some mornings... I sit at the kitchen table shaking salt into the hairs on my arm, and a feeling shoves up in me: it's finished. Everything went past without me.
Jennifer EganRead
I grew up thinking you're either a winner in the world, or you're not. I presumed I was not. I had no reason to think I would be, and my inclination is towards self-deprecation. I wish I'd known no one was judging my every move, but I'm still like this!
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the pressure to succeed and the author's struggle with self-doubt.
In this quote, Jennifer Egan expresses the mindset of growing up in a competitive environment where success is seemingly binary—either one is a winner or not. Egan conveys her feelings of inadequacy and self-deprecation, highlighting the internal pressure she placed on herself while suggesting that the fear of judgment from others is often unfounded. Her reflection reveals a common human experience of grappling with self-worth and the importance of recognizing that we are often our own harshest critics.
Themes
Self-DoubtSuccessJudgmentWinnerSelf-Worth
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about overcoming self-doubt.
More from Jennifer Egan
All quotes →I think there are ways in which we censor ourselves; that's the most dangerous kind of censorship - that's how hegemony works.
Jennifer EganRead
I find myself thinking more about the past as I get older... maybe because there's just more of it to think about. At the same time, I'm less haunted by it than I was as a younger person. I guess that's probably the ideal: to reach a point where you have access to all of your memories, but you don't feel victimized by them.
Jennifer EganRead
I think, for one thing, all of us remember those teenage years and those songs that we fell in love with and the music scene that we were part of. So, in a certain way, music cuts through time like almost nothing else. You know, it makes us feel like we're back in an earlier moment.
Jennifer EganRead
And Alex understood that Scotty Hausmann did not exist. He was a word casing in human form: a shell whose essence has vanished.
Jennifer EganRead
We live in a moment and a culture when reading is really endangered. There's simply no way to write well, though, if you're not reading well.
Jennifer EganRead
Similar quotes
Let me but find it in my heart to say, When vagrant wishes beckon me astray, "This is my work; my blessing, not my doom; Of all who live, I am the one by whom This work can best be done in the right way."
Henry Van DykeRead
Nobody ever thanks you for saving them from the disease they didn't know they were going to get.
William FoegeRead
Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the government take care of him better take a closer look at the American Indian.
Henry FordRead
Humility is the mother of all virtues: the humble in spirit progress and are blessed because they willingly submit to higher powers and try to live in harmony with natural laws and universal principles. Courage is the father of all virtues; we need great courage to lead our lives by correct principles and to have integrity in the moment of choice.
Stephen CoveyRead
Effective people stay out of Quadrants III and IV because, urgent or not, they aren't important. They also shrink Quadrant I down to size by spending more time in Quadrant II...Quadrant II is the heart of effective personal management.
Stephen CoveyRead
Tragedy, loss, and hurt often arrive unanticipated. How we react when we are surprised will tell our families whether what we have taught and testified lies deep in our hearts.
Henry B. EyringRead