We like to stress the commonness of heroes. Essences seem undemocratic. We feel oppressed by the call to greatness. We regard an interest in glory or perfection as a sign of mental unhealthiness, and have decided that high achievers, who are called overachievers, owe their surplus ambition to a defect in mothering (either too little or too much). We want to admire but think we have a right not to be intimidated. We dislike feeling inferior to an ideal. So away with ideals, with essences. The only ideals allowed are healthy ones -- those everyone may aspire to, or comfortably imagine oneself possessing.

~ Susan Sontag

Susan Sontag Achievement Ambition Democracy Egalitarianism Equality Essence Glory Greatness Heroes Ideals Inferiority Intimidation Jealousy Mediocrity Overachievers Perfection Pettiness Success

All that day she felt as if she were acting in a theatre with better actors than herself, and that her bad performance was spoiling the whole affair.

~ Leo Tolstoy

Leo Tolstoy Facades Honesty Inferiority Out Of Place

It's curious that people go wrong so often between inferiority complex and self-confidence. Pitiful isn't it?

~ Öykü Yelkencioğlu

Öykü Yelkencioğlu Character Characterization Complex Inferiority Pitiful Self Confidence

The question of whether one alleges the Superiority or Inferiority of any given race is irrelevant, racism has only one psychological root: the racist's sense of his own Inferiority.

~ Ayn Rand

Ayn Rand Inferiority Psychological Racism

The claim to equality, outside of the strictly political field, is made only by those who feel themselves to be in some way inferior.

~ C.s. Lewis

C.s. Lewis Equality Inferiority

It is the socially determined norms and traditions of gender roles, which must be challenged, and challenged with vigor. In nearly all countries, including America, the truth is that women have a low social status, and are considered inferior.

~ Bryant Mcgill

Bryant Mcgill Beliefs Gender Inequality Gender Roles Inferiority Social Norms

What is a genius? A person who demands little to nothing from others, but is often found extremely difficult to have around.

~ Criss Jami

Criss Jami Complex Creative Different Difficulties Distinction Envy Genius Genius Distinction Independent Independent Thought Inferiority Inferiority Complex Intimidating Misunderstanding Odd Privacy Self Sufficiency Simplicity Superiority

Envy suggests inferiority.

~ Wayne Gerard Trotman

Wayne Gerard Trotman Envy Inferiority Jealousy

It's such a shame that we know so little about our own country, that we can't find it in our hearts to love our own kind. Instead we admire those who show our country disrespect and betray its people.

~ Orhan Pamuk

Orhan Pamuk Inferiority Patriotism Superiority

Comparing how you feel on the inside (bad) to the way someone else looks on the outside (great) is a losing proposition. It's an impossible standard.

~ Maria Shriver

Maria Shriver Comparision Inferiority Inferiority Complex Inspiration Inspirational Lessons

Inferiority complex begins when you agree that you are nothing. No one is responsible or author of it except yourself.

~ Paul Gitwaza

Paul Gitwaza Inferiority Inspiration Responsability Yourself

The thing is, if you're an ugly goon when you're 15, you're an ugly goon for the rest of your life — until the day you die. You're always a goon, even if lots of years go by, even if you get married and have a kid, even if you're more successful than you ever thought you'd be in your wildest dreams. You're still that same goon who everybody laughed at. It never changes.

~ David Handler

David Handler Childhood Trauma Goon Inferiority Inferiority Complex Teen Unpopular Unpopularity