Rejection famous quotes
04-24-2025
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I’d recommend learning to accept rejection. Become friends with rejection. Be nice to rejection, because it’s a huge part of being a writer, no matter where you are in your career.
-- A. J. Jacobs -
The environmentalist's dream is an egalitarian society based on: rejection of economic growth, a smaller population, eating lower on the food chain, consuming a lot less, and sharing a much lower level of resources much more equally.
-- Aaron Wildavsky -
Lest Arab governments be tempted out of sheer routine to rush into impulsive rejection, let me suggest that tragedy is not what men suffer but what they miss.
-- Abba Eban -
This is what it feels like to care about someone who doesn't feel the same. I'd only known how it felt to love someone who loved me just as fiercely. I'd never known rejection. I'd never wanted someone who didn't want me. The longing didn't go away with rejection.
-- Abbi Glines -
Lesbian existence comprises both the breaking of a taboo and the rejection of a compulsory way of life. It is also a direct or indirect attack on the male right of access to women.
-- Adrienne Rich -
The cross where Jesus died became also the cross where His apostle died. The loss, the rejection, the shame, belong both to Christ and to all who in very truth are His. the cross that saves them also slays them, and anything short of this is a pseudo-faith and not true faith at all.
-- Aiden Wilson Tozer -
The goal lies away from the sensual world. It is not a rejection of the sensual world, but understanding it so well that we no longer seek it as an end in itself. We no longer expect the sensory world to satisfy us. We no longer demand that sensory consciousness be anything other than an existing condition that we can use skillfully according to time and place.
-- Ajahn Sumedho -
Oh these little rejections how they add up quickly, one small sideways look and I feel so ungood. Somewhere along the way I think I gave you the power to make me feel the way I thought only my father could.
-- Alanis Morissette -
Modern systematic politics, whether liberal, conservative, radical, or socialist, simply has to be rejected from a standpoint that owes genuine allegiance to the tradition of the virtues; for modern politics itself expresses in its institutional forms a systematic rejection of that tradition
-- Alasdair MacIntyre -
Artistic creation is a demand for unity and a rejection of the world.
-- Albert Camus -
People could rationally decide that prolonged relationships take up too much time and effort and that they'd much rather do other kinds of things. But most people are afraid of rejection.
-- Albert Ellis -
"Maybe I just don't want another rejection," he shrugs. "I've had enough of that in my so-called acting career." Oh, so this is what it's all about. "But you're not auditioning for a role," I try to persuade him. "Aren't I?" he raises his eyebrows.
-- Alexandra Potter -
Beware of allowing a tactless word, a rebuttal, a rejection to obliterate the whole sky
-- Anais Nin -
Rejection would be a disaster for the U.S., but ratification alone will not end our problems in Iraq. Even if the constitution is ratified, the insurgents are not going to lay down their arms.
-- Andrew Bacevich -
Rejection is a big part of show business. It can be tough on anyone who doesn't have fairly good self-esteem. Especially kids, as they try to discover who they are.
-- Angela Cartwright -
I got nice rejections explaining that historical fiction was a difficult sell. But I kept trying.
-- Anita Diament -
To ward off a feeling of failure, she joked that she could wallpaper her bathroom with rejection slips, which she chose not to see as messages to stop, but rather as tickets to the game.
-- Anita Shreve -
But at least if you hint and are rejected, the rejection is blurable rather than blistering. Whereas if you ask outright and are refused, the humiliation is as stark as a streaker on a football.
-- Anna Maxted -
How one hates to think of oneself as alone. How one avoids it. It seems to imply rejection or unpopularity.
-- Anne Morrow Lindbergh -
I feel like it has gone very fast for me, but I feel like it wasn't instantaneous, at all. I was getting a lot of rejections. I just got very lucky and it happened quickly for me. I don't feel like I'm a prodigy or something.
-- Anthony Doerr -
To be shocked at how deeply rejection hurts is to ignore what acceptance involves. We must never allow our suffering to be compounded by suggestions that there is something odd in suffering so deeply. There would be something amiss if we didn't.
-- Arthur Schopenhauer -
Don't let anyone, or any rejection, keep you from what you want.
