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Passivity Quotes

Browse 174 quotes about Passivity.

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Passivity Quotes

“Count Ayakura’s abstraction persisted. He believed that only a vulgar mentality was willing to acknowledge the possibility of catastrophe. He felt that taking naps was much more beneficial than confronting catastrophes. However precipitous the future might seem, he learned from the game of kemari that the ball must always come down. There was no call for consternation. Grief and rage, along with other outbursts of passion, were mistakes easily committed by a mind lacking in refinement. And the Count was certainly not a man who lacked refinement. Just let matters slide. How much better to accept each sweet drop of the honey that was Time, than to stoop to the vulgarity latent in every decision. However grave the matter at hand might be, if one neglected it for long enough, the act of neglect itself would begin to affect the situation, and someone else would emerge as an ally. Such was Count Ayakura’s version of political theory.”

AcceptanceIndifferenceJapanEleganceInactionRefinementPassivity
Book:Spring Snow
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“Feelings are great, and they have a purpose, but it’s certainly not to guide your life. Whoever said, “Follow your heart” was a fool. Your “heart” is your emotional center. Emotions have a great purpose - to allow us to enjoy life, to mourn loss, to have a tangible way to experience love - but feelings are fickle, and they are not meant to be the guiding force in our life.”

LoveFeelingsEmotionEmotionsGuidanceMourningManhoodFicklePassivityGuiding
Book:Manlihood: The 12 Pillars of Masculinity
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“Your daily output is directly proportional to your daily thoughts while your activity or passivity remains as a constant. You get what you think to do provided you do it!”

PositivePositive ThinkingThoughtsDirectConstantEverydayFood For ThoughtIsraelmore AyivorProportionPassiveThinkThink PositiveOutputPassivityDailyEvery DayRemainProportionalGet ItDirectly ProportionalDirect Proportion
Book:The Great Hand Book of Quotes
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“What we need to do is treat some of our thoughts like door to door salesmen. If someone comes to your door and asks if he can come inside and throw some dirt on your floor to demonstrate his vaccuum cleaner - you would probably tell him “No thanks! See you later!” And yet - if a friend stopped by with a meatloaf and wanted to visit - we’d say “Come on in!” We need to stop being PASSIVE about what thoughts can take residence in our head.”

Self HelpPositive ThinkingPositivitySelf ControlManhoodPassivity
Book:Manlihood: The 12 Pillars of Masculinity
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“MOST PEOPLE IN the West spend their time waiting for Godot, but of course he never comes. They also wait for the Messiah, but we know he always arrives a day too late. What is everyone waiting for? Divine intervention? The Deus ex machina that solves every problem? Don’t you get it? – no one’s ever coming. Ever. The world-historic figures, the men and women of destiny, aren’t waiting. They’re out doing things, being active, making things happen.”

WaitingPassivityGodot
Book:The Triune Brain, Hypnosis and the Evolution of Consciousness
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“In classical art this 'aura' surrounding motherhood depicts repose. The dominant culture projects pregnancy as a time of quiet waiting. We refer to the woman as 'expecting,' as though this new life were flying in from another planet and she sat in her rocking chair by the window, occasionally moving the curtain aside to see whether the ship is coming. The image of uneventful waiting associated with pregnancy reveals clearly how much the discourse of pregnancy leaves out the subjectivity of the woman. From the point of view of others pregnancy is primarily a time of waiting and watching, when nothing happens. For the pregnant subject, on the other hand, pregnancy has a temporality of movement, growth, and change. The pregnant subject is not simply a splitting which the two halves lie open and still, but a dialectic. The pregnant woman experiences herself as a source and participant in a creative process. Though she does not plan and direct it, neither does it merely wash over; rather, she is this process, this change. Time stretches out, moments and days take on a depth because she experiences more changes in herself, her body. Each day, each week, she looks at herself for signs of transformation... For others the birth of an infant may only be a beginning, but for the birthing woman it is a conclusion as well. It signals the close of a process she has been undergoing for nine months, the leaving of this unique body she has moved through, always surprising her a bit in its boundary changes and inner kicks. Especially if this is her first child she experiences the birth as a transition to a new self that she may both desire and fear. She fears a loss of identity, as though on the other side of the birth she herself became a transformed person, such that she would 'never be the same again.”

