It may be called the master passion, the hunger for self-approval

We can secure other people's approval, if we do right and try hard; but our own is worth a hundred of it, and no way has been found out of securing that

A man cannot be uncomfortable without his own approval

It is our nature to conform; it is a force which not many can successfully resist. What is its seat? The inborn requirement of self-approval.

What do you call love, hate, charity, revenge, humanity, magnanimity, forgiveness? Different results of the one master impulse: the necessity of securing one's self-approval

Save your shaming for the girl, Doctor. If I cared for human approval, I would have been dead long ago.” He turned and started wading into the swamp. “Time is passing. I, for one, have no intention of remaining here for your betrayer to bring back the soldiers and their guns.