At some point you’ll realize, what they think, doesn’t matter.. Enjoy YOUR life, no matter what.
~ Ice T / Twitter
Charles Bukowski on Art
Some people like what you do, some people hate what you do but most people don’t give a damn.
~ Charles Bukowski
Jeanette Winterson on Respect
Take no notice of anyone you don’t respect.
~ Jeanette Winterson / Guardian, 20th February 2010
Mister Rogers on People
Mister Rogers, he of the neighborhood, always said that the worst type of human beings were the ones who made you feel “less than.”
~ Maureen Dowd / NYT, August 22, 2020
Confucius on Hatred
“If you hate a person, you are defeated by them.”
~ Confucius
Barbara Ehrenreich on Other People
To acknowledge the existence of other people is also to acknowledge that they are not reliable sources of safety or comfort.
~ Barbara Ehrenreich
Barbara Ehrenreich on Other People
All I’ve been aware of is passing down the centrality of helping other people. And being responsible to other people.
~ Barbara Ehrenreich / New Yorker, March 21st, 2020
Maya Angelou on Feelings
“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
~
Eleanor Roosevelt on Inferiority
“No one can make you feel inferior without your consent.”
~ This is My Story
Gary Oldman on People
“Fuck ’em.” Shortest prayer in the world.
~ Gary Oldman / Esquire, December 16th 2011
Martin Luther King Jr. on Hatred
“Let no man pull you so low as to hate him.”
~ Martin Luther King Jr.
Jim Harrison on Helping People
“I’m always having a man in desperate straits trying to help somebody else out with no apparent success, because nobody can be helped by anybody.”
~ Jim Harrison
William Irvine on Contamination
“We are social creatures; we will be miserable if we try to cut off contact with other people. Therefore, if what we seek is tranquility, we should form and maintain relations with others. In doing so, though, we should be careful about whom we befriend. We should also, to the extent possible, avoid people whose values are corrupt, for fear that their values will contaminate ours.”
~ Irvine, William B. / A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (p. 228). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
William Irvine on Happiness
“Many of us have been persuaded that happiness is something that someone else, a therapist or a politician, must confer on us. Stoicism rejects this notion. It teaches us that we are very much responsible for our happiness as well as our unhappiness. It also teaches us that it is only when we assume responsibility for our happiness that we will have a reasonable chance of gaining it.”
~ Irvine, William B. / A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (pp. 221-222). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
William Irvine on Other People’s Opinions
“Marcus agrees with Epictetus that it is foolish for us to worry about what other people think of us and particularly foolish for us to seek the approval of people whose values we reject. Our goal should therefore be to become indifferent to other people’s opinions of us. He adds that if we can succeed in doing this, we will improve the quality of our life.”
~ Irvine, William B. / A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (p. 168). Oxford University Press.
William Irvine on Other People
“In our dealings with others, we should operate on the assumption that they are fated to behave in a certain way.”
~ Irvine, William B. / A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (p. 138). Oxford University Press. Kindle Edition.
William Irvine on Annoying People
“When dealing with an annoying person, it also helps to keep in mind that our annoyance at what he does will almost invariably be more detrimental to us than whatever it is he is doing. In other words, by letting ourselves become annoyed, we only make things worse.”
~ Irvine, William B. / A Guide to the Good Life: The Ancient Art of Stoic Joy (p. 137). Oxford University Press.
Albert Einstein on Respect
“I speak to everyone in the same way, whether he is the garbage man or the president of the university.”
~ Albert Einstein
Richard Feynman on Other People’s Expectations
“You have no responsibility to live up to what other people think you ought to accomplish. I have no responsibility to be like they expect me to be. It’s their mistake, not my failing.”
~ Richard Feynman
Alain de Botton on Paranoia
“For paranoia about ‘what other people think’: remember that very few love, only some hate – and nearly everyone just doesn’t care.”
~ Alain de Botton
Rudyard Kipling on Trust
“I always prefer to believe the best of everybody, it saves so much trouble.”
~ Rudyard Kipling
Carl Jung on Irritation
“Everything that irritates us about others can lead us to an understanding of ourselves.”
~ Carl Jung