Toni Morrison Quotes

When you live as I do, you cannot indulge in jealousy. If you do, it will rip you apart.

Anger, used, does not destroy. Hatred does.

The violence of sorrow is not at the first to be striven withal; being, like a mighty beast, sooner tamed with following than overthrown by withstanding.

We need to understand how destructive emotions affect us and constructive emotions can help us, so that we can maintain our peace of mind.

Hate smolders and eventually destroys, not the hated but the hater.

One should hate very little, because it's extremely fatiguing. One should despise much, forgive often and never forget. Pardon does not bring with it forgetfulness; at least not for me.

Avoidance behavior is a response designed to protect the infant from behavioral disorganization. If we transfer this concept to adult life, we can see that an avoidant infant might very well develop into a person whose principal need was to find some kind of meaning and order in life which was not entirely, or even chiefly, dependent upon interpersonal relationships

Think if you want to stay alive. Fear will kill you if you don't control it.

The true hero is one who conquers his own anger and hatred.

How do I change? If I feel depressed I will sing. If I feel sad I will laugh. If I feel ill I will double my labor. If I feel fear I will plunge ahead. If I feel inferior I will wear new garments. If I feel uncertain I will raise my voice. If I feel poverty I will think of wealth to come. If I feel incompetent I will think of past success. If I feel insignificant I will remember my goals. Today I will be the master of my emotions.

It requires courage not to surrender oneself to the ingenious or compassionate counsels of despair that would induce a man to eliminate himself from the ranks of the living; but it does not follow from this that every huckster who is fattened and nourished in self-confidence has more courage than the man who yielded to despair.

Our attitudes cannot stop our feelings, but they can keep our feelings from stopping us.

Throughout the ordeal, I learned that getting mad was easier than being sad. Anger was something I could control. I could settle into an easy rhythm of blame and hate. Focus my energy on something than the ache in my heart.

I do not believe that grief is ever so great that it can not be contained within.

I don't let the hate go to my heart, and I don't let the praise go to my head.

Hate won't only destroy us. It will destroy these people that's hating as well.

To reduce destructive emotions we need to strengthen constructive emotions. For example, to counter anger we cultivate love and compassion.

Our anger and annoyance are more detrimental to us than the things themselves which anger or annoy us.

Iain didn't go back to sleep for a long while. He continued to think about all the logical reasons he would never allow himself to be turned into a lovesick weakling like Patrick, and when he finally fell asleep, he had convinced himself that he would distance his heart from his mind. He dreamed about her.

Emotions come and go and can't be controlled so there's no reason to worry about them. That in the end, people should be judged by their actions since in the end it was actions that defined everyone.

Hate would destroy him who hated.

When our hatred is violent, it sinks us even beneath those we hate.

People and things do not upset us. Rather, we upset ourselves by believing that they can upset us.

Arrows of hate have been aimed at me too, but they have never hit me, because somehow they belonged to another world with which I have no connection whatsoever.