Of all the judgments you make in life, none is as important as the one you make about yourself. The difference between low self-esteem and high self-esteem is the difference between passivity and action, between failure and success.
If you overcome your fear to ask someone for a date, a raise, or help with a project, that is an act of self-assertiveness. You are moving out into life rather than contracting and withdrawing.
If you bring five percent more awareness to your work tomorrow, or to your most important relationship, what might you do differently? Are you willing to find out?
It is true that people are sometimes hit by adversities beyond their control. But those so affected are better helped when they are awakened to the resources they do possess than when they are told they don’t have any.
If you choose not to live self-responsibly, you count on others to make up your default. No one abjures self-responsibility on a desert island.
To preserve an unclouded capacity for the enjoyment of life is an unusual moral and psychological achievement. Contrary to popular belief, it is not the prerogative of mindlessness, but the exact opposite: It is the reward of self-esteem.
The reputation you have with yourself – your self-esteem – is the single most important factor for a fulfilling life.
One of the most significant characteristics of healthy self esteem is that it is the state of one who is not at war either with himself or with others.
It would be hard to name a more certain sign of poor self-esteem than the need to perceive some other group as inferior.
The desire for self-esteem without integrity is like the desire for wealth without effort-a longing for the unearned.
The first love affair you must consummate is the love affair with yourself. Only then are you ready for a romantic relationship.
An emotion is both a mental and a physical event.
High self esteem people can surely be knocked down by an excess of troubles, but they are quickerto pick themselves up again.
To trust one’s mind and to know that one is worthy of happiness is the essence of self-esteem.
Sometimes the subconscious mind manifests a wisdom several steps or even years ahead of the conscious mind, and has its own way of leading us toward our destiny.
If you feel inadequate to face challenges, unworthy of love or respect, untitled to happiness, and fear assertive thought, wants, or needs- if you lack basic self trust, self-respect, and self-confidence- your self-esteem deficiency will limit you, no matter what other assets you possess.
We tend to feel most comfortable, “most at home”, with people whose self esteem level resembles our own.
Capitalism, by its nature, entails a constant process of motion, growth and progress.
Moved by a passion they do not understand for a goal they seldom reach, men and women are haunted by the vision of a distant possibility that refuses to be extinguished.
Sometimes pain is easier to bear alone than happiness.