-- Ashley Tisdale -
The largest fear in the world is to speak in public. We fear of stumbling, or public humiliation, and so we're fearing a face-to-face rejection. So, we'll say things in a text or e-mail that we would never say face-to-face. So, relationships are coming together faster and breaking apart faster, and they're a little bit more disposable.
-- Ashton Kutcher -
I like to joke that I probably hold the world record for rejection letters. Yes, the truth is that I was fed up of being rejected repeatedly, and self-publicatio n was an act of defiance at traditional publishing. But life works in strange ways.
-- Ashwin Sanghi -
Institutionalized rejection of difference is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people.
-- Audre Lorde -
How painful it is to find that my figure can be of no help to my future... how painful to see it rejected on account of a slanderous suspicion!
-- Auguste Rodin -
There is a natural opposition among men to anything they have not thought of themselves.
-- Barnes Wallis -
You've got to really be able to accept the rejection.
-- Barry Mann -
You're going to have more rejection than acceptance.
-- Barry Mann -
Atheism and agnosticism signify the rejection of certain images and concepts of God or of truth, which are historically conditioned and therefore inadequate. Atheism is a challenge to religion to purifiy its images and concepts and come nearer to the truth of divine mystery.
-- Bede Griffiths -
If one denies that, when the meaning is true, then the meant is what is so, one rejects propositional truth. If the rejection is universal, then it is the self-destructive proposition that there are no true propositions. If the rejection is limited to the dogmas, then it is just a roundabout way of saying that all the dogmas are false.
-- Bernard Lonergan -
When we don't ask, we don't let others give. When we fear rejection, we don't let generosity arise.
-- Bernie Glassman -
I knew that if I wanted to stop being a pushover I had to get comfortable with small rejections myself. That took some work, but because of it I can now say 'no' to other people with a clear conscience.
-- Beth Ditto -
Growing up as a chubby kid with a ton of imaginary friends and a Cyndi Lauper obsession, I learned about rejection early on and was constantly trying to avoid it.
-- Beth Ditto -
The next time you feel rejection's sting, remember God's words to Samuel: "It is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me." (1 Sam. 8:7)
-- Beth Moore -
But those who chose to reject God during their lifetime on earth will be separated from him for eternity. This is not God's desire, but man's own choice. God holds every man accountable for his rejection of Christ.
-- Billy Graham -
Your empty eyes seem to pass me by and leave me dancing with myself.
-- Billy Idol -
Don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, I just don't think it'd understand.
-- Billy Ray Cyrus -
An objection is not a rejection; it is simply a request for more information
-- Bo -
She took off her wheel, took off her bell, took off her wig, said, how do I smell? I hot footed it barenaked out the window.
-- Bob Dylan -
You say you're looking for someone who'll pick you up each time you fall, to gather flowers constantly and to come each time you call, a lover your life and nothing more. But it ain't me, babe.
-- Bob Dylan -
I flashed her a smile, but she didn't even look at me. So for brains and good judgment, I'd give her a three.
-- Bobby Bare -
I need work. I still audition for work. I dont get offered things out of nowhere. I have to work hard, still, and I get a lot of rejections. It just goes on and on.
-- Bojana Novakovic -
Skid marks all across my brain, cause you're leaving me with so much pain. I was pretty sure that you could be the one, now it is evident that it was hit and run.
-- Bootsy Collins -
Like skateboarders, writers live by rejection; like writers, any skater worth his salt must have the single-minded tenacity of a wiener dog.
-- Bret Anthony Johnston -
The step that a lot of people miss is a dispassionate evaluation of the reasons [for rejection]. If you can dispassionately evaluate the reasons for rejection and find them with merit, you can address them; if without merit, you can ignore them.
-- Brian Koppelman -
I wanted to do the comic strip. I tried to get it syndicated, and I sent some examples to a syndication company, and they sent me a rejection letter! I wasn't smart enough at the time to realize you shouldn't let rejection letters stop you. I thought that rejection letter meant I was not allowed to be a cartoonist in this world, so I put the rejection letter down and said, well, I'll be a stand-up comedian.
-- Brian Regan -
...the vital point to remember is that the swine who just sent your pearl of a story back with nothing but a coffee-stain and a printed rejection slip can be wrong. You cannot take it for granted that he is wrong, but you have an all-important margin of hope that might be enough to keep you going.
