossible. A hero is a man who does what he can. It is only fools who keep straining at high C all their lives. May God ... let me strive for attainable things. - Pindar Despair is the price one pays for setting himself an impossible aim. We would have to settle for the elegant goal of becoming ourselves. A great obstacle to happiness is to expect too much happiness. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something I can do. I hope to work, support my children and die quietly without pain. As we advance in life, we learn the limits of our abilities. Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing. There is a proper balance between not asking enough of oneself and asking or expecting too much. It is enough that I am of value to somebody today. A tomb now suffices him for whom the whole world was not sufficient. To wish to act like angels while we are still in this world is nothing but folly. It isn't important to come out on top, what matters is to be the one who comes out alive. I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble. The one important thing I have learned over the years is the difference between taking one's work seriously and taking one's self seriously. The first is imperative and the second is disastrous. Friendship with oneself is all-important, because without it one cannot be friends with anyone else. How I relate to my inner self influences my relationships with all others. My satisfaction with myself and my satisfaction with other people are directly proportional. I was always looking outside myself for strength and confidence, but it comes from within. It is there all the time. If you want to be respected by others, the great thing is to respect yourself. If one is cruel to himself, how can we expect him to be compassionate with others? Let a man's talents or virtues be what they may, he will only feel satisfaction in his society as he is satisfied in himself. To succeed is nothing-it's an accident. But to feel no doubts about oneself is something very different: it is character. No matter what age you are, or what your circumstances might be, you are special, and you still have something unique to offer. Your life, because of who you are, has meaning. The worst walls are never the ones you find in your way. The worst walls are the ones you put there- you build yourself. Those are the high ones, the thick ones, the ones with no doors in. Interest in the lives of others, the high evaluation of these lives, what are they but the overflow of the interest a man finds in himself, the value he attributes to his own being? I want to be remembered as the person who helped us restore faith in ourselves. Those people who are uncomfortable in themselves are disagreeable to others. Self-love is not opposed to the love of other people. You cannot really love yourself and do yourself a favor without doing other people a favor, and vice versa. Healthy personalities accept themselves not in any self-idolizing way, but in the sense that they see themselves as persons who are worth giving to another and worthy to receive from another. We should try to bring to any power what we have as women. We will destroy it all if we try to imitate that absolutely unfeeling, driving ambition that we have seen coming at us across the desk. A man needs self-acceptance or he can't live with himself; he needs self-criticism or others can't live with him. Nobody holds a good opinion of a man who has a low opinion of himself. To love others, we must first learn to love ourselves. There is overwhelming evidence that the higher the level of self-esteem, the more likely one will treat others with respect, kindness, and generosity. People who do not experience self-love have little or no capacity to love others. You grow up the day you have your first real laugh at yourself. Imagination was given to us to compensate for what we are not; a sense of humor was provided to console us for what we are. It is the duty of youth to bring its fresh powers to bear on social progress. Each generation of young people should be to the world like a vast reserve force to a tired army. They should lift the world forward. That is what they are for. I looked always outside of myself to see what I could make the world give me instead of looking within myself to see what was there. A true man never frets about his place in the world, but just slides into it by the gravitation of his nature, and swings there as easily as a star. My recipe for life is not being afraid of myself, afraid of what I think or of my opinions. Accept the place the divine providence has found for you. I needed to find my way to write. I need about six hours of uninterrupted time in order to produce about two hours of writing, and when I accepted that and found the way to do it, then I was able to write. When one is pretending the entire body revolts. When you affirm your own Tightness in the universe, then you co-operate with others easily and automatically as part of your own nature. You, being yourself, help others be themselves. So prodigal was I of youth, Forgetting I was young; I worshipped dead men for their strength, Forgetting I was strong. Life is a very sad piece of buffoonery, because we have ... the need to fool ourselves continuously by the spontaneous creation of a reality ... which, from time to time, reveals itself to be vain and illusory. The deepest principle in human nature is the craving to be appreciated. It's OK if you mess up. You should give yourself a break. Who we are never changes. Who we think we are does. It is not easy to be sure that being yourself is worth the trouble, but [we do know] it is our sacred duty. Each of us has a day ... when he has to accept, finally, the fact that he is a man. Nature never repeats herself, and the possibilities of one human soul will never be found in another. Style is something peculiar to one person; it expresses one personality and one only; it cannot be shared. If you put a woman in a man's position, she will be more efficient, but no more kind. Accept your humanness as well as your divinity, totally and without reserve. - Emmanuel The things we hate about ourselves aren't more real than things we like about ourselves. Why can a man not act himself, be himself, and think for himself? It seems to me that naturalness alone is power; that a borrowed word is weaker than our own weakness, however small we may be. Until you make peace with who you are, you'll never be content with what you have. If you make friends with yourself you will never be alone. It is a sign of strength, not of weakness, to admit that you don't know all the answers. The fundamental problem most patients have is an inability to love themselves, having been unloved by others during some crucial part of their lives. Who you are is a necessary step to being who you will be. - Emmanuel Ultimately, love is self approval. Unless I accept my faults, I will most certainly doubt my virtues. Too many people overvalue what they are not and undervalue what they are. If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when? - Hillel Accept your defeats With your head up and your eyes open With the grace of woman, not the grief of a child ... He who despises himself esteems himself as a self-despiser. Your problem is you're ... too busy holding onto your unworthiness. - Ram Dass 
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