Quotes About Self-preservation

I know I've been laughing and making jokes and whatever, so you probably think I'm a heartless bitch, but it's like a defense mechanism or something.

I'm usually better at protecting myself from this kind of thing." "From heartbreak?" "Yeah." My throat is closing. "I can usually get out of the way before it hits me straight on." "That's not really heartbreak then, is it?

I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself, in its totality, makes you safe.

I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself, in its totality, makes you feel safe.

I suppose that's a common conceit, that you've already been so damaged that damage itself, in its totality, makes you safe.

You can't go through life striking out at people who hurt or scare you. All that does is show them that you're weak. It tells them that they've wounded you, and a strong woman never shows her wounds unless it serves a purpose.

We all internalize wounds and develop strategies to protect ourselves. These strategies feed our Imposters.

Men don't know, she thinks, they don't know how having a baby makes you protective of your skin, your body, your space. When you spend all day giving yourself to a baby in every way that it's possible to give yourself to another human being, the last thing you want at the end of the day is a grown man wanting you to give him things too.

My incentive in starting Vanguard, I'm very blunt about this, it was my means of preserving my career. That's a very selfish thing.

You project a version of yourself to the public to protect and insulate yourself a little bit. Actors come up with a version of themselves in order to protect the real person.

No big deal. We all have blood in us, the trick is keeping it inside.

And a man who discovers his pants are on fire tends to have very little time to worry about somebody else's box of matches.

People don't save other people. People save themselves.

Ruin your fucking self before they do. Otherwise they'll screw you because you're a nobody. They'll keep you alive but you'll have to crawl and say thank-you for every bone they throw. You might as well stay drunk or shoot junk and be a crazy fucker. If the rich guys want to play with you, make them get their hands dirty. Send them away gagging, or sobbing if they're soft-hearted. You'll be left alone if you're frightening, and dead you're free!

She protected herself by making herself believe no-one else could ever really understand her.

If thou be not busy for thyself now, who shall be busy for thee in time to come?

I stood up as best I could to their disgusting stupidity and brutality, but I did not, of course, manage to beat them at their own game. It was a fight to the bitter end, one in which I was not defending ideals or beliefs but simply my own self.

Each cell of a living organism cooperates with the cell next to it. It does not need any sentiment or declarations of undying love to do so. Each cell is wise enough to know that if its neighbour goes, it also goes. The cells stick together not out of brotherhood, love and that kind of thing, but out of the urgent drive to survive.   It is the same with us, but only in a larger scale. Soon we will all come to know one simple thing: if I try to destroy you, I will also be destroyed.

I have preserved my identity, put its credibility to the test and defended my dignity. What good this will bring the world I don't know. But for me it is good.

As you learn to fight, you learn to defend yourself from physical harm. You acquire a powerful self-preserving skill set, and a specific attitude. This attitude carries across to other aspects of your life. So that you can defend yourself from other less tangible but far more dangerous things that can break you—not just your body, but your spirit. Things such as deception, corruption, disparagement, coercion, false accusation and persecution. Subtle evil things that undermine you.

To love anyone means to admit extinction. I tell myself this, so I never fall in love, so that the fire lights just me.

A beautiful woman, if poor, should use double circumspection; for her beauty will tempt others, her poverty herself.

The best way to cope with trouble is to stay out of it as much as possible.

In pain there is as much wisdom as in pleasure: like the latter it is one of the best self preservatives of a species.