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Inferiority Quotes

Browse 288 quotes about Inferiority.

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Inferiority Quotes

“One can only repeat about air warfare: we are in a position of almost hopeless inferiority and must grin and bear it as we take the blows from the English and the Americans. [Germans in the bombed cities] are gradually beginning to lose their courage. Hell like that is hard to bear for any length of time, especially since the inhabitants along the Rhine and Ruhr see no prospect of improvement.”

HardLosesCitiesHellAirPositionBearsBlowImprovementRepeatsLengthHopelessWarfareInferiority
Author:Joseph Goebbels
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“I never did like the assertion of the "innate" inferiority or women or Blacks, and I understood that when people tried to talk that way, they were trying to "fix" a social reality into a natural necessity. And yet, sometimes we do need a language that refers to a basic, fundamental, enduring, and necessary dimension of who we are, and the sense of sexed embodiment can be precisely that.”

PeopleWayNeedsTryingSometimesRealityLanguageSocialNaturalUnderstoodFundamentalsEndureWho We AreDimensionsInnateAssertionInferiorityEmbodiment
Author:Judith Butler
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“I feel that when a white child goes to school only with white children, unconsciously that child grows up in many instances devoid of a world perspective. There is an unconscious provincialism, and it can develop into an unconscious superiority complex just as a Negro develops an unconscious inferiority complex.”

WorldFeelsChildrenSchoolGrowsWhiteGrowing UpPerspectiveComplexesInstanceUnconsciousSuperiorityInferiorityInferiority ComplexProvincialismSuperiority Complex
Author:Martin Luther King, Jr.
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“When I said that I am the Buddha, the Christ, the Lord Maitreya, and more, it was not a question of superiority or inferiority. I added that phrase 'and more' very carefully, because I knew that people had a very limited understanding of the Buddha and the Christ, and hence if I said: 'I am the Christ, the Buddha', they would limit that Reality to their own conceptions of the Buddha or the Christ, and Life has no limit.”

PeopleIfsSaidRealityUnderstandingChristLordLimitsPhrasesConceptionSuperiorityInferiority
Author:Jiddu Krishnamurti
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“I just can't see either a man or a woman in a dependency position, because from this sort of relationship flows a feeling of superiority on one side and inferiority on the other, and that's a form of slow poison. As I see it, men wouldn't want somebody inferior to them unless they felt inadequate themselves. They're intimidated by a mature woman.”

MenWantFeelingsFormFeltSidesPositionFlowPoisonMatureInferiorsSuperiorityInadequateIntimidatedInferiorityDependency
Author:Madalyn Murray O'Hair
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“Politicians are nauseating by definition... They can produce nothing, neither a loaf of bread nor a table nor a picture; and this inability to create value, this total inferiority, makes them jealous, vengeful, insolent and a menace to life and limb.”

ValuesProducePoliticianTablesDefinitionsBreadJealousInabilityLimbsInferiorityMenaceVengefulInsolent
Book:Gerhard Richter: text : writings, interviews and letters, 1961-2007
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“For much of the female half of the world, food is the first signal of our inferiority. It lets us know that our own families may consider female bodies to be less deserving, less needy, less valuable.”

KnowsWorldFirstsMayBodyHalfFoodFemaleFeministValuableSignalsDeservingInferiorityNeedyFemale BodyDeserving It
Book:Passion, Politics, and Everyday Activism: Collected Essays: Moving Beyond Words; Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions; and Revolution from Within
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“A capacity for inferiority in the growing adult is threatened by the temptation by squander that capacity ruthlessly, to revel in hallowness. The syndrom especially plaques anyone who lives behind a mask. An elephant in her disquise as a human princess, a scarecrow with painted features, a glittering tiara under which to glow and glide in anonymous glamour. A witch's hat, a wizards stole, a scholars gown, a soldiers dress sartorials. A hundred ways to duck the question: how will I live with myself now that I nkow what I know.”

