Never feel self-pity, the most destructive emotion there is. How awful to be caught up in the terrible squirrel cage of self.

Fenwick’s remark frames self-pity as uniquely corrosive because it turns suffering into a closed loop: attention collapses inward, agency diminishes, and the self becomes both captive and jailer. The “squirrel cage” image suggests frantic motion without progress—rumination that feels active but produces no change. By calling self-pity an emotion one should “never” indulge, she implies a moral and practical discipline: acknowledge hardship, but refuse the narrative of helplessness that can harden into identity. The line also reflects a stoic, public-service ethos often associated with Fenwick’s persona—valuing resilience, perspective, and outward engagement over self-absorption.