Written by Matt Zavadil
Updated April 23, 2022
Yes, I’ve collected over 100 self-sabotage quotes!
Self-sabotage is a huge problem for many people. It can keep you from reaching your goals, and from living the life you want to live. This article is a collection of self-sabotage quotes that will help you understand this problem better.
I’ve gathered quotes come from famous authors, celebrities, and other notable figures. Reading these quotes will help you see that you are not alone in your struggle with self-sabotage.
25 Best Self-Sabotage Quotes
“The only person who can pull me down is myself, and I’m not going to let myself pull me down anymore.” – C. JoyBell C.
“People who self-sabotage their lives are usually people who have low self-esteem.” – Dr. Phil McGraw
“Self-sabotage is when we say we want something and then go about making sure it doesn’t happen.” – Cheryl Richardson
“Self-sabotage is created by the gap between what you know and what you do.” – Tony Robbins
“The biggest self-sabotaging behavior is to try to please everyone all the time.” – Kenneth H. Cooper
“The self-sabotage is saying, ‘I’m not good enough.'” – Iyanla Vanzant
“One of the most self-destructive things we can do is judge ourselves harshly.” – Daphne Rose Kingma
“Some people self-sabotage because they’re afraid of success.” – Jack Canfield
“I self-sabotaged for years because I was afraid to put myself out there.” – Marie Forleo
“The first step in overcoming self-sabotage is recognizing that you’re doing it.” – Mel Robbins
“When we self-sabotage, we’re really just trying to protect ourselves.” – Brené Brown
“The moment you doubt whether you can fly, you cease forever to be able to do it.” – J.M. Barrie, Peter Pan
“If you want to live a happy life, tie it to a goal, not to people or things.” – Albert Einstein
“The only person who can stop you from reaching your goals is yourself.” – Unknown
“The real work that needed to be done in my life was to actually accept failure, pain, brokenness, and self-sabotage. I didn’t love myself. I didn’t respect my own power. Today I do. I have made nice with the fears and I have accepted the parts of my life that are just sad. – Jessica Simpson
“When self-doubt creeps in, think about all the times you’ve succeeded at something.” – Unknown
“What is required for many of us, paradoxical though it may sound, is the courage to tolerate happiness without self-sabotage.” – Nathaniel Branden
“This is how women self-sabotage and self-destruct. Unless we have constant witnesses to our hard work, we are convinced we pull off every day of our lives through smoke and mirrors.” – Sarah Ban Breathnach
“Self-sabotage is the proverbial hammer over the head that finally wakes us up, demanding that we pay attention. For most of us, it takes something devastating to crack us open, to get us out of our minds and into our hearts.” – Debbie Ford
“We make tactless remarks because we wish to hurt, break our legs because we do not wish to walk, marry the wrong man because we cannot let ourselves be happy, board the wrong train because we would prefer not to reach the destination.” – Fay Weldon
“I sabotage myself for fear of what my bigness could do.” – Alanis Morissette
“Withholding love is a form of self-sabotage, as what we withhold from others, we are withholding from ourselves.” – Marianne Williamson
“Self-sabotage is when we say we want something and then go about making sure it doesn’t happen. Procrastination is, hands down, our favorite form of self-sabotage.” – Alyce Cornyn-Selby
“The only reason I can’t jump in and engage life is that I’ve told myself I can’t. Yet I can’t help wondering what would happen if I told myself I could?” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
“Resistance by definition is self-sabotage.” – Steven Pressfield
26 Quotes About Self-Sabotage
“We each have our own ways of sabotaging and keeping ourselves down… Do we need to remain the victim so strongly that we pull the ceiling down upon our own heads? There is a comfort in the familiar.” – Maureen Brady
“Don’t sabotage yourself. There are plenty of other people willing to do that for free.” – Jenny Lawson
“And there’s also ‘To him that hath shall be given.’ After all, you must have a capacity to receive, or even omnipotence can’t give. Perhaps your own passion temporarily destroys the capacity.” – C.S. Lewis
“When we are succeeding – that is, when we have begun to overcome our self-doubt and self-sabotage when we are advancing in our craft and evolving to a higher level – that’s when panic strikes. When we experience panic, it means that we’re about to cross a threshold. We’re poised on the doorstep of a higher plane.” – Steven Pressfield
