James D. Watson Quotes

I've got my feet firmly on the ground, I can't see life changing too much. I reckon more girls will talk to me at college and more people will look at me, but they know me for who I am.

You know you don't have to be the most popular kid in the school to have people acknowledge your presence.

I thought that being popular in school was just so pathetic. I knew I had a future over and beyond the horizon of that school.

I am better than my reputation.

I still need the camera because it is the only reason anyone is talking to me.

The only way for something human to feel human is to convince others that it is.

My first three years of high school, I wasn't that cool.

I wanted to be liked when I was younger, which I think a lot of us do; I'm not ashamed to say it. I was a product of my environment, a product of my culture.

If you label someone lazy or a liar, he'll feel like that for life. Worse, guys lose motivation to change when we feel like your perception of us is set in stone.

I was a weirdo. I think I wanted to be liked, but I didn't have the attention or bother to actually make an effort to be. I also think I had a different perception of what I needed to do to be liked.

Earlier, I would never focus on how I looked because I thought I was just 'OK.' So my focus was on being well-read, good in studies, school captain. My personality depended on what I read, not on some magical genetic thing.

I was never going to be very cute. I always looked for the best people to play with and, 'cause, to make myself look better.

I don't care about people kissing my ass or telling me how great I am. I don't really give a damn. I read the bad stuff a whole lot more than I read the good stuff. I read that because there are always going to be critics who are going to say how good you aren't.

In the teen years, we often confuse self-image with self-esteem. Teenagers are very influenced by the image others have of them. All sorts of complexes come from this.

I think a lot of young teenagers try to get esteem from accolades from other people, or boys, and what you learn as you get older is that you have to create that within yourself.

I wish I were the type who could walk into a place and have everybody love me. But I'm not, and there's no use wishing.

To go from being an unpopular, chubby little kid who was chasing girls and couldn't seem to catch them, to being chased after and making sure I ran slow enough that I did get caught, it was 180 degree turn. It was being given the keys to the candy store.

Everything you think about yourself, everything you believe about yourself, is because you learned it.

What really matters to me is what my peers think.

My success is not who I am.

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

Your most important sale in life is to sell yourself to yourself.

Our self image, strongly held, essentially determines what we become.

I always thought I should base how good I am on how good I feel I am.

Self-image sets the boundaries of individual accomplishment.