approval-seeking behavior Quotes

Care about people's approval and you will be their prisoner.

I became an overachiever to get approval from the world.

It is extremely ironic that the more we care about what people think about us the less we care about people, and the less we care about what people think about us the more we begin to care for others

A psychiatrist once told me early in treatment, "Stop trying to make me like you," and what a sobering and welcome smack in the face that statement was. Yet somehow, every day of my life is still a campaign for popularity, or better yet, a crowded funeral.

To test if you are worrying too much about looking good, observe how you feel when you find out you've made a mistake or don't know something.

When people want to be liked for what they did, they should stop.

The reason I'm in this business, I assume all performers are -- it's Look at me, Ma! It's acceptance, you know -- Look at me, Ma, look at me, Ma, look at me, Ma. And if your mother watches, you'll show off till you're exhausted; but if your mother goes, Ptshew!

We thirst for approbation, yet cannot forgive the approver.

We want you to stop caring about what anybody else's response is to you. And when you get there, they'll all really, really like you. It's the strangest thing. When you need their approval, you never get it. And when you don't need their approval, you're so tuned in, everybody wants to be with you.

We crave support in vanity, as we do in religion, and never forgive contradictions in that sphere.

Approval is overrated...Approval and disapproval alike satisfy those who deliver it more than those who receive it. I don't care for approval, and I don't mind doing without.

What people want, mainly, is to be told by some plausible authority that what they are already doing is right. I don't know know of a quicker way to become unpopular than to disagree.

Why do you put your self esteem in the hands of complete strangers?

The people who receive the most approval in life are the ones who care the least about it--so technically, if you want the approval of others, you need to stop caring about it.

Once we begin chasing approval, we never stop running. It's servitude to a thousand masters instead of one to please.

What makes people weak? Their need for validation and recognition, their need to feel important. Don't get caught in this trap.

Eagerness to please attracts bullies and bores.

See, popularity is complicated. You have to spend a lot of time thinking about liking; you have to really like being liked, and also sort like being disliked.

I sometimes call this our "spacesuit self" because we come into an environment that is difficult and challenging, where we're told to be different. We're told to jump over hoops to be loved and appreciated, so we have to develop spacesuit strategies to get approval and create ways to avoid being judged.

I didn't realize that I was in a self-made prison of human approval and human acceptance. Didn't even realize it. Most of the prisons we live in we are not conscious of.

In America you're conditioned to regard everything as a contest. You have to make the Ten Best Dressed List, win this, win that. It drives me nuts sometimes. Who cares, for Christ's sake?

If success is really dependent on someone liking you or not liking you, and you have to teeter on that kind of tightrope of how you're supposed to act and how you're supposed to look and who you are, it's just not a healthy way to live.

If I could just get over my issues of wanting people to like me.

Whenever I talk to anyone I care about, I am always seeking approval. There is always a pleading lilt in my voice that demands love. Even the people I work with, the ones I am supposed to have a professional relationship with, all business, get pulled into my need. I can't help it. I want to be adored.

What point was there in pursuing an ever-elusive popularity?