Heather Cox Richardson Quotes

I know that victims of torture will offer intentionally misleading information if they think their captors will believe it.

In psychology, trying to force others to accept the reality of a fake world is called gaslighting. It got its name from the 1944 film 'Gaslight,' in which a husband convinces his wife and their neighbors that she is insane.

I think if you're going to abuse someone, you really have to convince them of two things. First, you have to normalise what you're doing, convince them that it's not that bad. And the second thing is to convince them that they deserve it in some way.

When you abuse someone, you limit their perspective, and you trap them in your view of them or your view of the world.

Pity is just another form of abuse.

She poured a little social sewage into his ears.

People that were in my life for a long time turned sinister and tried to control me, and all kinds of weird stuff happened. But there was no conscience involved; that threw me more than anything.

I hate it when people use sex as a weapon against the people who are engaging in it. It's so hypocritical.

It's like someone cutting up a loved one in front of you, all the time insisting they've got your best interests at heart. They're very devious nowadays.

Never underestimate the value of someone who can say, 'You make me sick.'

Trump did not spring out of nowhere, and I was struck by how prescient writers like Alexis de Tocqueville and George Orwell and Hannah Arendt were about how those in power get to define what the truth is.

I don't want to be a punching bag.

You can definitely become a victim and let people completely destroy your life.

Jim Bakker came along. He said, Jessica Hahn, listen. You're a virgin. As God as my witness. He said, We need a girl that we can trust.

Boys like it when you're mean. That's what I'm best at. I make them feel so bad about themselves, all out of fun.

You can compel fear. You can even make someone feel they're in love if they're isolated and dependent for long enough. But laughter is free.

It was my first big relationship and it was just very abusive. I wouldn't give him the credit of naming him, if he ever reads this. But he was older, in the music business - or so he said.

If I ever loved a woman, the more I loved her, the more I wanted to hurt her. Frida was only the most obvious victim of this disgusting trait.

He was using me. When he cast me in Sideways I was nothing but a vessel.

A bully is playing a game, one that he or she enjoys and needs. You're welcome to play this game if it makes you happy, but for most people, it will make you miserable.

I mean, if you degrade someone, you isolate them, you control them, you call them names, you demean them. That's a horrible existence for people.

Intimidation doesn't last very long.

Force is as pitiless to the man who possesses it, or thinks he does, as it is to its victims; the second it crushes, the first it intoxicates. The truth is, nobody really possesses it.

If a guy can bully you, he will bully you.

I've met my share of guys who have insulted and assaulted my intelligence with their stories and games. I say hello and goodbye!