Rejection Quotes - Page 3

• Most fears of rejection rest on the desire for approval from other people. Don't base your self-esteem on their opinions.

  Harvey Mackay

  Self Esteem, People, Self Respect

  Harvey Mackay (2011). “The Mackay MBA of Selling in the Real World”, Penguin

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• Often, you have to fail as a writer before you write that bestselling novel or ground-breaking memoir. If you're failing as a writer - which it definitely feels like when you're struggling to write regularly or can't seem to earn a living as a freelance writer - maybe you need to take a long-term perspective.

  J. K. Rowling

  Struggle, Writing, Long

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• Every great advance in natural knowledge has involved the absolute rejection of authority.

  Thomas Huxley

  Education, Knowledge, Authority And Power

  Thomas Henry Huxley, Cyril Bibby (1971). “T. H. Huxley on Education”, p.72, Cambridge University Press

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• I tell writers to keep reading, reading, reading. Read widely and deeply. And I tell them not to give up even after getting rejection letters. And only write what you love.

  Anita Diament

  Giving Up, Reading, Writing

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• Painting has been a smiling mistress to many, but she has been a cruel jilt to me; I did not abandon her, she abandoned me.

  Samuel Morse

  Mistress, Painting, Abandoned

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• I always feel like rejection is my petrol. That's what keeps me going.

  Laura Kightlinger

  Feels, Petrol

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• You put yourself on the line as a performer, and when people reject you, it's a personal rejection.

  Morgan Brittany

  Rejects You, People, Lines

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• Some actors couldn't figure out how to withstand the constant rejection. They couldn't see the light at the end of the tunnel.

  Harrison Ford

  Tunnels, Light, Actors

  "Life lessons 9 successful people learned from failing" by Erica Murphy, www.businessinsider.com. July 20, 2015.

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• The most important element of a free society, where individual rights are held in the highest esteem, is the rejection of the initiation of violence.

  Ron Paul

  Rights, Historical, Important

  Ron Paul (1987). “Freedom Under Siege”, p.38, Ludwig von Mises Institute

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• Believe me, the next step is a currency crisis because there will be a rejection of the dollar, the rejection of the dollar is a big, big event, and then your personal liberties are going to be severely threatened.

  Ron Paul

  Believe, Liberty, Next

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• Anyone who cannot come to terms with his life while he is alive needs one hand to ward off a little his despair over his fate... but with his other hand he can note down what he sees among the ruins.

  Franz Kafka

  War, Fate, Hands

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.262, Simon and Schuster

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• I wrote poems in my corner of the Brooks Street station. I sent them to two editors who rejected them right off. I read those letters of rejection years later and I agreed with those editors.

  Carl Sandburg

  Years, Editors, Two

  Carl Sandburg, Margaret Sandburg, George Hendrick (1999). “Ever the Winds of Chance”, p.146, University of Illinois Press

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• I used to save all my rejection slips because I told myself, one day I'm going to autograph these and auction them. And then I lost the box.

  James Lee Burke

  One Day, Auctions, Used

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• Many days you will want to give up because of rejections and failures. Passion to be an artist will help you prevail where others fail.

  Jack White

  Giving Up, Passion, Artist

  Jack White (2013). “Messages of Effusion: Challenging Answers for Perplexing Career Situations Artists Encounter”, p.103, Lulu Press, Inc

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• Negation is the mind's first freedom, yet a negative habit is fruitful only so long as we exert ourselves to overcome it, adapt it to our needs; once acquired it can imprison us.

  Emile M. Cioran

  Freedom, Long, Mind

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• I wrote for twelve years and collected 250 rejection slips before getting any fiction published, so I guess outside reinforcement isn't all that important to me.

  Lisa Alther

  Writing, Years, Important

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• In so far as one denies what is, one is possessed by what is not, the compulsions, the fantasies, the terrors that flock to fill the void.

  Ursula K. Le Guin

  Void, Fantasy, Deny

  Ursula K. Le Guin (1973). “The lathe of heaven”

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• 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

  Writing, Persistence, Empathy

  Dani Shapiro (2013). “Still Writing: The Perils and Pleasures of a Creative Life”, p.10, Grove/Atlantic, Inc.

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• Rejection slips, or form letters, however tactfully phrased, are lacerations of the soul, if not quite inventions of the devil-but there is no way around them.

  Isaac Asimov

  Writing, Soul, Devil

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• You've got to love this business. You have to be able to take rejection.

  Jessica Biel

  Able

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• 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

  Games, Feelings, Messages

  Anita Shreve (2002). “The Last Time They Met”, Large Print Press

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• After rejection - misery, then thoughts of revenge, and finally, oh well, another try elsewhere.

  Mason Cooley

  Revenge, Trying, Misery

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• Over emphatic negatives always suggest that what is being denied may be what is really being asserted.

  Jonathan Raban

  May, Denied

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• 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

  Taken, Paris, Mouths

  Claude Monet (2014). “Monet by Himself: Paintings, Drawings, Pastels, Letters”, Chartwell

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• There are two wrong reactions to a rejection slip: deciding it's a final judgment on your story and/or talent, and deciding it's no judgment on your story and/or talent.

  Nancy Kress

  Two, Finals, Stories

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