Oprah Winfrey Quotes

With relationships, I always had a reason why some time in the future would be better for me than it was that day. When I was fat, I thought I'd feel pretty when I was thin, and when I was thin, I thought I'd be happier if I was more toned and muscular and had more money to look more coordinated. I wasn't comfortable in my own skin unless there was a man there to tell me just how radiant that skin looked. I was a victim of low self-esteem and had the Soon syndrome bad. I was running toward a brighter future, unaware of the mirages I'd created in the distance.

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

The fear of not getting the reward becomes the fear of rejection. The fear of not being good enough... is what makes us try to change, what makes us create an image.

When a nice girl overcompensates, her behavior says, “What I have to offer isn’t enough, and who I am isn’t enough.

I want people to love me, but it's not going to hurt me if they don't.

I was not that pretty a girl and I was never pursued as a teenager or young woman, so I was used to having no shame and trying to get people to love me.

I was fortunate to have had a lively, happy childhood, but somewhere along the way I convinced myself I wasn't wanted anywhere or by anyone if I wasn't thin.

If I wasn't so insecure about myself I wouldn't work as hard as I do. I am constantly seeking approval.

I had self-esteem issues into my early 20s.

I find it amusing on one level, poignant on another, when people try to get recognition from an outside source. It's sad.

I don't think I am narcissistic. I think I have low self-esteem.

I suffer the terrible disease of low self-esteem.

I always wanted to be an actress. And it wasn't ego. I felt so little about myself, considered myself such a sparrow. Not just my size. I thought I was so plain... I did plays not to show off but because if I did that - I didn't realize it at the time - I would be somebody other than this person I didn't really approve of.

At that age, feeling unpopular is difficult to handle. It's a hard feeling to shake off. Feeling comfortable in my own skin has never been easy for me.

Even though I felt, at times, 'My goodness, you're among the upper echelon,' there is still a huge void there. A huge void. It is about self-esteem. That's a thing that has always been a real complex part of my life.

Like everyone, I had low self-esteem, and I wanted to be like the pretty, popular girls.

You don't realize you're vying for the approval of everyone so much until being yourself is not approved of.

If you live for people’s acceptance you will die from their rejection.

It gets dangerous when you start allowing people to validate your work.

She lacks confidence, she craves admiration insatiably. She lives on the reflections of herself in the eyes of others. She does not dare to be herself.

It's kind of hard to believe that people love me.

Some young ladies are so starved for male approval that what should be a normal attraction to men is accelerated into an obsessive need for male affirmation. Tragically, these dear ladies allow themselves to be devoured in the arms of men who have neither regard not respect for them as people.

George looked at her for a long moment. Finally he replied, "And why do you find it so hard to think someone might like you and want to do things for you?

I wish... I wish he wasn't quite so ashamed of me. And if he could stop feeling so ashamed of himself, then maybe we might stand a chance.

No man, deep down in the privacy of his heart, has any considerable respect for himself.