“Chicken exits are self-sabotage. They give you a false explanation for why you don’t have something you want.” – Ali Vincent
“You can’t imagine just how much believing in negative thoughts is affecting your life…until you stop.” – Charles F. Glassman
“I am really fascinated by self-sabotage. I think that there’s not a person I know who doesn’t fall victim to it. It’s essential to the human condition, and relatable.” – Kit Williamson
“Self-sabotage is the smartest thing you can do if you’re sabotaging a self that is not really you.” – Armand DiMele
“I decry the injustice of my wounds, only to look down and see that I am holding a smoking gun in one hand and a fistful of ammunition in the other.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
“Why is it that we don’t worry about a compass until we’re lost in a wilderness of our own making?” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
“Much of your self-esteem doesn’t come from what happens to you on a given day or what somebody says, but what you know about yourself on the inside.” – Dr. Judy Ho
“Most of us don’t fear that we are not enough; what most of us really fear is our own greatness. Most of us have a fear of success. Why? Because we don’t think that we deserve to be successful in anything. This is why people recklessly spend their money or don’t work as hard as they could or do things that they know are wrong. They are hindering their own success on purpose because they don’t think they deserve it. They cut their own legs out from underneath them on purpose. They are self-sabotaging.” – Lisa Bedrick
“The barrier to our future is often the very plans that we’ve created to get there.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
“Anyone with even the remotest understanding of EMP and the threat to the nation should have been going insane before it hit.” – William R. Forstchen
“The biggest thing holding you back is almost always… you. Start there.” – Hunter Post
“More than anything else, I wanted not to be alone — yet all my actions guaranteed I’d be lonely. Like wearing a vest of explosives when you’re coming in for a hug, the insatiable need is a form of sabotage.” – Gina Barreca
“Nothing will sabotage our happiness and success more thoroughly than the fear that we are not enough.” – Bill Crawford
“One simple thing to do and destroy the spirit of self-sabotage is to admire the beauty hidden in ugly circumstances.” – Israelmore Ayivor
“No matter how well-meaning your intention, doing too much is not always an act of love but of sabotage.” – Judith Orloff
“Human beings invent just as many ways to sabotage their lives as to improve them.” – Mark Goulston
“Each of us has an inner thermostat setting that determines how much love, success, and creativity we allow ourselves to enjoy. When we exceed our inner thermostat setting, we will often do something to sabotage ourselves, causing us to drop back into the old, familiar zone where we feel secure.” – Gay Hendricks
“But I do nothing upon myself, and yet I am my own executioner.” – John Donne
“I am the greatest obstacle to my greatest dreams.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
“I don’t know an actor who hasn’t let himself down at some point. I imagine it’s the same in politics. There’s always the potential to self-sabotage.” – Corey Stoll
“Most of us respond with panic when we get what we want. The moment of victory is often the moment of greatest peril. We let success get to our heads and start acting in over-confident ways. This is the beginning of self-destruction.” – Mohadesa Najumi
“And maybe the problem was that there wasn’t a problem, and I was just so not used to that, my brain was trying to make one for me. Fuck you, brain.” – Alexis Hall
25 Quotes To Provide Inspiration
“Chicken exits are self-sabotage. They give you a false explanation for why you don’t have something you want.” – Ali Vincent
“I don’t wish to curse anyone. I just feel bad when women, especially, try to sabotage the image of another woman.” – Divyanka Tripathi
“Like most other creatives, I struggle with self-sabotage, self-doubt, and feeling like an imposter more often than not. I struggle with expressing myself because it does sometimes feel easier or safer not to.” – Jeff Jarvis
“The ego-mind both professes its desire for love and does everything possible to repel it, or if it gets here anyway, to sabotage it. That is why dealing with issues like control, anger, and neediness is the most important work in preparing ourselves for love.” – Marianne Williamson
