Reaction Quotes

“We try so hard to hide everything we're really feeling from those who probably need to know our true feelings the most. People try to bottle up their emotions, as if it's somehow wrong to have natural reactions to life.”
― Colleen Hoover, Maybe Someday

“When a man is penalized for honesty he learns to lie.”
― Criss Jami, Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile

“The behavior of a human being in sexual matters is often a prototype for the whole of his other modes of reaction in life.”
― Sigmund Freud, Sexuality and the Psychology of Love

“A complete stranger has the capacity to alter the life of another irrevocably. This domino effect has the capacity to change the course of an entire world. That is what life is; a chain reaction of individuals colliding with others and influencing their lives without realizing it. A decision that seems miniscule to you, may be monumental to the fate of the world.”
― J.D. Stroube, Caged by Damnation

“How you react emotionally is a choice in any situation.”
― Judith Orloff

“It’s never overreacting to ask for what you want and need.”
― Amy Poehler

“Christian morality (so called) has all the characters of a reaction; it is, in great part, a protest against Paganism. Its ideal is negative rather than positive; passive rather than action; innocence rather than Nobleness; Abstinence from Evil, rather than energetic Pursuit of Good: in its precepts (as has been well said) 'thou shalt not' predominates unduly over 'thou shalt.”
― John Stuart Mill, On Liberty

“As If I could just turn my feelings off like a faucet.”
― Simone Elkeles, Chain Reaction

“Do not deny the classical approach, simply as a reaction, or you will have created another pattern and trapped yourself there.”
― Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do

“Thus the man who is responsive to artistic stimuli reacts to the reality of dreams as does the philosopher to the reality of existence; he observes closely, and he enjoys his observation: for it is out of these images that he interprets life, out of these processes that he trains himself for life.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Twilight of the Idols / The Anti-Christ

“You're only responsible for being honest, not for someone else's reaction to your honesty.”
― Kelli Jae Baeli, ISO (In Search Of): The Art of Dating, Relationships & Sex for the Discerning Lesbian

“pg. 231-232: They'd given me a minivan. They could have picked any car and they picked a minivan. A minivan. O God of the Vehicular Justice, why dost thou mock me? Minivan, you albatross around my neck! You mark of Cain! You wretched beast high ceilings and few horsepower!”
― John Green, Paper Towns

“When we get hurt, our bodies immediately start trying to heal that hurt. This works for emotions as well. If we were scarred socially, by an incident of rejection or bullying, we immediately start trying to heal. Like pus comes out of wounds, emotions flow from psychological wounds.

And what do we really need at that moment? When we are out of that dangerous situation that scarred us, and we become triggered by some little thing - what do we need? Do we need someone to look at us and say, "Wow, you're really sensitive, aren't you?" or "Hey, man, I didn't mean it like that."? Do we need someone to justify their actions or tell us to take it easy, because the situation didn't really require such a reaction?

And, from ourselves, do we really need four pounds of judgment with liberal helpings of shame? Do we need to run away, to suppress, to hate our "over-sensitivity" to situations that seem innocuous to others?

No. We do not need all of these versions of rejection of a natural healing process. You would not feel shame over a wound doing what it must do to heal, nor would you shame another. So why do we do this to our heart wounds? Why do we do it to ourselves? To others?

Next time some harmless situation triggers you or someone around you into an intense emotion - realize it's an attempt at emotional healing. Realize the danger is no longer there, but don't suppress the healing of old dangers and old pains. Allow the pain. Don't react, but don't repress. Embrace the pain. Embrace the pain of others.

Like this, we have some chance at healing the endless cycles of generational repression and suppression that are rolling around in our society.

