Assertiveness Quotes

“To be passive is to let others decide for you. To be aggressive is to decide for others. To be assertive is to decide for yourself. And to trust that there is enough, that you are enough.”
― Edith Eva Eger, The Choice: Embrace the Possible

“Create boundaries. Honor your limits. Say no. Take a break. Let go. Stay grounded. Nurture your body. Love your vulnerability. And if all else fails, breathe deeply.”
― Aletheia Luna, Awakened Empath: The Ultimate Guide to Emotional, Psychological and Spiritual Healing

“When you tolerate disrespectful people you disrespect yourself.”
― Wayne Gerard Trotman

“When I want a kiss, I will be the one to take it.”
― Natalie C. Parker, Seafire

“What some call rebellion, others call survival.”
― Shirley Fessel, Redemption from Biblical Battering: Your Path to Faith-Based Freedom

“Be calm; yet assertive.
Be meek; yet courageous.
Be gentle; yet bold.
Be kind; yet strong.”
― Charles F Glassman

“It's not harsh to be assertive, its harsher when people take advantage of you”
― Janna Cachola

“Doers need to think and thinkers need to do.”
― Matt Purcell, Life Hacks For Mindful Living

“Be weary of people who accuse you of aggression when you're being assertive. ”
― Mitta Xinindlu

“You must give the aggressive and hostile aspects of yourself constructive ways of expression through assertiveness, determination, self-assuredness, boldness, mental toughness, decisiveness, learning how to articulate one's feelings, speaking directly, forcefulness, and sport.”
― Laurence Galian, The Sun at Midnight: The Revealed Mysteries of the Ahlul Bayt Sufis

“I've often said I don't lose my temper as much as use it. I don’t do either unless I have to because I love peace and harmony, but when you step in my territory, I will call you on it.”
― Dolly Parton

“As long as I can remember it’s been, ‘Be a good team player, get along, follow the rules.’ Well who made those rules?”
― Vincent H. O'Neil, A Pause in the Perpetual Rotation

“If you have the bad MOJO of a situation or a person riding you down you must first remove that saddle.”
― Donavan Nelson Butler, Master Sergeant US Army

“When fools come for a piece of you with their shenanigans and tomfoolery let them come. However, remember to give them enough that they won't ask for seconds.”
― Donavan Nelson Butler, Master Sergeant US Army

“When we are injured, we are bound as Christians to bear it without malice; but we
are not to pretend that we do not feel it, for this will but encourage our enemies to
kick us again. He who is cheated twice by the same man, is half as bad as the rogue;
and it is very much so in other injuries—unless we claim our rights, we are ourselves
to blame if we do not get them.”
― Charles Haddon Spurgeon

“For those of us who live in a sunny and hot desert, a cloudy day is sometimes all we need to clear our minds...”
― Rodolfo Peon

“Assertion, even self-assertion, does not invariably bespeak an urge to annihilate the opposition or to wield coercive power.”
― Robert Boyers, The Tyranny of Virtue: Identity, the Academy, and the Hunt for Political Heresies

“Get so far out of your comfort zone you can’t find your way back.”
― Paulette Dale Ph.D, "Did You Say Something, Susan?”: How Any Woman Can Gain Confidence with Assertive Communication

“Our failure to live authentically and to speak truly may have little to do with evil or exploitative intentions. Quite the contrary, pretending more frequently
reflects a wish, however misguided, to protect others and to ensure the viability of the self as well as our relationships. Pretending reflects deep prohibitions, real and imagined, against a more direct and forthright assertion of self. Pretending stems naturally from the false and constricted definitions of self that women often absorb without question. “Pretending” is so closely associated with “femininity” that it is, quite simply, what the culture teaches women to do.”
― Harriet Lerner, The Dance of Deception: A Guide to Authenticity and Truth-Telling in Women's Relationships

“If you want to be exclusive with someone and he gives you the runaround, honor your intentions and walk away (unless your goal isn't to be with the guy but rather to write a song, screenplay, or book. If that's it--you're on the right track). Continue searching for a man who wants what you want.”
― Samara O'Shea, Loves Me... Not: How to Survive (and Thrive!) in the Face of Unrequited Love

“The Wretched Rulers of Freiland by Stewart Stafford

A two-faced mirror, vainly warm,
A beauteous sheen to a swinish form,
Bloated with gold and wanton pride,
As cormorants in cuckoo nests, they hide.

They gorge on fabrication, binge on strife,
Parasites living off another life,
Suckers draining every dream,
Like leeches in a poisoned stream.

Shells crack, the rotten egg cabal;
The bonfire of inanities banal,
Power loosened in a fading grip,
Fleeing the wake of freedom's ship.

© Stewart Stafford, 2023. All rights reserved.”
― Stewart Stafford

“No matter how much the soul undergoes stomaching in their specific, destructive sufferings, which triggers, a more abrupt rewritten control for their comfortable state of reality. Now could that exposed authoritarianism from within, prove from beyond a doubt, that your longed comforts, makes you more bountiful today, than recognizing what you had undeniably and unquestionably risked losing in the past, earlier some time ago?”
― David Barksdale

“Say NO to all meaningless activities, so do not need a calendar to remember when is the next really fulfilling event in your life.”
― Rodolfo Peon

“When you are fulfilling the meaning of your life, your steps are assertive, but when you are after power or pleasure, you become aggressive.”
― Roumen Bezergianov, Character Education with Chess

“Step so far outside of your comfort zone that you can’t find your way back.”
― Paulette Dale, Ph.D.

“To think, to judge, to choose our values is to be individuated, to create a distinct, personal identity. But thus to affirm that I exist is to open myself to the realization that I am finite, that my life is limited, that I am mortal, that one day I will die. The rebellion against the inevitability of death results in a rebellion against the challenges and opportunities of life. If I refuse to fully live, I cannot die.

So: fear of autonomy entails fear of self-responsibility entails fear of identity entails fear of aloneness entails fear of death.

That which does not exist cannot perish.”
― Nathaniel Branden, Honoring the Self: Self-Esteem and Personal Transformation

“I should like some coffee,' she announced, with what she hoped was Nietschean directness. 'No, on second thoughts, I should like some tea. I should like a very strong pot of tea.”
― Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac

“I felt I had the right to not be a trustworthy person. It was good to make that clear, even if it worked against my professional future; from now on you should be aware that assigning me a job includes the possibility that I’ll quit halfway through. That was more or less how I put it. It was the closest I would come in this business to an outburst of dignity.”
― Margarita García Robayo, La encomienda

“The ideals of manliness found in these places in the Mediterranean seem to have three moral imperatives: first, impregnating one's wife; second, provisioning dependents; third, protecting the family. These criteria demand assertiveness and resolve. All must be performed relentlessly in the loyal service of the "collective identities" of the self.”
― David D. Gilmore, Manhood in the Making: Cultural Concepts of Masculinity

“You will find that you are never nervous when you are trying to help someone else feel comfortable. William G. Alston”
― William G. Alston, Four Keys to the Natural Anabolic State: The Pathway to Health, Fitness, Faith, and a Huge Competitive Edge