Quotable Quotes: Approval
by Miki Saxon
Approval—something we all enjoy and sometimes chase, but isn’t always all it’s cracked up to be.
Self-approval is a good; something to strive for and actively work to achieve, but craving approval from others is a different matter as Chris Morris warns,“The pursuit of approval usually ends in disaster.”
Mark Twain believes that “A man cannot be uncomfortable without his own approval,” which is not only true, but the analog to Tehyi Hsieh’s words, “Lean too much on the approval of people, and it becomes a bed of thorns.”
Rachel Naomi Remen describes the pursuit of approval best, “To seek approval is to have no resting place, no sanctuary. Like all judgment, approval encourages a constant striving. It makes us uncertain of who we are and of our true value. Approval cannot be trusted. It can be withdrawn at any time no matter what our track record has been. It is as nourishing of real growth as cotton candy. Yet many of us spend our lives pursuing it.”
Pursuing approval from others also leads to a lonely life, because, as Maurice Chevalier says, Those whose approval you seek most give you the least.”
Self-approval may not come easily, but it comes fastest to those who follow Johannes Kepler’s approach, “I much prefer the sharpest criticism of a single intelligent man to the thoughtless approval of the masses.”
All this can become a moot point is common wisdom is followed early, “If a child lives with approval, he learns to live with himself.”
Please join me tomorrow for a true story about the quest for approval.
Flickr image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sudhamshu/4208690449/
