Social Pressure Quotes

They mustn't know my despair, I can't let them see the wounds which they have caused, I couldn't bear their sympathy and their kind-hearted jokes, it would only make me want to scream all the more. If I talk, everyone thinks I'm showing off; when I'm silent they think I'm ridiculous; rude if I answer, sly if I get a good idea, lazy if I'm tired, selfish if I eat a mouthful more than I should, stupid, cowardly, crafty, etc. etc.

One never dives into the water to save a drowning man more eagerly than when there are others present who dare not take the risk.

We take greater pains to persuade others that we are happy than in endeavoring to think so ourselves

Who has not for the sake of his reputation sacrificed himself?

Poor Mr. Pickwick! ... If he played a wrong card, Miss Bolo looked a small armoury of daggers; if he stopped to consider which was the right one, Lady Snuphanuph would throw herself back in her chair, and smile with a mingled glance of impatience and pity to Mrs. Colonel Wugsby, at which Mrs. Colonel Wugsby would shrug up her shoulders, and cough, as much as to say she wondered whether he ever would begin.

... you simply can't imagine what men will say!

Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don't want to impress people they don't like.

If we're really honest with ourselves, most of us will admit that we want to impress people, and this is what's causing us to do what we do.

I believe that a lot of people in our society today, people who have been hurt and even people who haven't been hurt, get their worth and value from what they do, what they look like, what they own, what kind of job they have, what kind of house they live in, how much money they have, what social circles they're in, what level of education they have, especially even how other people respond to them. They feel better about themselves if everybody is giving a smiling nod to the way they look and all their choices.

There is a mortifying experience in particular, which does not fail to wreak itself also in the general history; I mean "the foolish face of praise," the forced smile which we put on in company where we do not feel at ease, in answer to conversation which does not interest us. The muscles, not spontaneously moved but moved, by a low usurping wilfulness, grow tight about the outline of the face, with the most disagreeable sensation.

Well, my dear," said Mr. Bennet, when Elizabeth had read the note aloud, "if your daughter should have a dangerous fit of illness—if she should die, it would be a comfort to know that it was all in pursuit of Mr. Bingley, and under your orders.

Living up to an image that you have of yourself or that other people have of you is inauthentic living.

We are more interested in making others believe we are happy than in trying to be happy ourselves.

When we are overly concerned with what people think we will be controlled by the thoughts and opinions of other people.

Besides, nowadays, almost all capable people are terribly afraid of being ridiculous, and are miserable because of it.

You can not live your life just based on what everyone else thinks.

Each man is afraid of his neighbor's disapproval - a thing which, to the general run of the human race, is more dreaded than wolves and death.