Quotations about:
    insecurity


Note not all quotations have been tagged, so Search may find additional quotes on this topic.


As wealth grows, worry grows, and thirst for more wealth.

[Crescentem sequitur cura pecuniam,
Maiorumque fames.]

Horace (65-8 BC) Roman poet and satirist [Quintus Horacius Flaccus]
Odes [Carmina], Book 3, # 16, l. 17ff (3.16.17-18) (23 BC) [tr. Michie (1963)]
    (Source)

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

With growing riches cares augment,
And thirst of greater.
[tr. Fanshawe; ed. Brome (1666)]

Care still attends encreasing store,
And craving Appetite for more
[tr. Creech (1684)]

As riches grow, care follows: men repine
And thirst for more.
[tr. Conington (1872)]

Care, and a thirst for greater things, is the consequence of increasing wealth.
[tr. Smart/Buckley (1853)]

But as wealth into our coffers flows in still increasing store,
So, too, still our care increases, and the hunger still for more.
[tr. Martin (1864)]

Care grows with wealth, with wealth the greed for more.
[tr. Bulwer-Lytton (1870)]

The care of wealth, together with the thirst for more, attend increasing riches.
[tr. Elgood (1893)]

But care with growing treasure grows,
And thirst for more.
[tr. Gladstone (1894)]

Wealth, the faster it grows, is but the prey of care,
And of lusting for more.
[tr. Phelps (1897)]

Care follows growing wealth, and thirst for more.
[tr. Garnsey (1907)]

As riches grow, care follows, and a thirst
For more and more.
[tr. Marshall (1908)]

Yet as money grows, care and greed for greater riches follow after.
[tr. Bennett (Loeb) (1912)]

Increase of wealth and greed bring on
Care.
[tr. Mills (1924)]

But gold brings both greed and
Trouble on its back.
[tr. Raffel (1983)]

The more the money grows the more the greed
Grows too; also the anxiety of greed.
[tr. Ferry (1997)]

But with increasing wealth, follow
anxiety and greed for more and more.
[tr. Alexander (1999)]

Anxiety, and the hunger for more, pursues
growing wealth.
[tr. Kline (2015)]

 
Added on 16-Sep-24 | Last updated 16-Sep-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Horace

Many teenagers are tormented by terrors they deem private and personal. They do not know that their anxieties and doubts are universal.

Haim Ginott
Haim Ginott (1922-1973) Israeli-American school teacher, child psychologist, psychotherapist [b. Haim Ginzburg]
Between Parent and Teenager, ch. 2 “Rebellion and Response” (1969)
    (Source)
 
Added on 9-Aug-24 | Last updated 9-Aug-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Ginott, Haim

To show lack of consideration for those who in any capacity serve us — whether in restaurants, hotels, or stores, or in public places anywhere — is always an evidence of ill-breeding as well as inexcusable selfishness. It is only those who are afraid that someone may encroach upon their exceedingly insecure dignity who show neither courtesy nor consideration except to those whom they think it would be to their advantage to please.

Emily Post (1872-1960) American author, columnist [née Price]
Etiquette: The Blue Book of Social Usage, ch. 8 “Entertaining at a Restaurant” (1922; 1955 10th ed.)
    (Source)

See also Paul Eldridge.
 
Added on 7-Sep-23 | Last updated 7-Sep-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Post, Emily

He who stifles free discussion, secretly doubts whether what he professes to believe is really true.

Wendell Phillips (1811-1884) American abolitionist, orator, social activist
Speech, Daniel O’Connell celebration, Boston (1870-08-06)
    (Source)
 
Added on 5-Jul-23 | Last updated 5-Jul-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Phillips, Wendell

The only basis for fearing the votes of men is to fear those men themselves. To deny the right to vote is to increase those fears.

Lyndon B. Johnson (1908-1973) American politician, educator, US President (1963-69)
Speech (1960-03-10), U.S. Senate
    (Source)

As Senate Majority Leader.
 
Added on 2-Jun-23 | Last updated 26-Apr-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Johnson, Lyndon

Bad reviews jar me down to the instep. I will never become philosophically resigned to a negative reaction to something I’ve written.

Rod Serling (1924-1975) American screenwriter, playwright, television producer, narrator
Patterns, Introduction (1957)
    (Source)
 
Added on 6-Sep-22 | Last updated 6-Sep-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Serling, Rod

No trust is safe.

[Nusquam tuta fides.]

Virgil the Poet
Virgil (70-19 BC) Roman poet [b. Publius Vergilius Maro; also Vergil]
The Aeneid [Ænē̆is], Book 4, l. 373 (4.373) [Dido] (29-19 BC) [tr. Bartsch (2021)]
    (Source)

Dido chiding Aeneas (and the gods) for Aeneas' desertion.

