Unhealthy Perfectionism Quotes

Many people think of perfectionism as striving to be your best, but it is not about self-improvement; it's about earning approval and acceptance.

The educator wants the child to be finished at once and perfect. He forces upon the child an unnatural degree of self-mastery, a devotion to duty, a sense of honour - habits that adults get out of with astonishing rapidity.

I've always been the biggest bully to myself.

I'm a very positive person, but this whole concept of having to always be nice, always smiling, always happy, that's not real. It was like I was wearing a mask. I was becoming this perfectly chiselled sculpture, and that was bad. That took a long time to understand.

Perfectionism is not a quest for the best. It is a pursuit of the worst in ourselves, the part that tells us that nothing we do will ever be good enough - that we should try again.

I think it's the easiest thing in the world to be horribly critical about yourself.

Wearing a veneer of perfection never did me any good.

I criticise myself a lot. My friends complain about it.

I've become a captive of my own ambitions.

By imposing too great a responsibility, or rather, all responsibility, on yourself, you crush yourself.

Perfection, to me, means you spend much too much time trying to be perfect.

Perfectionism becomes a badge of honor with you playing the part of the suffering hero.

If you have an over-preoccupation with perception and trying to please people's expectations, then you can go mad.

I put a lot of pressure on myself. Sometimes you are your own worst enemy.

I beat myself a little bit too much sometimes. When you beat yourself a little bit too much, there's little things that make you miserable.

Many girls aspire to a version of selfhood that puts a psychological glass ceiling on their potential to succeed. They suffer from what I call the Curse of the Good Girl: the pressure to be liked by everyone, generous to a fault, and flawless at everything you do.

I am my own worst enemy. My friends and family will say, 'You've got everything going for you right now', and I say, 'Oh yes, but!' Which is not a good way to be.

Americans have a severe disease --- worse than AIDS. It's called the winner's complex.

I'm hardest on myself. I'm my biggest critic. I ended up hurting myself a lot by doing that.

If I didn't do something perfectly, I had to do it again... I grew up with a glue gun pointed at my head.

Perfectionism is the voice of the oppressor.

One very common thing is that often very brilliant children stop working because they're praised so often that it's what they want to live as - brilliant - not as someone who ever makes mistakes. It really stunts their motivation.

I love how passionate Elder McKinley is about his faith, but he's a perfectionist in a bad way... to the point he denies his true feelings. It's a common story, unfortunately.