Fall open. Break open. Sit with others' openness. Let love be your medicine.”
― Vironika Tugaleva

“If I participate, knowingly or otherwise, in my sister's oppression and she calls me on it, to answer her anger with my own only blankets the substance of our exchange with reaction. It wastes energy. And yes, it is very difficult to stand still and to listen to another woman's voice delineate an agony I do not share, or one to which I myself have contributed.It wastes energy. And yes, it is very difficult to stand still and to listen to another woman's voice delineate an agony I do not share, or one to which I myself have contributed.”
― Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“The first reaction is surely the most natural one, but not always the most correct one; thereupon, the invention of apologies.”
― Criss Jami, Healology

“I know why she cried like that. She cried because she wasn't finished grieving the loss of me. When someone has an exaggerated emotional reaction to something in the present, it's usually because they haven't resolved something in their past.”
― Kate McGahan, Jack McAfghan: Return from Rainbow Bridge: A Dog's Afterlife Story of Loss, Love and Renewal

“Supposing that what is at any rate believed to be the 'truth' really is true, and the meaning of all culture is the reduction of the beast of prey 'man' to a tame and civilized animal, a domestic animal, then one would undoubtedly have to regard all those instincts of reaction and ressentiment through whose aid the noble races and their ideals were finally confounded and overthrown as the actual instruments of culture; which is not to say that the bearers of these instincts themselves represent culture. Rather is the reverse not merely probable—no! today it is palpable! These bearers of the oppressive instincts that thirst for reprisal, the descendants of every kind of European and non-European slavery, and especially of the entire pre-Aryan populace—they represent the regression of mankind! These 'instruments of culture' are a disgrace to man and rather an accusation and counterargument against 'culture' in general!”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals / Ecce Homo

“There's lower wisdom in comment.”
― Toba Beta, Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza

“Winning is about making enemy reacts as predicted.”
― Toba Beta, Betelgeuse Incident: Insiden Bait Al-Jauza

“Knowing how the environment is pulling your strings and playing you is critical to making responsive rather than reactive moves.”
― Ronald Heifetz, The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World

“The attacks of 9/11 were the biggest surprise in American history, and for the past ten years we haven't stopped being surprised. The war on terror has had no discernible trajectory, and, unlike other military conflicts, it's almost impossible to define victory. You can't document the war's progress on a world map or chart it on a historical timetable in a way that makes any sense. A country used to a feeling of being in command and control has been whipsawed into a state of perpetual reaction, swinging wildly between passive fear and fevered, often thoughtless, activity, at a high cost to its self-confidence.”
― George Packer

“Action triggers reaction.
An object somehow responds when we observe it.
We just assume that we do objective.
In fact, unconsciously we only want to see some parts
of the object which do not evoke the bitter memories of our past.”
― Toba Beta, My Ancestor Was an Ancient Astronaut

“The author indicts "our culture's rush toward efficiency, speed, quantification, and distraction" and counters with the value of "the time and attention required to find the best words and images and then hold them together in ways that illuminate. This, she diagnoses, "is now wildly countercultural. It is inefficient. Its value is not readily quantifiable. Its utility is intangible.”
― Cherie Harder

“Chat is like the ball..... you throw it... then they... then you.... then they... until one of you... stops... and the chain reaction is over.”
― Deyth Banger

“Learning that you can’t control the other person’s reaction, and that it can be destructive to try, can be incredibly liberating. It not only gives the other person the space to react however they need to, but also takes a huge amount of pressure off you.”
― Douglas Stone, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most

“And when you do ask, not everyone will come through for you, and that will be painful. But many people will. And by trusting them enough to ask, you offer them an extraordinary opportunity to do something important for someone they care about. Then one day, you may have the opportunity to return the favor.”
― Douglas Stone, Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most

“you're stressing over his potential reaction to things that haven't even happened yet”
― Colleen Hoover, It Starts with Us

“Some things happen because events align in such a way to make them happen ... Sometimes there was a clear guilty party, but ... Sometimes, some things just happen. That's all. What you can control now is how you react to that awful, dreadful, tragic thing that happened.”
― Alam Nigar, Under the Tamarind Tree

“How you react to a situation says more about you than you know.”
― Dominic Riccitello

“Life is messy. The only thing we can control is how we respond to what happens to us and move forward.”
― Laurie Buchanan, PhD