KnowsWayHumansBehindsGrowingHundredAdultsCapacityDressesSoldierTemptationFeaturesHatsMaskWitchPrincessDucksScholarThreatenedElephantsWizardsGlamourInferiorityGownsScarecrowTiaras
Author:Gregory Maguire
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“A fight is going on inside me," said an old man to his son. "It is a terrible fight between two wolves. One wolf is evil. He is anger, envy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego. The other wolf is good. he is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion, and faith. The same fight is going on inside you." The son thought about it for a minute and then asked, "Which wolf will win?" The old man replied simply, "The one you feed.”

MenSaidTwoSelfJoyLyingFightingEvilWinningCompassionKindnessMinutesHumilitySonRegretPrideTerribleSorrowEgoEmpathyGuiltGreedEnvyPityGenerosityArroganceOld ManResentmentSerenitySuperiorityBenevolenceInferioritySelf PityPeace LoveHope LoveFalse PrideTwo Wolves
Author:Wendy Mass
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“Welcome to the wonderful world of jealousy, he thought. For the price of admission, you get a splitting headache, a nearly irresistable urge to commit murder, and an inferiority complex. Yippee.”

WorldLoveWonderfulMurderComplexesCommitWelcomeJealousyUrgesJealousInferiorityHeadacheAdmissionSplittingInferiority ComplexWonderful WorldZsadistYou Jealous
Book:Dark Lover: A Novel of the Black Dagger Brotherhood
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“One of the surest tests of the superiority or inferiority of a poet is the way in which a poet borrows. Immature poets imitate mature poets steal bad poets deface what they take and good poets make it into something better or at least something different. The good poet welds his theft into a whole of feeling which is unique utterly different than that from which it is torn the bad poet throws it into something which has no cohesion. A good poet will usually borrow from authors remote in time or alien in language or diverse in interest.”

WayArtDifferentWholeFeelingsLanguageInterestPoetUniqueTestsStealingAliensMatureDiverseSuperiorityTornGreat ArtTheftSomething BetterGreat ArtistInferiorityImmatureGood ArtCohesionGood ArtistBeing ImmatureStealing Things
Author:T. S. Eliot
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“Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed at his gallantry; and Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her. He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger of falling in love, and were it not for his considerable skill in the deadly arts, that he should be in danger of being bested by hers--for never had he seen a lady more gifted in the ways of vanquishing the undead.”

WayShouldArtFallDangerSkillsConnectionsFalling In LoveExpectedGiftedAmazedInferiorityUndeadAffrontDarcyGallantryBewitched
Book:Pride and Prejudice and Zombies
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“She suddenly saw Wimsey in a new light. She knew him to be intelligent, clean, courteous, wealthy, well-read, amusing and enamored, but he had not so far produced in her that crushing sense of inferiority which leads to prostration and hero-worship. But she now realized that there was, after all, something godlike about him. He could control a horse.”

WellsLightSawsHeroWorshipHorseIntelligentCleanCrushWealthyAmusingInferiorityCourteousGodlikeEnamoredHero WorshipProstration
Book:Have His Carcase
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“I never wish to offend, but I am so foolishly shy, that I often seem negligent, when I am only kept back by my natural awkwardness ... Shyness is only the effect of a sense of inferiority in some way or other. If I could persuade myself that my manners were perfectly easy and graceful, I should not be shy.”

IfsWayShouldSeemsWishEasyNaturalEffectsMannersIf I CouldShySensibilityShynessInferiorityAwkwardness
Book:Jane Austen: 8 Books in 1
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“And that is enough to raise your thoughts to what may happen when the redeemed soul, beyond all hope and nearly beyond belief, learns at last that she has pleased Him whom she was created to please. There will be no room for vanity then. She will be free from the miserable illusion that it is her doing. With no taint of what we should now call self-approval she will most innocently rejoice in the thing that God has made her to be, and the moment which heals her old inferiority complex forever will also drown her pride… Perfect humility dispenses with modesty.”