FeminismBirthActivityPregnancyEmbodimentPassivity
Book:On Female Body Experience: "Throwing Like a Girl" and Other Essays
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“Do not let your boss, your spouse, your kids, your neighbors, or anyone push you around or walk all over you. This does not mean you need to be a butt-hole - but you may need to draw some clear lines for the people in your life. Want to do it right? Communicate expectations clearly, and consistently. People cannot treat you the way you want them to treat you unless you tell them HOW to treat you.”

RelationshipsConfidenceBoundariesSelf RespectManhoodPassivity
Book:Manlihood: The 12 Pillars of Masculinity
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“...until recently Italian institutions were totally unresponsive to consumer needs and concerns, something most people knew, or sensed. Hence their passivity. Nowadays, fewer things seem to be guasti than in the past, but a lot of things that are supposed to work, don’t.”

ItalyPassivityItalian CultureUnresponsivePublic InstitutionsUnresponsiveness
Book:My Home Sweet Rome: Living (and loving) in Italy's Eternal City
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“The complacency of the individual who admires his own excellence is bad enough, but it is more respectable than the complacency of the man who has no self-esteem because he has not even a superficial self which he can esteem. He is not a person, not an individual, only an atom. This atomized existence is sometimes praised as humility or as self-sacrifice, some-times it is called obedience, sometimes it is devotion to the dialectic of class war. It produces a kind of peace which is not peace, but only the escape from an immediately urgent sense of conflict. It is the peace not of love but of anesthesia. It is the peace not of self-realization and self-dedication, but of flight into irresponsibility.”

HumilityPassivity
Book:New Seeds of Contemplation
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“Superheroes are supposedly great beings who rise to help humanity through its darkest hours. Who needs these preposterous figures? They are just the continuation of messianism by other means. Humanity needs to help itself and stop looking to fantasy beings to help it out. You will never resolve your problems while you are expecting a deus ex machina to bail you out.”

ActionSlaveSuperheroInactionMessiahPassivityMarvelDc Comics
Book:Superheroes and Presidents: How Absurd Stories Have Poisoned the American Mind
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“I hesitate in everything, often without knowing why. How often I've sought – as my own version of the straight line, seeing it in my mind as the ideal straight line – the longest distance between two points. I've never had a knack for the active life. I've always taken wrong steps that no one else takes; I've always had to make an effort to do what comes naturally to other people. I've always wanted to achieve what others have achieved almost without wanting it. Between me and life there were always sheets of frosted glass that I couldn't tell were there by sight or by touch; I didn't live that life or that dimension. I was the daydream of what I wanted to be, and my dreaming began in my will: my goals were always the first fiction of what I never was.”

EffortAutismDreamingInactionHesitationPassivity
Author:Fernando Pessoa
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“The problem is going to be, "Let's see, I spent all day staring at a computer screen and then at night my most meaningful relationships are with the two-dimensional characters who aren't in fact two-dimensional characters . . . Gee, I wonder why I'm lonely and doing a lot of drugs? Could there be any connection between the fact that I've got nothing to do with other people, that I don't really have a fucking clue what it is to have a real life, and the fact that most of my existence is mediated by entertainment that I passively choose to receive?”

ConnectionModern LifePassivityDfw
Book:David Foster Wallace: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
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“Self-centered people often get angry when someone tells them no. Stan said yes out of fear that he would lose love and that other people would get angry at him. These false motives and others keep us from setting boundaries:”

BoundariesSelf CenteredLoss Of LovePassivitySubmissiveSelf CenterednessControlling ParentsBoundaries QuotesControlling OthersControlling PeopleFear Of AbandonmentSelf Centered PeopleBoundary IssuesConfrontationalSubmittingRule By FearBoundarylessSelf Centered Man
Book:Boundaries: When to Say Yes, How to Say No to Take Control of Your Life
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“The clear message you should derive from the benefits of mental and physical exercise is that the worst thing you can do to your brain is to be content living a passive life. The habit of passivity is pervasive in our culture, from longing for miracle cures to watching television for hours to being politically apathetic. Physical and mental action is fundamental to maintaining mental health.”

