Rejection Quotes

“So many people will tell you ”no”, and you need to find something you believe in so hard that you just smile and tell them ”watch me”. Learn to take rejection as motivation to prove people wrong. Be unstoppable. Refuse to give up, no matter what. It’s the best skill you can ever learn.”
― Charlotte Eriksson

“One may not always know his purpose until his only option is to monopolize in what he truly excels at. He grows weary of hearing the answer 'no' time and time again, so he turns to and cultivates, monopolizes in his one talent which others cannot possibly subdue. Then, beyond the crowds of criticism and rejection, the right people recognize his talent - among them he finds his stage.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“Bad luck with women is a determined man's road to success. For every affliction, he makes, out of indignation, yet another advancement in order to exceed the man that the woman chose over him. This goes to show that great men are made great because they once learned how to fight the feeling of rejection.”
― Criss Jami, Venus in Arms

“This manuscript of yours that has just come back from another editor is a precious package. Don't consider it rejected. Consider that you've addressed it 'to the editor who can appreciate my work' and it has simply come back stamped 'Not at this address'. Just keep looking for the right address.”
― Barbara Kingsolver

“When we reject our origins, we become the product of whatever soil that we find ourselves planted; the colors of our leaves change as we consume borrowed nutrients with borrowed roots and, like a tree, we grow.”
― Mike Norton, Fighting For Redemption

“Our people think: I , Wangari, a Kenyan by birth - how can I be a vagrant in my own country as if I were a foreigner.”
― Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o, Devil on the Cross

“But there's only so much rejection you can take before you finally give up and stop trying.”
― Brigid Kemmerer, Letters to the Lost

“Really, Mr. Collins,' cried Elizabeth with some warmth, 'you puzzle me exceedingly. If what I have hitherto said can appear to you in the form of encouragement, I know not how to express my refusal in such a way as to convince you of its being one.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice

“She sprinted after him, grabbing him by the shoulder just as she caught up. “I … I am sorry.”

He let out a deep sigh. “As am I.” He yanked his shoulder free and continued walking back inside the castle.”
― B.C. Morin, Mark of the Princess

“The presence of ghosts is only as close as your belief.
The existence of aliens is only as far as your rejection.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“From my boyhood I have had an intense and overwhelming conviction that my real vocation lay in the direction of literature. I have, however, had a most unaccountable difficulty in getting any responsible person to share my views.

- Cyprian Overbeck Wells: A Literary Mosaic”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Captain of the Pole-Star and Other Stories

“Jane felt that he would write from the depths of a wretchedness that would not necessarily be insincere because its outward signs were so theatrical. Pesumably attractive men and probably woman too must always be suffering in this way; they must so often have to reject and cast aside love, and perhaps even practice did not always make them ruthless and cold-blooded enough to do it without feeling any qualms.”
― Barbara Pym, Jane and Prudence

“Ritsu... Do you like Oda?" More than me?

"Yes.”
― Junko, 王子の帰還 [Ouji no Kikan]

“I'd cycled through the stages of rejection - denial, anger, homicidal mania, hating Matt's stupid face, and acceptance”
― Tim Anderson, Sweet Tooth

“The soft glow of the fairy lights in her room, the way her arm warmers covered the bandages on her wrists. She had made them herself, tiny stitches woven into the fabric like a secret, a small act of care for a body she was learning to hate.”
― Arabella Sveinsdottir, Nowhere Strangers: A Sapphic Coming-of-Age Story of Digital Romance, Heartbreak, and Self-Discovery

“Rejection welcomes redirection which can lead to reinvention.”
― Sasha Laghonh

“No one is buying what you're selling”
― Daniel Taotua

“The temptation to compromise comes more often from the fear of rejection than from the promise of power.”
― Jamie Arpin-Ricci

“The truth that brings no applause is often the most needed.”
― Adeel Ahmed Khan

“When the world turns quiet around me, I don’t chase echoes—I become the voice. Their silence isn’t rejection, it’s redirection. I rise not because they called, but because destiny did.”
― Dr. Angela L. Hood

“Mi dw i wedi trio peidio deud dim byd cas, achos fydda i ddim yn licio brifo teimladau neb, 'rhoswch gadwch imi orffan,' achos mi oedd o'n mynd i siarad, 'ond rhaid i mi ddeud wrthach chi, gin na 'newch chi ddim cymyd be ddeudis i wrthach chi nithiwr, 'mod i wedi'ch casau chi y tro cynta gwelis i chi… Dydw i ddim yn 'i gyfri o'n beth neis i hogan ddeud wrth neb am y cynigion mae hi wedi gwrthod, mae rhywbath yn mean yno fo, ond os na 'newch chi fynd i ffwrdd rwan, a pheidio byth a dwad yma eto i 'mhlagio i, mi fydd rhaid i mi ddeud wrth 'y nhad neu 'mrawd, er mwyn i un ohonyn nhw 'neud i chi sylweddoli 'modi o ddifri. Ella y cewch chi ryw hogan yn rhywle, er mae'n ddigon amheus gini, na welith hi ddim yn objectionable ynoch chi, chwadl chitha, ond rhaid i mi ddeud ych bod chi'n hynod o objectionable yn 'y ngolwg i.’

