We have to serve ourself many years before we gain our own confidence. ~Henry Stanley Haskins, "Habit and Association," Meditations in Wall Street, 1940


I will not pray for strength. Dear Heaven, I am a Hercules of disseminated force. I will not pray for opportunity. Dear Lord, the time and place are mine when I am equal to the time and place. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Prayer, 1904


You are a piece of the puzzle of someone else's life. You may never know where you fit, but others will fill the holes in their lives with pieces of you. ~Bonnie Arbon


No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. ~Eleanor Roosevelt


It took me a long time not to judge myself through someone else's eyes. ~Sally Field


Don't let people drive you crazy when you know it's in walking distance. ~Author Unknown


Our remedies oft in ourselves do lie
Which we ascribe to heaven.
~William Shakespeare, All's Well That Ends Well


A successful person is one who can lay a firm foundation with the bricks that others throw at him or her. ~David Brinkley


It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not. ~Attributed to Hanoch McCarty


We have to learn to be our own best friends because we fall too easily into the trap of being our own worst enemies. ~Roderick Thorp, Rainbow Drive


It ain't what they call you, it's what you answer to. ~W.C. Fields


Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right. ~Virgil, et al. See: quoteinvestigator.com/2015/02/03/you-can


I quit being afraid when my first venture failed and the sky didn't fall down. ~Allen H. Neuharth


If I would be queen tomorrow when I sit upon a throne, I must be not less a queen today in my hand-maiden sphere. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912


If you hear a voice within you say "you cannot paint," then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced. ~Vincent Van Gogh


Make the most of yourself, for that is all there is of you. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


I will release all the confined forces of my soul and apply them directly to that which I may be. I will release all my thousand possibilities and send them broadside against life. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: XXIV," A Soul's Faring, 1921


I am convinced all of humanity is born with more gifts than we know. Most are born geniuses and just get de-geniused rapidly. ~Buckminster Fuller


Let me never fall into the vulgar mistake of dreaming that I am persecuted whenever I am contradicted. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson


People are like stained-glass windows. They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in their true beauty is revealed only if there is light from within. ~Elisabeth Kübler-Ross


Don't live down to expectations. Go out there and do something remarkable. ~Wendy Wasserstein


Whatever I pledged for myself in my wildest extravagant moments shall be the truth for me. Talk not to me of sober estimate, — I set a daring limit when drunk with expectancy. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912


Success comes in cans, not cant's. ~Author Unknown


Put your future in good hands — your own. ~Author Unknown


Who thinks he will fail — will probably fail. Who believes that dreams are only dreams — will probably find it so. Who doubts himself — will achieve only such results as will confirm it. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Prayer, 1904


What a fool, quoth he, am I, thus to lie in a stinking dungeon, when I may as well walk at liberty! I have a key in my bosom, called Promise, that will, I am persuaded, open any lock in Doubting Castle. ~John Bunyan


I am not a has-been. I am a will be. ~Lauren Bacall


The light of starry dreams can only be seen once we escape the blinding cities of disbelief. ~Shawn Purvis, shawnpurvis.com, December 2009 entry to The Quote Garden create your own quote contest on Twitter


I do not ask for faith in a God, but give me faith in myself, and then if there is a God I shall do him credit. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), My Little Book of Life, 1912


I'm not old enough to play baseball or football. I'm not eight yet. My mom told me when you start baseball, you aren't going to be able to run that fast because you had an operation. I told Mom I wouldn't need to run that fast. When I play baseball, I'll just hit them out of the park. Then I'll be able to walk. ~Edward J. McGrath, Jr., "An Exceptional View of Life," quoted in Chicken Soup for the Soul by Jack Canfield & Mark Victor Hansen, 1993


If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. ~Author Unknown


Confidence comes not from always being right but from not fearing to be wrong. ~Peter T. McIntyre


One learns to ignore criticism by first learning to ignore applause. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com, 2018


