Quotes About Defensiveness

To protect your heart from breaking just don't disclose that you have one.

I've always wanted to write, but coming from a small-town background - I was born and brought up in Ludhiana - you think you're not the kind of literary person who will write books that will sell. There was always a kind of defensiveness in me.

Because we are afraid to ask for clarification, we make assumptions, and believe we are right about the assumptions; then we defend our assumptions and try to make someone else wrong. It is always better to ask questions than to make an assumption, because assumptions set us up for suffering.

In general, higher education does not know how to speak for its interests. It offers a stance that is defensive, cowardly and likely to be ineffective.

Tímido y sin estrategia frente al mundo y, sobre todo, frente al amor, Unamuno supo parapetarse entre sus medias luces del norte, salir a dar gritos y vivir emboscado, a la defensiva en su agresividad. Agresividad hosca de alguien que se esconde detrás de sus propias voces como una braña.

I'm not a jealous person. I'm just a girl that would love to punch every other girl in the face that gives you a second look.

It was relaxed. It was coffee and biscuits and comfy-chairs casual. But Thorne could hear the tension and defensiveness in everything Roper said. The same way that a Parisian would always hear Thorne's London accent, however fluently he might speak French.

I learned pretty early is I never defend my material; it's for other people to if someone is offended. It's so subjective, and if you don't find it funny, it's definitely going to be offensive.

Don't look at me like that's my fault. I'm just telling you shit I know.

The flip side of this is that they will not tolerate criticism and can be scathing of anyone who criticizes them. They will often attack and belittle the person who is being critical, instead of dealing with the points the person is making. They do this usually because they have no defence against the criticism, they have been found out. So it's easier to destroy the reputation of the critical person instead.

So clear was his inability to take any criticism or to participate in any honest argument about policy that the attempt was almost never made.

I'm thirty-six years old and I've been married once and he left and I don't want to feel this way anymore. Like I can't be vulnerable. Can't relax. It's exhausting, always being on the defensive, keeping my guard up. I feel like Cuba.

To hear and to see Even an obvious lie Again And again and again May be to say it, Almost by reflex Then to defend it Because we've said it And at last to embrace it Because we've defended it And because we cannot admit That we've embraced and defended An obvious lie.

You're supposed to be dirty now. If you're clean, you make a target of yourself. People think you're showing off, trying to be better than they are. Among the younger kids, being clean is a great way to start a fight.

If a person does not trust another, they will not be vulnerable and transparent and the possibility of misunderstanding and misinterpretation increases. Low trust situations weaken the connection between what we feel and what we say. Other team members pick up on this lack of trust on their intuitive radar screens, raise their defensive shields, and respond in kind. Trust and communication spiral down together.

Mine," he said. Adam's eyes narrowed. "I don't think so. She is mine." It would have been flattering, I thought, except that at least one of them was talking about dinner and I wasn't certain about the other.

Once you turn against yourself, it's hard not to believe that everyone else is against you, too

Spencer wanted to defend his actions but knew that anything he'd say would sound hollow. Goose bumps rose on his skin. He felt as if he were shrinking before Winston, soluble in his own bullshit, his body bubbling and floating toward the sky in tiny pieces like an antacid tablet dissolving into the night. Before disappearing completely, he turned to leave.

Four Horsemen: Criticism, Contempt, Defensiveness, and Stonewalling.

The Four Horsemen that destroy relationships. Criticism. Contempt. Defensiveness. Stonewalling.

I don't know why I felt so closed and bitter and threatened by the things I did not like.