-- Brian Stableford -
If rejection destroys your self-esteem, you're letting others hold you as an emotional hostage.
-- Brian Tracy -
Refuse to let the fear of rejection hold you back. Remember, rejection is never personal.
-- Brian Tracy -
Lately, I've been getting too much attention with the Met Gala and work going so well that I try to find rejection in my day. I'll seek out someone on the street or at the farmers' market and ask for something where I know they'll say no. No one likes rejection, but it's real. And I don't want to lose that feeling.
-- Brie Larson -
On the surface the avant garde as a whole seems united primarily in terms of what they are against: the rejection of social institutions and established artistic conventions, or antagonism towards the public (as representative of the existing order). By contrast any positive programme tends to be claimed as exclusive property by isolated and even mutually antagonistic sub-groups. So modern art appears fragmented and sectarian, defined as much by manifestos as imaginative work.
-- C. D. Innes -
As a dispensation, grace begins with the death and resurrection of Christ (Rom. 3:24-26; 4:24,25). The point of testing is no longer legal obedience as the condition of salvation, but acceptance or rejection of Christ, with good works as a fruit of salvation. . . .
-- C. I. Scofield -
I am fully aware of what the word 'fat' means ... It's a swear word. It's a weapon. It's a sociological subspecies. It's an accusation, dismissal, and rejection.
-- Caitlin Moran -
You well know, sir, that when the Constitution was submitted to the People of the respective States for their adoption or rejection, it awakened the warmest debates of the several State conventions.
-- Caleb Cushing -
It is impossible, in my mind, to distinguish between the refusal to receive a petition, or its summary rejection by some general order, and the denial of the right of petition.
-- Caleb Cushing -
Acting forces you to ask yourself, 'Can my constitution take a decade of constant rejection?' And after ten years, you either make it or you don't. And the problem is they don't tell you in advance.
-- Camryn Manheim -
As a writer, the worst thing you can do is work in an environment of fear of rejection.
-- Carol Leifer -
Have you fallen in love with the wrong person yet?' Jace said, "Unfortunately, Lady of the Haven, my one true love remains myself." ..."At least," she said, "you don't have to worry about rejection, Jace Wayland." "Not necessarily. I turn myself down occasionally, just to keep it interesting.
-- Cassandra Clare -
The fastest surging woman leadership position is heading non-profit organizations. Women are not rejecting leadership positions -- they're rejecting politics.
-- Celinda Lake -
I quickly learned that if I kept at it and plowed right through the rejections I would eventually get somebody to buy my wares.
-- Charles R. Schwab -
If you get condemnation out of the Gospel, you put the condemnation into it yourselves! It is not the Gospel, but your rejection of it that will condemn you.
-- Charles Spurgeon -
Actors search for rejection. If they don't get it they reject themselves.
-- Charlie Chaplin -
Growing up in a family of actors, what's great about it is that they're very supportive and they understand what it's like to be an actor - the rejections, the highs and lows... and having a common language with them is great because you have shorthand speech.
-- Chris Pine -
Parents accept their obsolescence with the best grace they can muster. . . they do all they can to make it easy for the younger generation to surpass the older, while secretly dreading the rejection that follows.
-- Christopher Lasch -
Once women begin to question the inevitability of their subordination and to reject the conventions formerly associated with it, they can no longer retreat to the safety of those conventions.
-- Christopher Lasch -
It's easy to cry when you realize that everyone you love will reject you or die.
-- Chuck Palahniuk -
I am Joe's Enraged, Inflamed, sense of rejection.
-- Chuck Palahniuk -
Media bias is one thing. Rejection of reality is another
-- Chuck Todd -
My rejection at the Salon brought an end to my hesitation [to settle in Paris] since after this failure I can no longer claim to cope... alas, that fatal rejection has virtually taken the bread out of my mouth.
-- Claude Monet -
This time I hurt her more than she loves me.
-- Conway Twitty -
Theres nothing to fear but fears themselves, such as monsters, rejection, food poisoning, redundancy, monsters, and oxford commas.