(Source (Latin)). Alternate translations:

True faith is lost.
[tr. Ogilby (1649)]

Faithless is earth, and faithless are the skies!
Justice is fled, and Truth is now no more!
[tr. Dryden (1697)]

Firm faith no where subsists.
[tr. Davidson/Buckley (1854)]

No faith on earth, in heaven no trust.
[tr. Conington (1866)]

Faith lives no more.
[tr. Cranch (1872)]

Nowhere is trust safe.
[tr. Mackail (1885)]

All faith is gone!
[tr. Morris (1900)]

Faithless is earth, and false is Heaven above.
[tr. Taylor (1907), st. 48, l. 426]

No trusting heart is safe
in all this world.
[tr. Williams (1910)]

Nowhere is faith secure.
[tr. Fairclough (1916)]

Faith has no haven anywhere in the world.
[tr. Humphries (1951)]

Nowhere is it safe to be trustful.
[tr. Day Lewis (1952)]

Nowhere is certain trust.
[tr. Mandelbaum (1971), l. 509]

Faith can never be secure.
[tr. Fitzgerald (1981), l. 514]

Is there nothing we can trust in this life?
[tr. West (1990)]

Nowhere is truth safe.
[tr. Kline (2002)]

Good faith is found nowhere.
[tr. Lombardo (2005)]

There’s no faith left on earth!
[tr. Fagles (2006)]

 
Added on 3-Aug-22 | Last updated 21-Jun-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Virgil

So many times I’ve made myself stupid with the fear of being outsmarted.

James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, #17 (Spring 1999)
    (Source)
 
Added on 23-Nov-21 | Last updated 23-Nov-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Richardson, James

You would think we would envy only what we love, for being loveable. But no, we envy those the world loves, because we care less for being loveable than being loved.

James Richardson (b. 1950) American poet
“Vectors: 56 Aphorisms and Ten-second Essays,” Michigan Quarterly Review, # 37 (Spring 1999)
    (Source)
 
Added on 19-Oct-21 | Last updated 19-Oct-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Richardson, James

Belligerence is the hallmark of insecurity — the secure nation does not need threat to maintain its position.

Dwight David Eisenhower (1890-1969) American general, US President (1953-61)
Speech, American Newspaper Publishers Assoc, New York City (25 Apr 1946)
    (Source)

The first part of the above was a common phrase of Eisenhower's.
 
Added on 30-Sep-20 | Last updated 30-Sep-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Eisenhower, Dwight David

At sixteen I was stupid, confused and indecisive. At twenty-five I was wise, self-confident, prepossessing, and assertive. At forty-five I am stupid, confused, insecure, and indecisive. Who would have supposed that maturity is only a short break in adolescence?

Jules Feiffer (b. 1929) American cartoonist, authork, satirist
Cartoon, The Observer (3 Feb 1974)
 
Added on 14-Oct-19 | Last updated 14-Oct-19
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , ,
More quotes by Feiffer, Jules

Some years ago, I was lucky enough invited to a gathering of great and good people: artists and scientists, writers and discoverers of things. And I felt that at any moment they would realise that I didn’t qualify to be there, among these people who had really done things.
On my second or third night there, I was standing at the back of the hall, while a musical entertainment happened, and I started talking to a very nice, polite, elderly gentleman about several things, including our shared first name. And then he pointed to the hall of people, and said words to the effect of, “I just look at all these people, and I think, what the heck am I doing here? They’ve made amazing things. I just went where I was sent.”
And I said, “Yes. But you were the first man on the moon. I think that counts for something.”
And I felt a bit better. Because if Neil Armstrong felt like an imposter, maybe everyone did. Maybe there weren’t any grown-ups, only people who had worked hard and also got lucky and were slightly out of their depth, all of us doing the best job we could, which is all we can really hope for.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
Blog entry (2017-05-12)
    (Source)
 
Added on 6-Nov-18 | Last updated 6-Jun-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Gaiman, Neil

Anxiety is the handmaiden of contemporary ambition.

Alain de Botton (b. 1969) Swiss-British author
Status Anxiety (2004)
    (Source)
 
Added on 10-Jan-18 | Last updated 10-Jan-18
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by De Botton, Alain

I’m convinced if I keep going one day I will write something decent. On very bad days I will observe that I must have written good things in the past, which means that I’ve lost it. But normally I just assume that I don’t have it. The gulf between the thing I set out to make in my head and the sad, lumpy thing that emerges into reality is huge and distant and I just wish that I could get them closer.

Neil Gaiman (b. 1960) British author, screenwriter, fabulist
“This Much I Know,” The Guardian (2017-08-05)
    (Source)
 
Added on 2-Oct-17 | Last updated 27-Jun-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Gaiman, Neil

Inspect every piece of pseudoscience and you will find a security blanket, a thumb to suck, a skirt to hold. What does the scientist have to offer in exchange? Uncertainty! Insecurity!

