Maria Konnikova Quotes

My dad always told me to stand up to bullies, and Bill O'Reilly is kind of a bully, and he's the kind of kid who hits other kids on the playground. And when you hit him, he runs to the teacher and says, 'Teacher, sue him.'

A lot of times, you had to beat the bullies at their own game. But the difficulty is not becoming the bully yourself.

Why can't women get along? Because we're afraid. We're afraid to be vulnerable. We're afraid to be soft. We're afraid to be hurt. But most of all, we're afraid of our power. So we become controlling and aggressive and vicious.

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

I grew up thinking it was wonderful to be big and strong and to be able to knock down other children in the playground if I needed to. But I never felt the need.

It's not my nature to dominate and bully.

People's behavior is not always changed based on a loss. I remember my dad or my uncle used to say, 'If that guy's picking on you, punch him once in the face, and he'll never come back again.' I don't know how true that is.

I'm not aggressive enough.

I'm no longer bossy in the honest sense; I've mastered (mistressed) the art of passive-aggression.

One person might perceive me as godlike, and the next might think I'm a northern thug. I don't think I've done myself any favours... but I swear I've not had a proper fight since I was 14.

By nature I can be a confrontational person. I don't feel like there's anything wrong with that.

I had people come up from NXT and say to me, 'one thing we know is that we hear you're a bully,' I say that I am because I know that I am going to be bullied back at some point so I might as well start it.

The bullies don't realize the effects they're having on the kids who are being bullied. They aren't in that situation themselves and are just looking for an audience.

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

I was trained to be loud, passionate, direct. I didn't realize for the longest time I was intimidating.

I can talk, I can express myself. But many times when people are talking just to talk, to say negative things, I don't like it because this is not a negative sport.

I'm interested in roles that are human, that have some sort of empathic quality.

Sometimes it seems as though all parents are certain that their children are victims of abuse by other children.

It's not like you can say, 'This is the right side and this is the wrong side,' because obviously, a happy person is never going to want to inflict pain on somebody else. So the bullies are really victims themselves and yada, yada, yada, pop psychology, but it's true.

I know I have the abilities to be a head coach or D-coordinator. It's something I wouldn't mind doing. But it's tough being a player and going back and doing something like that, because egos get in the way.

The way I stand up to bullies is with kindness and love. Because I think that's what they really need. They're misunderstood and probably really upset themselves.

I didn't know my own strength. I wasn't a bully or anything, but I'd be out playing and end up hurting someone. So I had to sit out or play with older kids.

Sensitivity training is a fine idea but isn't taken seriously by those who need it most.

What skills I lacked in, say, math or science, I like to think I made up for in my ability to read people and situations with great clarity. I therefore considered myself as a sort of valued soothsayer when it came to dispensing opinions to my friends about their life choices or relationships.

I think people make a really big deal that I'm this big character-issue guy, and I've got red flags. I'm not.