“The only thing I consider appalling would be to suddenly become a vegetable and a burden on other people. A soul slowly dying out, trapped in a body in which the insides gradually sabotage me – that, I think, would be terrifying.” – Ingmar Bergman
“If you don’t believe in yourself, somewhere or another, you sabotage yourself.” – Jason Day
“When we are succeeding – that is, when we have begun to overcome our self-doubt and self-sabotage when we are advancing in our craft and evolving to a higher level – that’s when panic strikes. When we experience panic, it means that we’re about to cross a threshold. We’re poised on the doorstep of a higher plane.” – Steven Pressfield
“I’m big on setting goals, but I also think that if you have too many lofty ambitions and set goals for everything, you can sabotage your efforts by overextending your brain.” – Jean Chatzky
“Sometimes we self-sabotage just when things seem to be going smoothly. Perhaps this is a way to express our fear about whether it is okay for us to have a better life. We are bound to feel anxious as we leave behind old notions of our unworthiness. The challenge is not to be fearless, but to develop strategies of acknowledging our fears and finding out how we can allay them.” – Maureen Brady
“I think that sometimes love gets in the way of itself – you know, love interrupts itself. We want things so much that we sabotage them.” – Jack White
“We all have vulnerabilities that can sidetrack us from reaching our goals. Recognize the times when you’re most likely to give in to temptation and make it harder for a single moment of weakness to sabotage your best efforts.” – Amy Morin
“Self-destruction and self-sabotage are often just the start of the self-resurrection process.” – Oli Anderson
“Leaders who are kind of insecure or egocentric, they basically sabotage themselves.” – John C. Maxwell
“There’s an inherent thing in me where, if things are going too smooth, I’ll sabotage the hell out of them, just to make the music more of a sanctuary.” – Daniel Johns
“I always have strong urges to sabotage myself. Whenever someone says they like something about my music, I tend to not want to do that anymore. It’s not even that I don’t like it anymore: it’s that I keep trying to find ways for people to dislike me.” – Mitski
“For me personally, it is because I get an awful amount of success and I don’t think I deserve it and then I want to sabotage it.” – Michael Parkinson
“Art is a war – between ourselves and the forces of self-sabotage that would stop us from doing our work. The artist is a warrior.” – Steven Pressfield
“Our biggest enemy is our own self-doubt. We really can achieve extraordinary things in our lives. But we sabotage our greatness because of our fear.” – Robin Sharma
“Addiction, self-sabotage, procrastination, laziness, rage, chronic fatigue, and depression are all ways that we withhold our full participation in the program of life we are offered. When the conscious mind cannot find a reason to say no, the unconscious says no in its own way.” – Charles Eisenstein
“We need to ascend beyond our own petty Resistance, our own negative self-judgment and self-sabotage, our own “I’m not worthy” mindset.” Steven Pressfield
“The question “Is this an act of self-love or is it an act of self-sabotage?” is one you must consistently ask yourself if you are committed to having all that you want and all that you deserve. When you love yourself you feel worthy and deserving of claiming the gifts of this world. Self-love gives you peace of mind and balance. Self-love gives you self-respect and the ability to respect others. It gives you the confidence to stand up and ask for what you want. Self-love is the main ingredient in a successful, fulfilled life.” – Debbie Ford
“My first kiss was with a girlfriend. And it was at a party. I think I was hopeful that that would happen, but I didn’t plan it. You know, honestly, I think if there’s a little too much planning, it’s almost just like self-sabotage. Because then, you want it to go a certain way and it just doesn’t. And then you’re like, ‘Awww, why!?!'” – Tyler Blackburn
“If you think of something, do it. Plenty of people often think, ‘I’d like to do this, or that.’” – Lydia Davis
“Those who say life is knocking them down and giving them a tough time are usually the first to beat themselves up. Be on your own side.” – Rasheed Ogunlaru
“Self-destruction and self-sabotage are often just the start of the self-resurrection process.” – Oli Anderson
