Denial Quotes

“Even as your body betrays you, your mind denies it.”
― Sara Gruen, Water for Elephants

“Somehow everything I own smells of you, and for the tiniest moment it's all not true”
― Snow Patrol

“The trouble with denial is that when the truth comes, you aren't ready.”
― Nina LaCour, We Are Okay

“Defeat is for the valiant. Only they will know the honour of losing and the joy of winning
I am not here to tell you that defeat is a part of life: we all know that. Only the defeated know Love. Because it is in the realm of love that we fight our first battles – and generally lose.
I am here to tell you that there are people who have never been defeated.
They are the ones who never fought.
They managed to avoid scars, humiliations, feelings of helplessness, as well as those moments when even warriors doubt the existence of God.’’
Manuscript Found In Accra – Paulo Coelho”
― Paulo Coelho, Manuscript Found in Accra

“A fear of weakness only strengthens weakness.”
― Criss Jami, Salomé: In Every Inch In Every Mile

“I wonder if being sane means disregarding the chaos that is life, pretending only an infinitesimal segment of it is reality.”
― Rabih Alameddine, Koolaids: The Art of War

“Denial is like an old blanket. I loved to get on under that thing and curl up and sleep.”
― Taylor Jenkins Reid, Daisy Jones & The Six

“The truth has become an insult.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Half of a Yellow Sun

“Raffe arches his brow at me. ‘You should be with a nice human boy. One who takes your orders and puts up with your demands. Someone who dedicates his life to keeping you safe and well fed. Someone who can make you happy. Someone you can be proud of.’ He waves his hand at the Watchers. ‘There’s nobody like that in this lot.’
I glare at him. ‘I’ll be sure to pass him by you first before I’ – settle for – ‘choose him.’
‘You do that. I’ll let him know what’s expected of him.’
‘Assuming he survives your interrogation,’ says Howler.
‘Big assumption,’ says Cyclone.
‘I’d like to be there to watch,’ says Hawk. ‘Should be interesting.”
― Susan Ee, End of Days

“Confidence turns into pride only when you are in denial of your mistakes.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“Delay is the deadliest form of denial.”
― C. Northcote Parkinson

“Truth can break the gates down, truth can howl in the street; unless truth is pleasing, personable and easy to like, she is condemned to stay whimpering at the back door.”
― Hilary Mantel, Bring Up the Bodies

“A sign of power in a man is not only when people follow what he suggests, but also when people make a conscious effort to do the exact opposite of what he suggests.”
― Criss Jami, Killosophy

“We hunger in earnest for that which we cannot consume.”
― Nenia Campbell, Black Beast

“We have inherited a fear of memories of slavery. It is as if to remember and acknowledge slavery would amount to our being consumed by it. As a matter of fact, in the popular black imagination, it is easier for us to construct ourselves as children of Africa, as the sons and daughters of kings and queens, and thereby ignore the Middle Passage and centuries of enforced servitude in the Americas. Although some of us might indeed be the descendants of African royalty, most of us are probably descendants of their subjects, the daughters and sons of African peasants or workers.”
― Angela Davis

“The mind knows the truth when your heart denies what it feels. When you don't feel safe to let people in it is because you're not ready to deal with the pain of honesty.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“A man who denies his past is a man who truly denies himself a future, for he refuses to know himself, and to deny knowledge of oneself is to stumble through life as handicapped as the blind mute.”
― Tobsha Learner, The Witch of Cologne

“It's all overrated, man. Sex is only a great thing if you're not getting any.”
― Charles Bukowski

“Nostalgia has a way of blocking the reality of the past.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“She's terrified that all these sensations and images are coming out of her — but I think she's even more terrified to find out why." Carla's description was typical of survivors of chronic childhood abuse. Almost always, they deny or minimize the abusive memories. They have to: it's too painful to believe that their parents would do such a thing.”
― David L. Calof

“Denial is the heartbeat of racism, beating across ideologies, races, and nations. It is beating within us.”
― Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist

“We use our minds not to discover facts but to hide them. One of things the screen hides most effectively is the body, our own body, by which I mean, the ins and outs of it, its interiors. Like a veil thrown over the skin to secure its modesty, the screen partially removes from the mind the inner states of the body, those that constitute the flow of life as it wanders in the journey of each day. (p.28)”
― Antonio R. Damasio, The Feeling of What Happens: Body and Emotion in the Making of Consciousness

“For those of us who work to raise the racial consciousness of whites, simply getting whites to acknowledge that our race gives us advantages is a major effort. The defensiveness, denial, and resistance are deep.”
― Robin DiAngelo, White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism

“Few love to hear the sins they love to act.”
― William Shakespeare, Pericles

“Knowledge is responsibility, which is why people resist knowledge.”
― Stefan Molyneux

“Maggie scoffed. "Denial will not save you when Cupid's arrow find its mark."
"If i see Cupid anywhere in the vicinity, I'm ripping his chubby little arms off." Vanda yanked the door open to Romatech.”
― Kerrelyn Sparks, Forbidden Nights with a Vampire

“At cocktail parties, I played the part of a successful businessman's wife to perfection. I smiled, I made polite chit-chat, and I dressed the part. Denial and rationalization were two of my most effective tools in working my way through our social obligations. I believed that playing the roles of wife and mother were the least I could do to help support Tom's career.
During the day, I was a puzzle with innumerable pieces. One piece made my family a nourishing breakfast. Another piece ferried the kids to school and to soccer practice. A third piece managed to trip to the grocery store. There was also a piece that wanted to sleep for eighteen hours a day and the piece that woke up shaking from yet another nightmare. And there was the piece that attended business functions and actually fooled people into thinking I might have something constructive to offer.
I was a circus performer traversing the tightwire, and I could fall off into a vortex devoid of reality at any moment. There was, and had been for a very long time, an intense sense of despair. A self-deprecating voice inside told me I had no chance of getting better. I lived in an emotional black hole.
p20-21, talking about dissociative identity disorder (formerly multiple personality disorder).”
― Suzie Burke, Wholeness: My Healing Journey from Ritual Abuse

“People with a style of denial and blaming are definitely on the list of unsafe people to avoid.”
― Henry Cloud, Safe People: How to Find Relationships That Are Good for You and Avoid Those That Aren't

“Privilege is when you contribute to the oppression of others and then claim that you are the one being discriminated against.”
― DaShanne Stokes

“When I wrote the previous letter, I had made up my mind I would show you how I could be very composed and cool and not need to ask you to listen to me nor to explain anything to me nor need any help. By telling you that all this about the multiple personalities was not really true but just put on, I could show, or so I thought, that I did not need you. Well, it would have been easier if it were put on.”
― Flora Rheta Schreiber, Sybil: The Classic True Story of a Woman Possessed by Sixteen Personalities