“Don’t seek approval. This may be the toughest suggestion for you to follow — and the most important. Whether you’re a teenager seeking approval from your peers, a middle-aged parent seeking the approval of your kids, or a man or woman seeking the approval of a partner, it all amounts to the same thing. You’re giving your personal power away every time you seek validation from someone else for who you are.”
TRISH MACGREGOR, Soulmate Astrology
“Eventually you just have to realize that you’re living for an audience of one. I’m not here for anyone else’s approval.”
PAMELA ANDERSON, Esquire, Jan. 2005
“Man’s desire for the approval of his fellows is so strong, his dread of their censure so violent, that he himself has brought his enemy (conscience) within his gates; and it keeps watch over him, vigilant always in the interests of its master to crush any half-formed desire to break away from the herd.”
W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM, The Moon and Sixpence
“He who seeks only for applause from without has all his happiness in another’s keeping.”
OLIVER GOLDSMITH, The Good-Natured Man
“Do right, and public approval will follow; either the next hour or the next century.”
J. C. LETTSOM, attributed, Day’s Collection
“The people who receive the most approval in life are the ones who care the least about it–so technically, if you want the approval of others, you need to stop caring about it.”
WAYNE W. DYER, Your Ultimate Calling
“If you are an approval addict, your behavior is as easy to control as that of any other junkie. All a manipulator need do is a simple two-step process: Give you what you crave, and then threaten to take it away. Every drug dealer in the world plays this game.”
HARRIET B. BRAIKER, Who’s Pulling Your Strings? How to Break the Cycle of Manipulation and Regain Control of Your Life
