Quotes about Validation

In his book The Sensation of Being Somebody, Maurice Wagner wrote: Try as we might by our appearance, performance or social status to find self-verification for a sense of being somebody, we always come short of satisfaction. Whatever pinnacle of self-identity we achieve soon crumbles

How could someone who had so little respect for people be so dependent on what they thought of him?

Think of how many religions attempt to validate themselves with prophecy. Think of how many people rely on these prophecies, however vague, however unfulfilled, to support or prop up their beliefs. Yet has there ever been a religion with the prophetic accuracy and reliability of science? ... No other human institution comes close.

To be loved means to be recognized as existing.

Fear of men's judgment manifests itself in competition for men's approval.

The best theology would need no advocates; it would prove itself.

Criticism of others is thus an oblique form of self-commendation. We think we make the picture hang straight on our wall by telling our neighbors that all his pictures are crooked.

it may feel as if they just want you to stop being you.

As a young person, I wanted everyone to agree with me.

What most people really want is to be listened to, respected, and understood.

Most people feel that they rise in their own eyes, if others want them. I feel that others live up to me, if they want me. And that is the way you feel, too, Hank, about yourself—whether you admit it or not.

I did it to win love, and to prove myself capable. Not to move mountains. In my opinions, mountains don't move. They only look changed when you look down on them from great height.