-- Craig Benzine -
But also there are all the famous stories about the songs that have been rejected, but then went on to become hits.
-- Cynthia Weil -
Dialogue and education for peace can help free our hearts from the impulse toward intolerance and the rejection of others.
-- Daisaku Ikeda -
To be a writer is to embrace rejection as a way of life.
-- Dana Stabenow -
The writing life requires courage, patience, persistence, empathy, openness, and the ability to deal with rejection. It requires the willingness to be alone with oneself. To be gentle with oneself. To look at the world without blinders on. To observe and withstand what one sees. To be disciplined, and at the same time, take risks. To be willing to fail - not just once, but again and again, over the course of a lifetime.
-- Dani Shapiro -
You get used to the rejection and you don't take it personally.
-- Daniel Craig -
One of the best predictors of ultimate success in either sales or non - sales selling isn't natural talent or even industry expertise, but how you explain your failures and rejections.
-- Daniel H. Pink -
Judas is a reflection of anyone who ends up rejecting Jesus. It's a tragic story?not something to shake your finger at, but something to be sad about.
-- Darrell Bock -
To attempt to pay for salvation with church membership, prayers, or good deeds is an insult to Christ, who paid the full price-and is a rejection of the gift of God's grace.
-- Dave Hunt -
My rejection of the idea of entertainment in its current form is based on the audience that comes with it.
-- David Antin -
When you're just an actor, maybe not the top of the list guys, you get constant rejection and it's fun.
-- David Arquette -
For indeed Christianity was complicit in the death of antiquity, and in the birth of modernity, not because it was an accomplice of the latter, but because it, alone in the history of the West, constituted a rejection of and alternative to nihilism's despair, violence, and idolatry of power; as such, Christianity shattered the imposing and enchanting facade behind which nihilism once hid, and thereby, inadvertently, called it forth into the open.
-- David Bentley Hart -
Arms control is by definition a rejection of disarmament.
-- David Dellinger -
Woke the next day and found her note. Love ya, goodbye, that's all she wrote.
-- David Gates -
The G-8 has clearly rejected the failed U.S. policy of voluntary programs to address global warming.
-- David Hawkins -
I do not see that the sex of the candidate is an argument against her admission as a Privatdozent. After all, the Senate is not a bathhouse. Objecting to sex discrimination being the reason for rejection of Emmy Noether's application to join the faculty at the University of Gottingen.
-- David Hilbert -
When you are an actor, rejection and disappointment are an occupational hazard.
-- David Morrissey -
When social forces press for the rejection of age-old Truth, then those who reject it will seek meaning in their own truth. These truths will rarely be Truth at all; they will be only collections of personal preferences and prejudices.
-- Dean Koontz -
Much more prevalent than physical fear is the fear of criticism, rejection, and verbal opposition.
-- Derek A. Cuthbert -
Having a dance background, I became used to rejection at an early age. Dance is very competitive, especially for a sensitive person like me. But I realized it’s better not to take it so seriously. If you beat yourself up, it’s hard to keep going.
-- Dianna Agron -
What others regard as retreat from them or rejection of them is not those things at all but instead a breeding ground for greater friendship, a culture for deeper involvement, eventually, with them.
-- Doris Grumbach -
My whole life so far, my whole experience has been that our failure has been not to love enough. This conviction brought me to a rejection of the radical movement after my early membership in the Socialist Party, the Industrial Workers of the World, and the Communist affiliates I worked with.
-- Dorothy Day -
The Anarchists' uncompromising rejection of the State, the subject of Marxian sneers for its "absolutist" and "Utopian" character, makes much better sense in the present era than the Marxist relativist and historical approach. The pacifists also seem to be more realistic than the Marxist both in their understanding of modern war and also in their attempts to do something about it...
-- Dwight Macdonald -
A nasty letter or a sarcastic one can make you righteously angry, but what can you do about a polite letter of rejection? Nothing, really, except cry.
-- E. L. Konigsburg -
Frankie appreciated both the accolades and the rejections equally, because both meant she'd had an impact. She wasn't a person who needed to be liked so much as she was a person who liked to be notorious.
-- E. Lockhart -
These rejections hurt me terribly because I felt it was my life that was being rejected.
-- Edmund White
