Confrontational Quotes & Sayings

You can't just have stuff that is free and escapist, you have to have stuff that is confrontational as well. You need stuff that is mystical but you need the realism too. — Irvine Welsh

Sometimes I wonder which is worse - confrontational people who are afraid of caring or caring people who are afraid of confrontation. — Mardy Grothe

She lived in fear of his shifting moods, his volatile temperament, his insistence on steering even mundane exchanges down a confrontational path that, on occasion, he would resolve with punches, slaps, kicks, and sometimes try to make amends for with polluted apologies, and sometimes not. — Khaled Hosseini

Dialogue is a non-confrontational communication, where both partners are willing to learn from the other and therefore leads much farther into finding new grounds together — Scilla Elworthy

Williamson Starr doesn't use slang - if a rapper would say it, she doesn't say it, even if her white friends do. Slang makes them cool. Slang makes her "hood". Williamson Starr holds her tongue when people piss her off so nobody will think she's the "angry black girl". Williamson Starr is approachable. No stank-eyes, none of that. Williamson Starr is no confrontational. Basically, Williamson Starr doesn't give anyone a reason to call her ghetto.
I can't stand myself for doing it, but I do it anyway. — Angie Thomas

The alternative which I favor is to renounce all euphemisms and grasp the nettle of the word atheism itself, precisely because it is a taboo word carrying frissons of hysterical phobia. Critical mass may be harder to achieve than with some non-confrontational euphemism, but if we did achieve it with the dread word atheist, the political impact would be all the greater. — Richard Dawkins

Silence and solitude are confrontational. They plunge us instantly into the truth. — Barbara De Angelis

The key to walking around places where you're not supposed to be is to look like you're too important to be interrupted. Most people are non-confrontational by nature, and if you give them a good reason not to challenge you, they won't. I — Craig Schaefer

They still didn't talk on the bus, but it had become a less confrontational silence. Almost friendly. (But not quite.) — Rainbow Rowell

Power distance: the degree to which members of a society expect power to be unequally shared. Uncertainty avoidance: a society's reliance on social norms and procedures to alleviate the unpredictability of future events. Assertiveness: the extent to which a society encourages people to be tough, confrontational, assertive, and competitive rather than modest and tender. Humane orientation: the degree to which a society encourages and rewards individuals for being fair, altruistic, generous, caring, and kind to others. Future orientation: the extent to which a society encourages and rewards future-oriented behaviors such as planning, investing in the future, and delaying gratification. national culture The values and attitudes shared — Stephen P. Robbins

Confrontational is when I pull my gun. Argumentative is when I pull the trigger. — Nelson DeMille

I don't make any secret of the fact that I'm closer to the Republicans than to the Democrats. But even under a President Hillary Clinton, US foreign policy toward Moscow would probably be more critical and confrontational. I hope it isn't too late for that. — Garry Kasparov

I had my moments for sure but I wasn't confrontational. And sometimes you get on the court and you'd find yourself very confrontational. It was all a discovery. — Andre Agassi

I'm not a confrontational person in real life, so I really don't wanna get into arguments or fistfights with people I'm making fun of. — Andy Kindler

The first rule of her
confrontational life-style was Always get the last word. The second
was Always make the first move. Making this first move was what she
thought of as Taking Care of Things, and she meant to take care of
Nettle in a hurry. — Stephen King

Everything has changed. An interview has become such a confrontational thing. It makes you very defensive. — Francesca Annis

I'm not confrontational, but if someone challenges, I'm not going to back down. — Drake

The dangerous consequence of the dominance myth is that owners try to physically dominate their dog in an attempt to change the dog's behavior. This "solution" is likely to cause the exact opposite of the result they want. A recent study by veterinary behaviorist Dr. Meghan Herron found that confrontational techniques are, in fact, more likely to escalate aggression, resulting in more dog bites to owners. — American College Of Veterinary Behaviorists

(Marie) ... It's not like we're planning a rebellion. We're just putting food in our cupboards. If eating is rebellious, then I guess we're the biggest rebels out there. Indians are just plain hungry. Not for power. Not for money. For food, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner ... "
(Dr. Mather) "There you go again, creating an antagonisitc situation. Don't you understand what I'm trying to teach? I'm trying to present a positive portrait of Indian peoples, of your people. Of you. I simply cannot do that if you insist on this kind of confrontational relationship ... — Sherman Alexie

Steve Wozniak literally one of the sweetest guys. And that was kind of the thing I had to reconcile: how do I try to do this guy's sweetness justice in some capacity when most of the things I'm doing in the movie are pretty confrontational, and pretty argumentative. — Seth Rogen