Once I despaired that I was the despised unloveliness under your heel. Now I know that worms have a blue and golden beauty enfolded — and wings. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "Songs of Longing: II," At the Roots of Grasses, 1923


Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one's courage. ~Anaïs Nin, Diary, 1969


Argue for your limitations and, sure enough, they're yours. ~Richard Bach, Illusions


Ten thousand voices say No, but I come in ten thousands multiples of my strength.
I am my own affirmative that transcends all negatives and denials.
The day renounces me — and I sink my roots deeper into the centuries.
~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "Songs of the Strong: XV," A Soul's Faring, 1921


You have to expect things of yourself before you can do them. ~Michael Jordan


It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves. ~Edmund Hillary


Love every color of the rainbow in your soul and every note of the tune in your heart. ~Terri Guillemets, "Suffer, shimmer, adjust," 2008


Thousands of geniuses live and die undiscovered — either by themselves or by others. ~Mark Twain


Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance. ~Bruce Barton


A great deal of talent is lost to the world for want of a little courage. Every day sends to their graves obscure men whose timidity prevented them from making a first effort. ~Sydney Smith


When I feel happy and strong, my goals and dreams come true! ~Rachel Rose Zoller, My Body Is a Rainbow: A Book about Our Chakras, 2016, www.rachaelrosezoller.com


Aerodynamically the bumblebee shouldn't be able to fly, but the bumblebee doesn't know that so it goes on flying anyway. ~Mary Kay Ash


Without a humble but reasonable confidence in your own powers you cannot be successful or happy. ~Norman Vincent Peale


Always act like you're wearing an invisible crown. ~Author Unknown


The courage to be is the courage to accept oneself, in spite of being unacceptable. ~Paul Tillich


Of all our infirmities, the most savage is to despise our being. ~Michel de Montaigne


It's hard to fight an enemy who has outposts in your head. ~Sally Kempton, Esquire, 1970


When the grass looks greener on the other side of the fence, it may be that they take better care of it there. ~Cecil Selig


Other people's opinion of you does not have to become your reality. ~Les Brown


Confidence is preparation. Everything else is beyond your control. ~Richard Kline


Knock the "t" off the "can't." ~Samuel Johnson


I will demand of myself those things that take the measure of my possibilities. Too long I have been chimney-sweep of life, when I might have been sweeping the stardust of Heaven. If one becomes the expression of one's dominant thought, have I thought dish-water or dew, scullery pans or roses?... Do I think my narrow human life, or do I sometimes think God? ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: XIV," A Soul's Faring, 1921


Sex appeal is fifty percent what you've got and fifty percent what people think you've got. ~Sophia Loren


They are the weakest, however strong, who have no faith in themselves or their own powers. ~Christian Nestell Bovee


We are all such a waste of our potential, like three-way lamps using one-way bulbs. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


      Sometimes it is not the world in general but a man's own parish which causes him to wince and quail. A newspaper gets on his track and misreports him. His sermons are garbled and his actions are misjudged, and the mangled son of thunder goes about bleeding at every pore. A man too thin-skinned to stand newspaper criticism is not a fit man to lead the Lord's army. A newspaper is frequently the most unprincipled and merciless of antagonists... but a minister who is wise will never enter into a controversy with a newspaper. To be beaten with a few stinging sentences is not so painful as to be beaten with a Roman scourge.... If a minister cannot sing after being trounced by the most merciless reporter who ever poured bad blood into ink, he should get out of the pulpit and seek a position where thin skin is not a hindrance to duty.
      Or the anonymous coward instead of attacking him in a newspaper may stab him through the mail. Two or three anonymous letters will cause some men to swell up as though they had been bitten by tarantulas.... The criticism may not be written but spoken. It may float through the atmosphere in the shape of poisonous rumors.
      ~Charles Edward Jefferson, "Clerical Hamlets," Quiet Hints to Growing Preachers in My Study, 1901