25 Additional Self-Sabotage Quotes
“Many of us are tethered to bodies that sabotage us in our struggle to keep from getting fat, or to slim down when we do.” – Robin Marantz Henig
“We are our own devils; we drive ourselves out of our Edens.” – Wolfgang Goethe
“I was a terrible student. Still, I managed to get into college, but my daydreaming threatened to sabotage me. I used behavior modification to break the cycle. I started by setting an arbitrary time limit on studying: for every 15 minutes of study, I’d allow myself an hour of daydreaming. I set the alarm.” – Sandra Cisneros
“Drunkenness is temporary suicide.” – Bertrand Russell
“Mediocrity scares me. It’s the fear of not being as good as you want to be. If you give over to that fear, it will sabotage you. As much as I can, I try to use that fear to guide me.” – Chris Pine
“We tend to stack ourselves up against everyone else and pick ourselves apart based on what other people are doing. This practice does nothing to make us better.” – Cara Alwill Leyba
“Sometimes the best offense was avoiding self-destruction.” – Brandon Mull
“Our inner beliefs trigger failure before it happens. They sabotage lasting change by canceling its possibility. We employ these beliefs as articles of faith to justify our inaction and then wish away the result. I call them belief triggers.” – Marshall Goldsmith
“Much of your pain is self-chosen.” – Khalil Gibran
“My appetite for self-destruction and misery is greatly diminished. I’m not interested in being unhappy.” – Boy George
“New Year’s resolutions often fail because toxic emotions and experiences from our past can sabotage us or keep us stuck with the same old thoughts, patterns, and regrets.” – Debbie Ford
“I know what it is to want something that could destroy you.” – Nenia Campbell
“We often want quick answers, quick results, instant rewards, and that’s normal in our high tech, instant, Google-driven world. To take that first step towards reaching a goal or realizing a dream, knowing that there will perhaps be a thousand more steps to follow to make it happen, can be daunting. It’s simple yet complicated. The simple part of achieving success is that it just takes work. For me, staying focused on my goals and envisioning my dreams every day, makes the workflow almost on its own. The hard part is the mindset, and not self-sabotage because you don’t believe in yourself. We often think we can’t achieve our wildest dreams or that we are somehow incapable, and then we never, ever take that first step.” – Riitta Klint
“Be the flame, not the moth.” – Giacomo Casanova
“I’m big on setting goals, but I also think that if you have too many lofty ambitions and set goals for everything, you can sabotage your efforts by overextending your brain.” – Jean Chatzky
“Because of my own insecurities about the way I look, I do sometimes sabotage the looks of my characters by making them as homely as possible. I’ve never done a glamour part. I’d like to someday, though I don’t know if I could pull it off.” – Frances McDormand
“Sometimes, I am my own worst enemy.” – Tim McGraw
“Why do only boys get to chase? Nuh-uh! If anything, I think this whole sitting back and waiting thing can be self-sabotaging. We have to send up flares. We have to let guys know we’re open for business.” – Ginnifer Goodwin
“Do not sabotage your new relationship with your last relationship’s poison.” – Steve Maraboli
“I tend to sabotage relationships; I tend to sabotage everything. Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of being afraid. Useless, good-for-nothing thoughts.” – Michael Buble
“It’s a lot easier to sabotage your career than to have a career to sabotage.” – Win Butler
“Taking a bribe, letting yourself be bought off, accepting flattery in exchange for some sort of loyalty, is sabotage. Refusing to confront an issue because if you keep quiet you’ll get a promotion or be made an elder or keep your job corrupts you down deep.” – John Eldredge
“I don’t want to completely self-sabotage everything that I’ve got and alienate everyone. But I definitely want to take some chances as I always have.” – Katy Perry
“There’s something very romantic about self-destruction and sabotaging your life, and taking a hammer to it.” – Gerard Way
“Sometimes we want what we want even if we know it’s going to kill us.” – Donna Tartt
I hope you enjoyed these self-sabotage quotes. Typically, quotes about self will help us to avoid our own tragedies. Use these words the next time you need a lift of your internal feelings.
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