65+ Quotes About Insecurity To Help You Overcome Self-Doubt

No matter one’s age, self-doubt can get the best of us. It sneaks up on us at school from a young age, during job interviews (hello, Imposter Syndrome!), our personal lives, and dulls the light and joy during the happiest of moments. That nagging feeling of insecurity is the voice in your head that makes you feel undeserving, compare yourself to others, and chip away at the joyous confidence we all had as children. Oh, and to sprinkle salt on the wound, here comes everyone’s filtered and curated social media presence to really mess with our emotions. No matter the reason for your insecurities, whether it’s childhood trauma, a failed relationship, career setbacks, or the rat race to meet an endlessly impossible list of social milestones, it’s key to know you are not alone in feeling this way. Talk to a therapist or a counselor to work through your self-doubts, practice mindfulness, and take baby steps in the right direction with self-esteem activities to build your confidence back up.

Consider this list of quotes about insecurity — and overcoming them — as self-care for your soul. Like a good wine, they pair best with our massive lists of confidence quotes, words of encouragement, and positive affirmations. Breathe in, breathe out, and let self-criticism melt away.

Quotes About Insecurity

1. “The problem with human attraction is not knowing if it will be returned.” — Becca Fitzpatrick
2. “Those who matter don’t mind, and those who mind don’t matter.” — Bernard Baruch
3. “I was feeling insecure you might not love me anymore.” — John Lennon
4. “Be careful not to mistake insecurity and inadequacy for humility! Humility has nothing to do with the insecure and inadequate! Just like arrogance has nothing to do with greatness!” — C. JoyBell C.
5. “Often those that criticize others reveal what he himself lacks.” — Shannon L. Alder
6. “Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security.” — John Allen Paulos
7. “Our envy always lasts longer than the happiness of those we envy.” — François Duc de La Rochefoucauld
8. “He seemed to be talking about my fears, my insecurity, and my unwillingness to see what was wonderful because tomorrow it might disappear and I might suffer. The gods throw the dice, and they don’t ask whether we want to be in the game or not.” — Paulo Coelho
9. “I’m interested in the fact that the less secure a man is, the more likely he is to have extreme prejudice.” — Clint Eastwood
10. “Insecurity is the worst sense that lovers feel: sometimes the most humdrum desireless marriage seems better. Insecurity twists meanings and poisons trust.” — Graham Greene
11. “I have insecurities of course, but I don’t hang out with anyone who points them out to me.” — Adele
12. “Comparison is the thief of joy.” — Theodore Roosevelt
13. “Success can make you go one of two ways. It can make you a prima donna — or it can smooth the edges, take away the insecurities, let the nice things come out.” — Barbara Walters
14. “Only the insecure strive for security.” — Wayne Dyer
15. “Many teenagers are tormented by terrors they deem private and personal. They do not know that their anxieties and doubts are universal.” — Haim Ginott
16. “Insecurity refers to a profound sense of self-doubt-a deep feeling of uncertainty about our basic worth and our place in the world. Insecurity is associated with chronic self-consciousness, along with a chronic lack of confidence in ourselves and anxiety about our relationships. The insecure man or woman lives in constant fear of rejection and a deep uncertainty about whether his or her own feelings and desires are legitimate.” — Beth Moore
17. “Happiness is only available with total acceptance of who you are, including all your fears, worries, and anxiety. It will be there for you when you can see your own inner beauty. You cannot achieve happiness without using your past, your flaws, insecurities, and imperfections in a positive way. It is about letting go and detaching from unhealthy people, ideas, and lifestyle choices, and replacing them with interdependent, pro-active ways of thinking and responding.” — Lucinda Bassett
18. “Insecurity’s best cover is perfectionism. That’s where it becomes an art form.” — Beth Moore
19. “A competent and self-confident person is incapable of jealousy in anything. Jealousy is invariably a symptom of neurotic insecurity.” — Robert A. Heinlein
20. “You made me insecure, Told me I wasn’t good enough.” — Selena Gomez
21. “Don’t let fear stop you. Don’t give up because you are paralyzed by insecurity or overwhelmed by the odds, because in giving up, you give up hope. Understand that failure is a process in life, that only in trying can you enrich yourself and have the possibility of moving forward. The greatest obstacle in life is fear and giving up because of it.” — Sonia Sotomayor
22. “The sad problem is that we see ourselves as being quite terribly small. Instead of spending my time being envious, I need to celebrate your and my different gifts, even if mine are perhaps less spectacular than yours.” — Desmond Tutu
23. “When you show yourself to the world and display your talents, you naturally stir all kinds of resentment, envy, and other manifestations of insecurity… you cannot spend your life worrying about the petty feelings of others.” — Robert Greene
24. “If you are insecure, guess what? The rest of the world is too. Do not overestimate the competition and underestimate yourself. You are better than you think.” — T. Harv Eker
25. “Creative people are very insecure people because they don’t know whether people like them or are in awe of them. That insecurity always comes out. It makes them a better actor, I feel.” — Persis Khambatta
26. “Perhaps we just need little reminders from time to time that we are already dignified, deserving, worthy. Sometimes we don’t feel that way because of the wounds and the scars we carry from the past or because of the uncertainty of the future. It is doubtful that we came to feel undeserving on our own. We were helped to feel unworthy. We were taught it in a thousand ways when we were little, and we learned our lessons well.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn
27. “It stands to the everlasting credit of science that by acting on the human mind it has overcome man’s insecurity before himself and before nature.” — Albert Einstein
28. “The reason why we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind the scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.” — Steven Furtick
