#image

it's not his body that changes right away. it's something inside. he says he wants to be a little weaker. i don't understand. i say 'thinner?' and he says 'no, i want to be stronger in a different way.' not because of me, but for me. ↗

— David Levithan

#strength #weight #change

In the story of Ugly Duckling, when did the Ugly Duckling stop feeling Ugly? When he realized that he was a Swan. Each of us has something Special, a swan of some sort, hidden inside somewhere. But until we recognize that it's there, what can we do but splash around, treading water? The Wise are Who They Are. They work with what they've got and do what they can do. ↗

— Benjamin Hoff

#self-esteem #self-image #inspirational

It is not often that you see life and fiction take each other by the hand and dance. ↗

— Lawrence Thornton

#fiction #imagery #imagination #inspiring #imagination

HOW do you define a word without concrete meaning? To each his own, the saying goes, so WHY push to attain an ideal state of being that no two random people will agree is WHERE you want to be? Faultless. Finished. Incomparable. People can never be these, and anyway, WHEN did creating a flawless facade become a more vital goal than learning to love the person WHO lives inside your skin? The outside belongs to others. Only you should decide for you - WHAT is perfect. ↗

— Ellen Hopkins

#eating-disorders #inspirational #perfection #perfectionism #self-love

He glanced back at the wall. How like a mirror, too, her face. Impossible; for how many people did you know who reflected your own light to you? People were more often--he searched for a simile, found one in his work--torches, blazing away until they whiffed out. How rarely did other people's faces take of you and throw back to you your own expression, your own innermost trembling thought? ↗

— Ray Bradbury

#children #epiphany #inspiration #mirror-images #inspirational

I confront the European elite's self-image as tolerant 'while under their noses women are living like slaves. ↗

— Ayaan Hirsi Ali

#elite #european #i #like #living

And it occurred to me that the reason she makes it work, probably, is because she's so comfortable with herself. And you know, that's not such a bad notion, in the whole life-lesson business. Being comfortable with yourself. Because if you're not okay with who you are, why should anyone else be? ↗

— Catherine Gilbert Murdock

#self-image #business

I write scripts to serve as skeletons awaiting the flesh and sinew of images. ↗

— Ingmar Bergman

#flesh #i #i write #images #scripts

I see plainly how external images influence the image that I call my body: they transmit movement to it. ↗

— Henri Bergson

#call #external #how #i #i see

The stronger that women grow, the more prestige, fame, and money is accorded to the display professions: They are held higher and higher above the heads of rising women, for them to emulate. ↗

— Naomi Wolf

#beauty #body-image #eating-disorders #self-esteem #society