Eleanor Roosevelt: “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
Eleanor Roosevelt is often credited with saying “Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent.” As a bit of a quotation snob, I feel compelled to point out that there’s no evidence she actually used those words. She did however express the core idea that feeling snubbed is something we do to ourselves.
Whether she said this or not, it’s certainly true that a lot of the time we make ourselves unhappy by making ourselves feel inferior to others. And this usually involves taking things personally.
Taking things personally means that we see things as being about us when they’re really about the other person.
Reacting to Being Snubbed
One time when I worked …