Naomi Shihab Nye Quotes

The kid who can play imaginatively doesn't tend to be violent. It's the same with adults.

I think I am aggressive, I think I am critical when it's necessary.

It's one thing to say, 'I don't like what you said to me and I find it rude and offensive,' but the moment you threaten violence in return, you've taken it to another level, where you lose whatever credibility you had.

Well, I'm not a violent person. You have to back off. People sometimes will try you and try you until you try not to, but you have to react. Normally, I just walk away.

I teach kids that want to be tough that their fists are not the way.

We must, I believe, start teaching our children the sanity of nonviolence much earlier.

If something happens, you have to realize that you can't just yell at people all the time.

I think confrontation is healthy, because it clears the air very quickly.

In elementary school, we should teach nonviolent conflict resolution and healthy communication skills, which will help children cope with issues like rejection and sexuality later in life.

I see it as this: I send my kids to school not only to learn how to read and write and do math, but also to develop socially. So if there's a negative interaction between my child and another child, what I want to know is, how was it handled, what lessons came out of it, and, of course, is my child okay?

When you have a lot of communication, it picks up the aggressiveness with everybody on the court.

It's difficult to expect kids not to bully one another when they don't have many examples otherwise in society.

I feel like anything can be worked out; you just gotta talk through it as adults.

There’s no use saying anything in the schoolyard because there’s always someone with an answer and there’s nothing you can do but punch them in the nose and if you were to punch everyone who has an answer you’d be punching morning noon and night.

Children model the behavior of adults, on whatever scale is available to them. Ours are growing up in a nation whose most important, influential men - from presidents to the coolest film characters - solve problems by killing people. ... We have taught our children in a thousand ways, sometimes with flag-waving and sometimes with a laugh track, that the bad guy deserves to die.

When you resort to violence to prove a point, you’ve just experienced a profound failure of imagination.

If you have a problem and you can't find a solution, you meet again tomorrow and you keep talking until you find a solution. You can disagree with behavior or a particular position, but you do not resort to calling an opponent worthless.

There's a saying that goes, 'People who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.' OK. How about, 'Nobody should throw stones'? That's crappy behavior. My policy is, 'No stone throwing regardless of housing situation.

I have several times made a poor choice by avoiding a necessary confrontation.

If someone criticizes me, I strike back.

Violence is my last option.

We don't point a pistol at our own forehead. That is not the way to conduct negotiations.

I'm a mediator by training and inclination.

Kids aren't born to be bullies, they're taught to be bullies.

Talking back and being quite aggressive about stuff and not giving a care in the world about anyone. So it was more, I think, that way and I think that's what happened in that party when I stood in between two people.