CultureMental HealthPassivityA Users Guide To The BrainJohn J Ratey
Book:A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain
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“A few autocracies still portray themselves to their citizens as model states. The North Koreans, famously, hold vast military parades with elaborate gymnastics displays and huge portraits of their leader, very much in the Stalinist style. But many of the propagandists of Autocracy, Inc., have learned from the mistakes of the twentieth century. They don’t offer their fellow citizens a vision of utopia, and they don’t inspire them to build a better world. Instead, they teach people to be cynical and passive, because there is no better world to build. Their goal is to persuade people to mind their own business, stay out of politics, and never hope for a democratic alternative: Our state may be corrupt, but everyone else is corrupt too. You may not like our leader, but the others are worse. You may not like our society, but at least we are strong and the democratic world is weak, degenerate, divided, dying.”

PropagandaCynicismNorth KoreaPassivityAutocracyAutocratsAutocracies
Book:Autocracy, Inc.
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“Becoming aware of our inner man and woman means to discover the roots and creative potential of both the male and female aspect within ourselves. Becoming aware of the inner man and woman means to understand that they have different visions of life. It means to understand that they have different perspectives and views of life. The inner man and woman are our two wings of love and freedom. Through awareness, acceptance and understanding, we can allow our two wings to develop in a deep and natural harmony. In the world today, a one-sided development of the male side leads to destructivity. A one-sided development of the male side leads to ego, struggle, exhaustion and a separation from life. A one-sided development of the female side leads to passivity and dependence.”

LoveLifeUnderstandingRelationshipsFreedomCreativityStruggleMeditationAwarenessAcceptanceEgoSeparationDependenceExhaustionPassivityDestructivityInner Man And Woman
Book:Presence - Working from Within. The Psychology of Being
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“You don't talk; you watch talk shows. You don't play games; you watch game shows. Travel, relationships, risk: Every meaningful experience must be packaged and delivered to you to watch at a distance, so that you can remain ever sheltered, ever passive, ever ravenous consumers who can't bring themselves to rise from their couches, break a sweat, and participate in life.”

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Author:Brad Bird
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“Yes, movies! Look at them — All of those glamorous people — having adventures — hogging it all, gobbling the whole thing up! You know what happens? People go to the movies instead of moving! Hollywood characters are supposed to have all the adventures for everybody in America, while everybody in America sits in a dark room and watches them have them! Yes, until there's a war. That's when adventure becomes available to the masses! Everyone's dish, not only Gable's! Then the people in the dark room come out of the dark room to have some adventures themselves — Goody, goody! — It's our turn now, to go to the south Sea Island — to make a safari — to be exotic, far-off! — But I'm not patient. I don't want to wait till then. I'm tired of the movies and I am about to move!”

AudienceMovementAdventureActivityHollywoodSpectatorsMoviesPassivityWatchingVicarious ExperienceVicarious Doings
Book:The Glass Menagerie
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“You can’t run away from this fight. You can’t hide. You can’t pretend it’s not happening. You can’t pray it goes away. You can’t close your eyes and ignore it. You can’t bury your head in the sand. You’re in this war whether you like it or not. If you’re a dove, you had better get real and evolve into a retaliator. You need to fight back. You need to stand up for yourself and your cause. You need to stop being lunch. Stop being nice and polite. Your enemies aren’t. Stop being weak and meek. Your enemies aren’t. Stop being humble and respectful of all opinions. Your enemies aren’t. Stop being gentlemanly or ladylike. This is a dirty war. We have all been dragged into the gutters and sewers. You need to fight your way out or drown in shit. Retaliate. Don’t sit there and take it. Stop being a pussy. Become a lion and roar. Let the world hear your voice.”

ActionCommitmentActivismTolerancePassivityCause Movement
Book:Take Them to the Morgue
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“Мы как раз вчера встречались и говорили об этом с правозащитниками, — и были вынуждены признать, что россиян никакая кровь не вызовет на улицы. То есть если написать, что вчера погибли одномоментно 200 тысяч чеченцев, скажут — ну, много, — но не более того. Люди не выйдут. Более того, если погибнут 200 тысяч жителей Твери — тоже не выйдут. Такова ситуация на сегодняшний день. Общество очень ожесточилось.”

ViolenceRussiaIndifferenceApathyPassivityConformism
Author:Анна Политковская
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