ShouldMayMadeSoulSelfEnoughMomentsHappensLastsBeliefPerfectRoomsForeverHumilityPridePleaseIllusionRaisesComplexesHealMiserableVanityRejoiceApprovalModestyInferiorityRedeemedInferiority ComplexSelf Approval
Author:C. S. Lewis
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“The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creatures that cannot.”

KnowsMenFactsHumanityCan DoAnimalMoralProveCreaturesIntellectualIntelligentRecoveryVegetarianVeganAnimal RightsSuperiorityVeganismInferiorityAnimal WelfareHuman AnimalHumans And AnimalsAnimal CompassionInferiority ComplexAnimal EthicsVivisectionKindness To AnimalsImpertinenceMoral SuperiorityIntellectual Superiority
Book:Mark Twain’s Book of Animals
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“Moral certainty is always a sign of cultural inferiority. The more uncivilized the man, the surer he is that he knows precisely what is right and what is wrong. All human progress, even in morals, has been the work of men who have doubted the current moral values, not of men who have whooped them up and tried to enforce them. The truly civilized man is always skeptical and tolerant.”

KnowsMenInspirationalHumansHas BeensValuesMoralProgressMoralityEthicsCurrentsPositive AtheismCertaintyCivilizedSkepticalSkepticInferiorityDoubtedHuman ProgressMoral ValuesUncivilized
Book:Minority Report
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“You can even say that I hated myself at certain periods. I was too fat, or maybe too tall, or maybe just plain too ugly ... you can say my definiteness stems from underlying feelings of insecurity and inferiority. I couldn't conquer these feelings by acting indecisive. I found the only way to get the better of them was by adopting a forceful, concentrated drive.”

WayFeelingsCertainFoundActingPeriodsUglyFatsConquerHatedInsecurityTallStemInferiorityAdoptingIndecisive
Author:Audrey Hepburn
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“It is just like man's vanity and impertinence to call an animal dumb because it is dumb to his dull perceptions. Heaven is by favor; if it were by merit your dog would go in and you would stay out. Of all the creatures ever made he (man) is the most detestable. Of the entire brood, he is the only one...that possesses malice. He is the only creature that inflicts pain for sport, knowing it to be pain. The fact that man knows right from wrong proves his intellectual superiority to the other creatures; but the fact that he can do wrong proves his moral inferiority to any creature that cannot.”

IfsKnowsMenMadeFactsPainHeavenSportsCan DoAnimalMoralKnowingDogHe ManProveCreaturesPerceptionIntellectualFavorsVanityDumbMeritDullSuperiorityMaliceInferiorityHumans And AnimalsImpertinenceIntellectual Superiority
Author:Mark Twain
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“There's something really the matter with most people who wear tattoos. There's at least some terrible story. I know from experience that there's always something terribly flawed about people who are tattooed, above some little something that Johnny had done in the Navy, even though that's a bad sign...It's terrible. Psychologically it's crazy. Most people who are tattooed, it's the sign of some feeling of inferiority, they're trying to establish some macho identification for themselves.”

PeopleKnowsTryingLittlesMatterDoneStoriesFeelingsCrazyTerribleTattooNavyFlawedInferiorityIdentificationMachoTattooed
Author:Truman Capote
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“Dogs are not like cats, who amusingly tolerate humans only until someone comes up with a tin opener that can be operated with a paw. Men made dogs, they took wolves and gave them human things - unnecessary intelligence, names, a desire to belong, and a twitching inferiority complex. All dogs dream wolf dreams, and know they're dreaming of biting their Maker. Every dog knows, deep in his heart, that he is a Bad Dog.”

KnowsMenHumansHeartMadeDreamDesireNamesDogCatComplexesCome UpMakersTolerateUnnecessaryInferiorityTinBitingPawsInferiority ComplexTwitching
Author:Terry Pratchett
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