I'm a non-confrontational person. If I order salmon and I get chicken, I'm going to eat the chicken. — Danny Pudi

Assumptions can blind you; hypotheses can guide you. Good negotiators expect surprises; great negotiators reveal the surprises. Negotiation should be seen as a process of discovery. If you think you're too smart to discover anything new, then you will be a terrible negotiator. Until you know who or what you are dealing with, you are actually in the dark and should proceed with caution. Listening well does not come easily to most. By truly listening, you will disarm your opponent, giving them a sense of calm and a feeling of safety. Talking about wants gives us an illusion of control; needs are required to survive and make us feel vulnerable. The biggest mistake a negotiator can make is to rush things. By slowing down the process, you are able to calm down the situation. A soothing but confident voice helps in confrontational situations. Mirroring relies on the fact that we fear what's different and are drawn to what's similar. — Book Summary

I was very aware of office politics because I was so baffled by them. So much so goes unsaid. No one says 'you're a cheeky so-and-so,' no one says 'you're so moody,' nobody ever confronts anyone else about anything. But I'm very crass, and I'm very confrontational, and I have a temper. I had to be hyper-vigilant in every office I worked in. — Denise Mina

The music is meant to be provocative - which doesn't mean it's necessarily obnoxious, but it is (mostly) confrontational, and more than that, it's dense with multiple meanings. Great rap should have all kinds of unresolved layers that you don't necessarily figure out the first time you listen to it. Instead it plants dissonance in your head. You can enjoy a song that knocks in the club or has witty punch lines the first time you hear it. But great rap retains mystery. It leaves shit rattling around in your head that won't make sense till the fifth or sixth time through. It challenges you. — Jay-Z

I purposely used a pretty cocky, abrasive writing style in Sex and Crime, to stir up some drama. My confrontational style quickly became the talk of the scene. Some of the things I wrote were so inflammatory, people had to vent about it on online forums. So suddenly everyone in the scene was talking about Sex and Crime, just as I had hoped. I enjoyed playing the role of agitator, and people from competing hacking crews didn't even realize that the more they bitched about the things I wrote, the more credibility and notoriety they were adding to my scene mag. Thanks to all the positive as well as negative feedback I was getting, the things I wrote actually mattered. Suddenly I was the most important opinion maker in the scene. — Oliver Markus

He said to the cardinal, I'm a peasant, not instructed in the ways of heaven. But I have never broken my word. And you, a Cardinal of the Catholic Church, with all your holy garments and crosses of Jesus, lied to me like a heathen Moor. Your sacred office alone will not save your life. — Mario Puzo

Has a confrontational ring to it, doesn't it? Like saying, the sky is rubber, or, your foot's a hippopotamus. — Terry Moore

This marched was planned to be non violent and non confrontational, and gladly it stayed that way. What really impressed me was the self discipline of the Black Block. — John Blair

There's something about compassion that causes society to say, 'We're going to take this person seriously.' Take Mother Teresa. She was confrontational on abortion, but she wasn't rejected by society. — Max Lucado

I write titles that are confrontational. I write titles that make people want to pick up a book and find out more about it. I write good books; I write great titles though. — Larry Winget

We often hear of someone saying, 'So you don't trust me' or 'Are you questioning my integrity?' or 'You don't believe me.' They get defensive and angry because someone questions their actions, and they think they are above being questioned or having to prove their trustworthiness. But none of us is above questioning. — Henry Cloud

People keep saying I've changed. I used to be confrontational. But I'm - I haven't changed. It was - it's just that circumstances have changed. — Aung San Suu Kyi

I always knew I wanted to write, but I didn't know that I would want to do investigative reporting - in part because it seemed so ill-suited for my personality, or I thought it was ill-suited for my personality, insofar as I'm not very aggressive, and I'm not confrontational. — Sarah Stillman

The case for the humanities is not hard to make, though it can be difficult
to such an extent have we been marginalized, so long have we acceded to that marginalization
not to sound either defensive or naive. The humanities, done right, are the crucible in which our evolving notions of what it means to be fully human are put to the test; they teach us, incrementally, endlessly, not what to do, but how to be. Their method is confrontational, their domain unlimited, their "product" not truth but the reasoned search for truth, their "success" something very much like Frost's momentary stay against confusion. — Mark Slouka

But we wanted to work in a way we never had, which was write everything together. We had to face each other in the same creative room, which gets tougher as you get older, because you don't want to be confrontational. — Bruce McCulloch

One filmmaker makes films that are deep, intellectual, profound and confrontational. And the other one makes purely vacuous, escapist films. I'm not sure the one who makes escapist films is making a poorer contribution than the one who makes the deeper films. — Woody Allen

