Why do you put your self esteem in the hands of complete strangers?
Helena Bonham CarterRead
I just thought I‘d never look good in what everybody else wore. So there’s no point trying. You just have to do what suits you, and it doesn’t matter if you don’t look like everybody else. Be you. That’s our gift and we’ve got to celebrate that, but it does take ages. I was wracked with self-doubt for years. I get spasms of it even now – I’m not indelibly self-confident.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of being true to oneself rather than conforming to societal expectations.
Helena Bonham Carter reflects on her personal journey of accepting her individuality and the struggles with self-doubt that accompany such acceptance. She encourages celebrating one's uniqueness instead of striving to fit in with others, acknowledging that true confidence comes from embracing who you are, despite the doubts that might persist.
In practice
Use this quote during a motivational talk about embracing individuality and overcoming self-doubt.
Why do you put your self esteem in the hands of complete strangers?
Sometimes I get it right and I sometimes I get it wrong. But fashion is all about having fun. I think fashion has been hijacked by the fashion industry creating rules on what one should wear and I feel like breaking the mold and seeing that the world won’t crumble.
I just went and got an agent because I thought I can create my own world - you can't right your own life, but you can escape to a world where you can have control.
Sometimes I go, “What am I doing with my life?” But then I get letters from young women, or people come up to me, and they say, “You’ve made such a difference to my confidence.” And that is a good thing. I should read more fan mail though. I’m crap at responding.
My life had been very work-orientated, and all in close-up. Once I had the family, it went into sudden widescreen.
Very early on, you figure out that you put your self-esteem in the hands of strangers. There's a different commodity. There's the Helena Bonham Carter that everyone thinks they know, who really has nothing to do with me. But you just have to let that go.
My mother said, "Money is a great slave but a horrible master." It was her version of a French proverb.
Wisdom is knowing when you can't be wise.
Since death will take us anyway, why live our life in fear? Why not die in our old ways and be free to live?
O, what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!
I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.
Having compassion starts and ends with having compassion for all those unwanted parts of ourselves. The healing comes from letting there be room for all of this to happen: room for grief, for relief, for misery, for joy.
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