Need for Approval Quotes

Looking back on my early romantic life, I was more worried about what impression I made on my dates than what I thought of them. I would approach them as though they were job interviews, trying to wow the man so that he would ask me out again and I got the 'job.'

I always hope people will like me, and I'm always afraid they will think I'm a fraud. I try harder than perhaps I should to make people like me, then it backfires. They think I'm a buffoon.

I need an audience way more than an audience needs me.

As much as the next person, I want to be approved of, but I'm not greedy for that stuff.

I'm no different to anyone else; I want people to like me. I just don't particularly want them to understand me.

I think my father had a certain degree of insecurity and need to achieve.

I'm hugely affected by what people think. It could be a million people saying, 'Great.' And then one person writes, 'What the hell is this kid doing?' and starts slagging me off, for some reason, and then I have to join in the blog and sign in under a different name and go,'Why don't you like him?'

The passive aggressive arguer comes armed with tricky tactics. They cannot take the risk that they might be wrong: their self-esteem is too intertwined with their opinions. It is more important to affirm their rightness, and sense of superiority, than to arrive at the truth.

It's absurd to think that desire for attention doesn't drive both women and men. Why are women scrutinized for it more, then?

I've always had that chip on my shoulder, felt the need to prove myself.

Let's face it - no matter how independent you are, you still have this nagging need to be desired.

I've always been an attention seeker. I've always demanded attention and I'll do anything to get it.

I mean, if you have to wake up in the morning to be validated by the editorial page of the New York Times, you got a pretty sorry existence.

If anything, I want to please people too much.

I've been striving for attention my whole life. Now I have it.

I've always hated rejection; I only want to go out there when I know I've got it right.

In my 20s, I just had to be the centre of attention all the time. I was quite eccentric.

My whole life I've been a fraud. I'm not exaggerating. Pretty much all I've ever done all the time is try to create a certain impression of me in other people. Mostly to be liked or admired. It's a little more complicated than that, maybe. But when you come right down to it it's to be liked, loved. Admired, approved of, applauded, whatever. You get the idea.

I think inherently, a little bit, I'm a bit of a pleaser, and I want people to like me and be nice, and to not ruffle feathers and just make everybody happy and stuff. It's a personality flaw.

For a long time, it was all about chart position. 'If my record doesn't come in at No. 1, I'm a failure.' I cared too much about what people thought of me, and that was symptomatic of the trauma from my childhood.

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

I'm a perfectionist. I need to be needed. I need to do things for a man. But I don't need to do them as much, these days.

I don't know why people be in the club trying to be so cool. Standing around, trying to be cool. I don't get that. I just think everybody wanna be a star. That's why people don't dance.

the psychological need to believe that others take you as seriously as you take yourself. There is nothing particularly wrong with it, as psychological needs go, but yet of course we should always remember that a deep need for anything from other people makes us easy pickings.

I was the runt of the family, the shortest and the smallest, so I think they perceived me as the one who was like, 'Look at me!' - just trying to get their attention and being a goofball.