29. “Jealousy takes root in the soil of insecurity.” — Beth Moore
30. “Men are not our problem; it’s what we are trying to get from them that messes us up. We use guys like mirrors to see if we’re valuable.” — Beth Moore
31. “Insecurity is an ugly thing. It makes you hate people you don’t even know.” — Drake
32. “Insecurity prevents young artists from ‘flying’ and older artists from being ‘down to earth.’ Young artists should work on their confidence and the older ones on their humility.” — Igor Babailov
33. “When you are really in love, you become vulnerable, and insecurities come out of nowhere.” — Laz Alonso
34. “If men as individuals surrender to the call of their elementary instincts, avoiding pain and seeking satisfaction only for their own selves, the result for them all taken together must be a state of insecurity, of fear, and of promiscuous misery.” — Albert Einstein
35. “Each one of us requires the spur of insecurity to force us to do our best.” — Harold W. Dodds
36. “Anger is a manifestation of a deeper issue… and that, for me, is based on insecurity, self-esteem, and loneliness.” — Naomi Campbell
37. “Insecurity, commonly regarded as a weakness in normal people, is the basic tool of the actor’s trade.” — Miranda Richardson
38. “The task we must set for ourselves is not to feel secure, but to be able to tolerate insecurity.” — Erich Fromm
39. “Arrogance really comes from insecurity, and in the end, our feeling that we are bigger than others is really the flip side of our feeling that we are smaller than others.” — Desmond Tutu
40. “In a world we find terrifying, we ratify that which doesn’t threaten us.” — David Mamet
41. “Inside it drives me crazy, my insecurities could eat me alive.” — Eminem
42. “I’m actively working hard on learning to appreciate yourself no matter what. If what someone else says can easily derail you, it means your sense of self isn’t that firmly established in the first place. It’s an inside job. You’re beautiful and worthy and totally unique. People insult each other based on their own insecurities – even though it may feel personal, it really never is. Really. Seriously.” — Emma Stone
43. “I want you to forget all your insecurities. I want you to reject anyone of anything that’s ever made you feel like you don’t belong or don’t fit in or made you feel like you’re not good enough or pretty enough or thin enough or can’t sing well enough or dance well enough or write a song well enough or like you’ll never win a Grammy or you’ll never sell out Madison Square Garden, you just remember that you’re a goddamn superstar and you were born this way!” — Lady Gaga
44. “Insecurity is at the heart of every rivalry.” — Beth Moore
45. “Insecurities are about as useful as trying to put the pin back in the grenade.” — Brandon Boyd
46. “If we’re willing to give up hope that insecurity and pain can be eliminated, then we can have the courage to relax with the groundlessness of our situation. This is the first step on the path.” — Pema Chodron
47. “Your playing small doesn’t serve the world.” — Marianne Williamson
48. “It is playing safe that we create a world of utmost insecurity.” — Dag Hammarskjold
49. “Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don’t matter and those who matter don’t mind. Don’t cry because it’s over. Smile because it happened.” — Dr. Seuss
50. “Work is life, you know, and without it, there’s nothing but fear and insecurity.” — John Lennon
51. “There are many things that we would throw away if we were not afraid that others might pick them up.” — Oscar Wilde
52. “I don’t let anyone’s insecurities, emotions, or opinions bother me. I know that if I am happy, that’s all that matters to me.” — Demi Lovato
53. “I’m always described as ‘cocksure’ or ‘with a swagger,’ and that bears no resemblance to who I feel like inside. I feel plagued by insecurity.” — Ben Affleck
54. “Just dash something down if you see a blank canvas staring at you with a certain imbecility. You do not know how paralyzing it is, that staring of a blank canvas which says to the painter: you don’t know anything.” — Vincent Van Gogh
55. “The creditors are proving impossible to deal with and short of a sudden appearance on the scene of wealthy art patrons, we are going to be turned out of this dear little house where I led a simple life and was able to work so well. I do not know what will become of us.” — Claude Monet
56. “Parents can be very influential in designing those little creepy-crawlers that jump around in your mind for the rest of your life. It’s the fear of not being good enough.” — Kim Basinger
57. “I still have pretty much the same fears I had as a kid. I’m not sure I’d want to give them up; a lot of these insecurities fuel the movies I make.” — Steven Spielberg
58. “It takes more courage to reveal insecurities than to hide them, more strength to relate to people than to dominate them, more ‘manhood’ to abide by thought-out principles rather than blind reflex. Toughness is in the soul and spirit, not in muscles and an immature mind.” — Alex Karras
59. “A lack of transparency results in distrust and a deep sense of insecurity.” — Dalai Lama
60. “There is no external solution to the problem of insecurity.” — Stefan Molyneux
61. “We live in a culture where we’re bombarded with so much noise and so much insecurity.” — Lisa Ling
62. “With our sense of self out of the way we are liberated from doubt and insecurity.” — Steven Kotler
63. “Don’t let jealousy fool you. It’s just another name for insecurity.” — Unknown”
64. “Arrogance is the camouflage insecurity.” — Tim Fargo
65. “Don’t let fear or insecurity stop you from trying new things. Believe in yourself. Do what you love. And most importantly, be kind to others, even if you don’t like them.” — Stacy London
66. “Change is always tough. Even for those who see themselves as agents of change, the process of starting a new thing can cause times of disorientation, uncertainty and insecurity.” — Joyce Meyer
67. “It’s not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in, physical shame, and self-loathing — they are not all bad. Those devils have been my angels. Without them, I would never have disappeared into language, literature, the mind, laughter, and all the mad intensities that made and unmade me.” — Stephen Fry, Moab Is My Washpot
68. “Being different is a revolving door in your life where secure people enter and insecure exit.” — Shannon L. Alder