Isaac Asimov (1920-1992) Russian-American author, polymath, biochemist
Asimov’s Guide to Science (1972)
 
Added on 26-Apr-16 | Last updated 26-Apr-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , ,
More quotes by Asimov, Isaac

What makes the temptation of power so seemingly irresistible? Maybe it is that power offers an easy substitute for the hard task of love. It seems easier to be God than to love God, easier to control people than to love people, easier to own life than to love life.

Henri Nouwen (1932-1996) Dutch Catholic priest and writer
In the Name of Jesus (1989)
 
Added on 8-Apr-16 | Last updated 8-Apr-16
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Nouwen, Henri

To have money is a feare, not to have it a griefe.

George Herbert (1593-1633) Welsh priest, orator, poet.
Jacula Prudentum, or Outlandish Proverbs, Sentences, &c. (compiler), # 591 (1640 ed.)
    (Source)
 
Added on 24-Mar-16 | Last updated 22-Dec-23
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Herbert, George

Avarice is fear sheathed in gold.

Paul Eldridge (1888-1982) American educator, novelist, poet
“Lanterns in the Night,” Maxim 42, The Jewish Forum (Aug 1948)
 
Added on 30-Oct-13 | Last updated 28-Jan-22
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , ,
More quotes by Eldridge, Paul

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes with everyone else’s highlight reel.

Steven Furtick (b. 1980) American pastor
Speech, Willow Creek Global Leadership Summit (church gathering) (11 Aug 2011)

Furtick gave an earlier version of this thought in a Tweet on 11 May 2011: "One reason we struggle w/ insecurity: we're comparing our behind the scenes to everyone else's highlight reel."See also Chaplin.
 
Added on 20-Apr-12 | Last updated 3-Nov-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Furtick, Steven

The politician in my country seeks votes, affection and respect, in that order …. With few notable exceptions, they are simply men who want to be loved.

Edward R. Murrow (1908-1965) American journalist
Address, London Guildhall (19 Oct 1959)
 
Added on 30-Nov-07 | Last updated 15-Apr-17
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Murrow, Edward R.

Whatsoever therefore is consequent to a time of Warre, where every man is Enemy to every man; the same is consequent to the time, wherein men live without other security, than what their own strength, and their own invention shall furnish them withall. In such condition, there is no place for Industry; because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navigation, nor use of the commodities that may be imported by Sea; no commodious Building; no Instruments of moving, and removing such things as require much force; no Knowledge of the face of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no Letters; no Society; and which is worst of all, continuall feare, and danger of violent death; And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish, and short.

Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) English philosopher
Leviathan, Part 1, ch. 13 (1651)
    (Source)
 
Added on 22-Oct-07 | Last updated 6-Nov-20
Link to this post | 1 comment
Topics: , , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Hobbes, Thomas

A strong nation, like a strong person, can afford to be gentle, firm, thoughtful, and restrained. It can afford to extend a helping hand to others. It’s a weak nation, like a weak person, that must behave with bluster and boasting and rashness and other signs of insecurity.

Jimmy Carter (b. 1924) American politician, US President (1977-1981), Nobel laureate [James Earl Carter, Jr.]
“Warm Hearts and Cool Heads,” speech, Liberal Party dinner, New York City (14 Oct 1976)
    (Source)

The title of the speech was from a phrase coined by Adlai Stevenson.
 
Added on 11-Oct-07 | Last updated 5-Jan-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Carter, Jimmy

All charming people have something to conceal, usually their total dependence on the appreciation of others.

Cyril Connolly (1903-1974) English intellectual, literary critic and writer.
Enemies of Promise, ch. 16 (1938)
 
Added on 17-Oct-05 | Last updated 16-Aug-21
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Connolly, Cyril

The causes of the Great Depression are still far from certain. A lack of certainty, it may also be observed, is not evident in the contemporary writing on the subject. Much of it tells what went wrong and why with marked firmness. However, this paradoxically can itself be an indication of uncertainty. When people are least sure they are often most dogmatic.

John Kenneth Galbraith (1908-2006) Canadian-American economist, diplomat, author
The Great Crash, 1929, ch. 9 “Cause and Consequence,” sec. 3 (1954)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 15-Dec-20
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , ,
More quotes by Galbraith, John Kenneth

IAGO: Poor and content is rich, and rich enough;
But riches fineless is as poor as winter
To him that ever fears he shall be poor.

Shakespeare
William Shakespeare (1564-1616) English dramatist and poet
Othello, Act 3, sc. 3, l. 202ff (3.3.202-204) (1603)
    (Source)
 
Added on 1-Feb-04 | Last updated 7-Feb-24
Link to this post | No comments
Topics: , , , , , , , ,
More quotes by Shakespeare, William