I'm only confrontational with my friends. — Chuck Palahniuk

I bring values, resiliency, a thick skin, and I'm not afraid to be confrontational. I don't remember anyone before bringing that to the table. — Carl Paladino

The iconoclastic mode, that specific mode of language, there is an element of it that it is punk - that is confrontational. That's just a part of the language of jazz - at a certain point. — Matthew Shipp

We were the first people who did investigative stuff, who asked occasionally abrasive, occasionally confrontational questions. — Mike Wallace

A year-long study by the University of Pennsylvania, ending in 2009 and published in the journal Applied Animal Behavior Science (Elsevier), showed that aggressive dogs who were trained with aggressive, confrontational, or aversive training techniques, such as being stared at, growled at, rolled onto their backs, or hit, continued their aggressive ways. Non-aversive training methods, such as exercise or rewards, were very successful in reducing or eliminating aggressive responses. — Edward Custo

I'm interested in really particular details, ideas, thoughts, and emotions, yet it's defused with performance, where you can play with hiding things, or be more confrontational about something shielded. There is this process of layering in performance. — Sue Tompkins

I make spaces that are calm rather than confrontational. I seek a certain kind of logic that allows you to move in space and perceive it as beautiful and rational. Clarity is a worthwhile quality. — Annabelle Selldorf

If we have no idea what we believe in, we'll go along with anything. Truth takes courage. Courage to stand up for what we believe in. Not necessarily in a confrontational way, but in a gentle yet firm way. Like an oak tree, able to sway gently in the wind, but strongly rooted to the ground. — A.C. Ping

Yes, people of both genders pop up at events to hold forth on irrelevant things and conspiracy theories, but the out-and-out confrontational confidence of the totally ignorant is, in my experience, gendered. Men explain things to me, and other women, whether or not they know what they're talking about. — Rebecca Solnit

Enthusiasm brings an enormous empowerment into what you do, so that all those who have not accessed that power would look upon "your" achievements in awe and may equate them with who you are. You, however, know the truth that Jesus pointed to when he said, "I can of my own self do nothing."3 Unlike egoic wanting, which creates opposition in direct proportion to the intensity of its wanting, enthusiasm never opposes. It is non-confrontational. Its activity does not create winners and losers. It is based on inclusion, not exclusion, of others. It does not need to use and manipulate people, because it is the power of creation itself and so does not need to take energy from some secondary source. — Eckhart Tolle

The person is being confrontational. — Steve McQueen

I'm trying to be confrontational and direct. If I lack directness then I only have myself to blame because I lack the skills to make my point clear. — Henry Rollins

We believe evangelism is more relational than confrontational, more communal than solitary, and is more a beginning point than an end. Evangelism involves not only sharing our faith with others, but also welcoming them into a community and enabling them to begin to grow in their faith. Above all evangelism is about love: God's love for us in Jesus, our love for our neighbor, and the invitation to receive and grow in a new life that is characterized by love. — Hal Knight

I was not athletically inclined. I was very quiet, introverted, non-confrontational. My three older brothers were athletes - basketball, football - but I was kind of a momma's boy. Then one day, my brother Roger encouraged me to go to the boxing gym with him. I tried the gloves on, and it just felt so natural. — Sugar Ray Leonard

I feel like I've come off as an outspoken woman. Sometimes I think I've come off as confrontational. But I feel like it's been pretty fair. Those are parts of me. — NeNe Leakes

I did meet Steve Wozniak on several occasions leading up to the filming of the movie [Steve Jobs]. It wasn't really written how he is. So the second I met him, it almost was a relief, because I was like, "OK, good, the real Steve Wozniak is like one of the least confrontational people you would ever meet in your entire life." — Seth Rogen

I'm not a screamer. I'm confrontational, but I don't think that translates into anger. — Rachel Maddow

My mother's not a political person. She just doesn't want me to be mean ... sometimes I have to be mean. It's like a parent or a teacher. Sometimes for the good of everybody you have to be a little bit strong, a little bit confrontational. — Bill O'Reilly

Water is patient; it can stagnate and let itself be coated with scum if need be. It is as gentle as the morning's dew. It is non-confrontational, even respectful, in circumventing the rocks in a stream. It makes room for everything that enters its pools. It accommodates by assuming the shape of any vessel it is poured into. And it is humble, seeking always the lowest level. Yet along with - or rather because of these adaptive, yielding properties, it is ultimately irresistible; it carves canyons out of stone. — Huston Smith

Saying all that I need to do or should be doing is easy and it takes the spotlight away from what I am not doing right now, which is an uncomfortable and confrontational feeling. Hiding behind the 'I should' makes us feel like we are almost doing it, but it is not the same as actually completing the task. — Malti Bhojwani