Don't be distracted by criticism. Remember — the only taste of success some people have is when they take a bite out of you. ~Zig Ziglar


I have great faith in fools; self-confidence my friends call it. ~Edgar Allan Poe


Your value is the product of your thoughts. Do not miscalculate your self worth by multiplying your insecurities. ~Dodinsky


If you doubt yourself, then indeed you stand on shaky ground. ~Henrik Ibsen


Nothing reduces the odds against you like ignoring them. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot. ~Truman Capote, Breakfast at Tiffany's, 1958, spoken by the character Holly Golightly


Never dull your shine for somebody else. ~Tyra Banks, America's Next Top Model, "The Girl Who Is Afraid of Heights," original airdate 2007 October 17th


If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves. ~Thomas Edison


Always hold your head up, but be careful to keep your nose at a friendly level. ~Max L. Forman


Our doubts are traitors, and make us lose the good we oft might win, by fearing to attempt. ~William Shakespeare, Measure for Measure, 1604


I will live the free-hand life — I will rise up at dawn, and with sure, unfaltering faith, create the day. I will come at noon, and with the assurance of a master, paint the heavens. I will come at night, and with the confidence of one who cannot fail, hang a million stars in the sky. ~Muriel Strode (1875–1964), "A Soul's Faring: XLI," A Soul's Faring, 1921


The things we hate about ourselves aren't more real than things we like about ourselves. ~Ellen Goodman


I was thinking of my patients, and how the worst moment for them was when they discovered they were masters of their own fate. It was not a matter of bad or good luck. When they could no longer blame fate, they were in despair. ~Anaïs Nin


Never let the hand you hold, hold you down. ~Author Unknown


Just as much as we see in others we have in ourselves. ~William Hazlitt


Your problem is you're... too busy holding onto your unworthiness. ~Ram Dass


Learning too soon our limitations, we never learn our powers. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


Lend yourself to others, but give yourself to yourself. ~Michel de Montaigne


If you are going to doubt something, doubt your limits. ~Don Ward


Doubting yourself is like pointing a gun at your motivation. ~Joey Gloor, Fat Chance [S1, E1, 2016]


It's me who is my enemy
Me who beats me up
Me who makes the monsters
Me who strips my confidence.
~Paula Cole, "Me," This Fire


Your soul is a trooper. If you find you're stronger than you thought, don't waste a moment being surprised by it — be motivated, and stronger, and start the race! ~Terri Guillemets


Strength will always be with you, you just have to find it. ~Ann-Marie Hevey, September 2010 entry to The Quote Garden create your own quote contest on Twitter


The man who acquires the ability to take full possession of his own mind may take possession of anything else to which he is justly entitled. ~Andrew Carnegie


Life marks us all down, so it's just as well that we start out by overpricing ourselves. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


A gold medal is a nice thing — but if you're not enough without it, you'll never be enough with it. ~From Cool Runnings


Don't let anyone steal your dream. It's your dream, not theirs. ~Dan Zadra


If I am not for myself, who will be? ~Pirke Avoth


All of us have wonders hidden in our breasts, only needing circumstances to evoke them. ~Charles Dickens


Keep shining, beautiful one. The world needs your light. ~Author Unknown


We all have our limitations, but when we listen to our critics, we also have theirs. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


Self-love seems so often unrequited. ~Anthony Powell


Once you become self-conscious, there is no end to it; once you start to doubt, there is no room for anything else. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


What a man thinks of himself, that it is which determines, or rather indicates his fate. ~Henry David Thoreau


There are offences given and offences not given but taken. ~Izaak Walton


Men harm others by their deeds, themselves by their thoughts. ~Augustus William Hare and Julius Charles Hare, Guesses at Truth, by Two Brothers, 1827


A person can grow only as much as his horizon allows. ~John Powell


[S]o you plant your own garden and nourish your own soul instead of waiting for someone to bring you flowers.... ~Veronica Shoffstall, "After a While," as posted in Dear Abby