‘I've tried not to say anything nasty, because I don't like to hurt anyone's feelings, please let me finish,' because now I was the one who was going to speak, 'but I have to tell you, as I tried last night, I hated you the first time I saw you… I don't think it's nice for a girl to tell anyone about the offers she's refused, there's something mean in that, but if you don't go away now, and never come here again to pester me, I'll have to tell my father or brother, so that one of them will make you realize that I’m serious. Perhaps you'll find some girl somewhere, although it's doubtful enough, who doesn’t see anything objectionable in you, strange though that sounds as I say it, but I must say that you are extremely objectionable in my eyes.”
― Winnie Parry

“Mi dw i wedi trio peidio deud dim byd cas, achos fydda i ddim yn licio brifo teimladau neb, ‘rhoswch gadwch imi orffan,’ achos mi oedd o’n mynd i siarad, ‘ond rhaid i mi ddeud wrthach chi, gin na ‘newch chi ddim cymyd be ddeudis i wrthach chi nithiwr, ‘mod i wedi’ch casau chi y tro cynta gwelis i chi… Dydw i ddim yn ‘i gyfri o’n beth neis i hogan ddeud wrth neb am y cynigion mae hi wedi gwrthod, mae rhywbath yn mean yno fo, ond os na ‘newch chi fynd i ffwrdd rwan, a pheidio byth a dwad yma eto i ‘mhlagio i, mi fydd rhaid i mi ddeud wrth ‘y nhad neu ‘mrawd, er mwyn i un ohonyn nhw ‘neud i chi sylweddoli ‘modi o ddifri. Ella y cewch chi ryw hogan yn rhywle, er mae’n ddigon amheus gini, na welith hi ddim yn objectionable ynoch chi, chwadl chitha, ond rhaid i mi ddeud ych bod chi’n hynod o objectionable yn ‘y ngolwg i.’

‘I’ve tried not to say anything nasty, because I don’t like to hurt anyone’s feelings, please let me finish,’ because now I was going to speak, ‘but I have to tell you, as I tried last night, I hated you the first time I saw you… I don’t think it’s nice for a girl to tell anyone about the offers she’s refused, there’s something mean in that, but if you don’t go away now, and never come here again to pester me, I’ll have to tell my father or brother, so that one of them will make you realize that I’m serious. Perhaps you’ll find some girl somewhere, although it’s doubtful enough, who doesn’t see anything objectionable in you, strange though that sounds as I say it, but I must say that you are extremely objectionable in my eyes.”
― Winnie Parry

“He was rejecting her because he didn't want to hurt her, but rejecting her was hurting her anyway.”
― Elisabeth Wheatley, Daindreth's Outlaw

“The beauty of being bi, I learned, is that you can get rejected by both women and men.”
― Lyla Lee, Love in Focus

“Politically we feel alienated, rejected, and hopeless. The chasm between the people and their political representatives has widened to a terrifying degree. In a political vacuum we become increasingly vulnerable to a seizure from the far right. We know that the Snake is there but we are as paralyzed as the Rabbit. People are not rabbits, and America must shake off this nightmare and awake again. The middle classes must be organized for action, for claiming their rights and powers of citizenship in a free society. The organization must be committed to the values of a free and open society. The middle classes must begin to participate as citizens for those ideals which give meaning and purpose to life.

Logic and faith go together as the opposite sides of the same shield. We know by our intelligence the greatness and desirability of a free and open society over all other alternatives. Logic tells us, "We'll believe it when we see it." But there is also the converse, faith. Faith, or belief in the people, tells us, "We'll see it when we believe it."”
― Saul D. Alinsky, Reveille for Radicals

“But pity was not a relationship. It was the rejection of a relationship.”
― Megha Majumdar, A Guardian and a Thief

“You don’t lose your worth because someone couldn’t meet you where you stood.”
― Katerina Markadakis, Legacy of Letting Go: A Journal for Those Healing from Love That Could Not Stay

“Rejection is rarely the end.
More often, it’s the exact moment clarity arrives.”
― Farshad Asl

“Love rejected comes back as hatred.”
― David Brooks, How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen

“As the New York Times reported in June 2004: “The most common rejection letter nowadays seems to be silence. Job hunting is like dating, only worse, as you sit by the phone for the suitor who never calls.” The feeling is one of complete invisibility and futility: you pound on the door, you yell and scream, but the door remains sealed shut in your face.”
― Barbara Ehrenreich, Bait and Switch: The (Futile) Pursuit of the American Dream