The sun rises with a surprising intensity, a sign that June Gloom has cleared the runway and July is on approach. We are both tired, and it would've been to return to our bed after our morning walk, read from a book maybe, drift lazily in and out of sleep. But the sun beckons with a blazingly confrontational message: There is darkness, but there is also light. To stay in bed would be to embrace the darkness, the seizures, the octopus. To go outside is to embrace the light. — Steven Rowley

There are times when my passion for basketball led me into confrontations that I could have handled a lot better. I've always been too confrontational, especially when I know I'm right. — Bobby Knight

The more fear confrontational activism can put into the heart of the political class, the better. — Glenn Greenwald

As Pacific Ocean nations, competition and cooperation between the two nations will create a new atmosphere - leading to the Birth of a 'Pacific' New World Order - that is more engaging and less confrontational; this can be characterized by the presence of force without war. — Patrick Mendis

The relationship between press and politician - protected by the Constitution and designed to be happily adversarial - becomes sour, raw and confrontational. — Roger Mudd

It is also only in humans that aggression may be used to commit crimes, to enslave others or compel acquiescence to religious or ideological doctrine, or to pursue wars of national interest. At the individual level, men are universally more aggressive than women, and rates of aggressive confrontation are greatest among those who are young, poor, or unmarried. Cultural factors moderate human aggression as well, with men's heightened sensitivity to signs of disrespect, challenge, or threat spawning a high frequency of confrontational violence in so-called "cultures of honor". — Randy J. Nelson

I always wonder why condescending snarkiness is the chosen method of communication for so many forum users. It seems to me like these things would be much better expressed in non-confrontational, polite manner. — Gavin Dunne

My heroes and heroines are often unlikely people who are dragged into situations without meaning to become involved, or people with a past that has never quite left them. They are often isolated, introspective people, often confrontational or anarchic in some way, often damaged or secretly unhappy or incomplete. — Joanne Harris

create an environment supportive enough that people are willing to share their genius, but confrontational enough to improve ideas and spark new thinking. — Anonymous

I have things that are strident and confrontational, and I have a lot of things that are childlike and innocent and sort of sweet. So, somewhere in between lies the middle of me. — George Carlin

When unspeakable violence is enacted upon innocents, say, in a school or movie theatre, and the survivors and the families of the victims, in the throes of pain and anguish, want to ask, "Why did this happen?," "How did this happen?," and "What can we do to prevent this from happening again?," and one of the areas they (still we) focus their scrutiny is that of the highly efficient weapons of warfare that are casually available to us citizens of the United States, then we frightened gun owners have the chance to be human and say, "Okay, this is a horrible tragedy. Let's open up a conversation here." Instead, I'm surmising, out of fear, we throw up our defenses and behave in a very confrontational way toward such a conversation , citing the Second Amendment as the ultimate protection of our rights, no matter how ridiculously murderous the firearm, which, unfortunately, makes us look like dicks. — Nick Offerman

I'm not a confrontational person or comedian. I think we can explore more things if one of us is not fighting with the other. I take it easy. But I do like comedians who are very different from myself: I love dry comics with deadpan one-liners. I look on and think, 'That's amazing; why didn't I think of that?' — Trevor Noah

We don't really go in for big family dinners, but Scottish people are famously confrontational. It's a cultural thing, so maybe we don't need to have them to clear the air. Also, traditional family food isn't as nice here so there's no payoff for traveling hundreds of miles. — Denise Mina

If our republican form of government is perishing because communications - the infrastructure of that republic - is under the yoke of international business how, at last, do we save it? We must build a confrontational movement to reclaim our democracy, a movement committed to active and sustained protest against the present order. — Mark Lloyd

My purpose isn't to be confrontational. My purpose is to find out about the world and play myself against it to the extent that it is even conceivable. — Aleksandra Mir

As a person who is not confrontational by disposition I tend to see that the quality of being confrontational is a positive attribute. — John Hall

The reason I prefer the sledgehammer to the rapier and the reason I believe in blunt, violent, confrontational forms for the presentation of my ideas is because I see that what's happening to the lives of people is not rapierlike, it is not gentle, it is not subtle. It is direct, hard and violent. The slow violence of poverty, the slow violence of untreated disease. Of unemployment, hunger, discrimination. This isn't the violence of some guy opening fire with an Uzi in a McDonald's and forty people are dead. The real violence that goes on every day, unheard, unreported, over and over, multiplied a millionfold. — George Carlin

The people at MTV are encouraged to be very confrontational and declarative about their tastes. — John Seabrook