It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself. ~Epicurus


If you must love your neighbor as yourself, it is at least as fair to love yourself as your neighbor. ~Sébastien-Roch Nicolas (Chamfort)


I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship. ~Louisa May Alcott


How often in life we complete a task that was beyond the capability of the person we were when we started it. ~Robert Brault, rbrault.blogspot.com


The universe knows the perfect timing for all those things you want and will find, through the crack of least resistance, the best way to deliver it to you. ~Abraham–Hicks


Every day we slaughter our finest impulses. That is why we get a heart-ache when we read those lines written by the hand of a master and recognize them as our own, as the tender shoots which we stifled because we lacked the faith to believe in our own powers, our own criterion of truth and beauty. Every man, when he gets quiet, when he becomes desperately honest with himself, is capable of uttering profound truths. We all derive from the same source. There is no mystery about the origin of things. We are all part of creation, all kings, all poets, all musicians; we have only to open up, to discover what is already there. ~Henry Miller, Sexus


Pay no attention to what the critics say. A statue has never been erected in honor of a critic. ~Jean Sibelius


Self-confidence grows on trees, in other people's orchards. ~Mignon McLaughlin, The Neurotic's Notebook, 1960


When there is no enemy within, the enemies outside cannot hurt you. ~African proverb


The best way to gain self-confidence is to do what you are afraid to do. ~Author unknown


We learn to wield our own strengths, and fear flips over — dead! ~Terri Guillemets, "Getting along, stopping not," 2007


Be proud to wear you. ~Dodinsky


Be humble, for you are made of dung. Be noble, for you are made of stars. ~Serbian Saying


Great tranquility of heart is his who cares for neither praise nor blame. ~Thomas à Kempis


Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people. ~André Dubus


Chiefly the mold of a man's fortune is in his own hands. ~Francis Bacon


God wisely designed the human body so that we can neither pat our own backs nor kick ourselves too easily. ~Author Unknown


You probably wouldn't worry about what people think of you if you could know how seldom they do. ~Olin Miller (1893–1981)


As soon
Seek roses in December, ice in June;
Hope constancy in wind, or corn in chaff;
Believe a woman or an epitaph,
Or any other thing that's false, before
You trust in critics.
~George Gordon, Lord Byron, "English Bards and Scotch Reviewers"


You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose. ~Lou Holtz and John Heisler, The Fighting Spirit


[Self-]assurance is contemptible and fatal unless it is self-knowledge. ~George Santayana, Character and Opinion in the United States, 1921


Mediocrity is a hand-rail. ~Montesquieu, Mes pensées


All that Adam had, all that Caesar could, you have and can do.... Build, therefore, your own world. ~Ralph Waldo Emerson, Nature


Oliver Wendell Holmes once attended a meeting in which he was the shortest man present. "Dr. Holmes," quipped a friend, "I should think you'd feel rather small among us big fellows." "I do," retorted Holmes, "I feel like a dime among a lot of pennies." ~Author Unknown


The way you treat yourself sets the standard for others. ~Sonya Friedman


Our ordinary mind always tries to persuade us that we are nothing but acorns and that our greatest happiness will be to become bigger, fatter, shinier acorns; but that is of interest only to pigs. Our faith gives us knowledge of something better: that we can become oak trees. ~E.F. Schumacher


Many men are like unto sausages: Whatever you stuff them with, that they will bear in them. ~Alexi Konstantinovich Tolstoy


Only as high as I reach can I grow,
Only as far as I seek can I go,
Only as deep as I look can I see,
Only as much as I dream can I be.
~Karen Ravn


Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others. ~Marianne Williamson, A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of "A Course in Miracles," 1992 (commonly misattributed to Nelson Mandela, 1994 inauguration speech)


Men are not against you; they are merely for themselves. ~Gene Fowler, Skyline, 1961