Sensitivity Quotes

“Gaslighting qualifies as a form of emotional abuse that involves denying a person’s experience and making statements, such as “that never happened,” “you’re too sensitive,” or “this isn’t that big a deal.”
― Ramani Durvasula, Should I Stay or Should I Go?: Surviving a Relationship with a Narcissist

“Good teachers help you believe in yourself, rather than cultivate a belief in them. They teach you to connect to the divinity within you.”
― Anita Moorjani, Sensitive Is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World

“I’d spent the last three years trying to build up some kind of a skin, so I wouldn’t drip with blood every time I brushed up against something.”
― Janet Fitch, White Oleander

“Approximately 15 to 20 percent of the population has a nervous system wired to be more sensitive. These people are more attuned to the subtleties of their environment and process that information much more deeply compared to others without this trait. While being more observant might be a survival advantage, it can also be overwhelming. Someone who is constantly aware of the subtleties of the environment and of the people around them can quickly experience sensory overload. My clients who consider themselves to be HSPs [highly sensitive persons] often report experiencing a certain type of disorganized attachment because the world itself is too much. Due to their increased sensitivity, even normal everyday events can feel too intense, too chaotic or too stimulating, leaving little respite to feel settled, safe and secure. In relationships, HSPs are often unclear as to whether what they are feeling has its origin in themselves or if their partner's feelings are creating that 'one foot on the gas, one foot on the brake' experience in their nervous system. They want to be close to people, but being close can be a sensory assault that is confusing or that dysregulates them for days.”
― Jessica Fern, Polysecure: Attachment, Trauma and Consensual Nonmonogamy

“The outside world is loud and demanding so the first step in honing our powers is learning to deal effectively with sensory overload. We have to identify and manage the things that jam our inner guidance system. And that involves turning down the volume on the outside world so we can hear what's going on inside.”
― Anita Moorjani, Sensitive Is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World

“What is the value of sensitives? Look around: we live in a ugly and stupid world which could have been prevented if sensitives had been present, and had the power to influence things.

That block-shaped, pressed concrete, ugly shopping mall? The princess would opine that no one could have any peace of mind with such hideous backgrounds, and demand something like a traditional building, with ornate spires and comfortable human spaces instead.

Grating, two-note music ranting about copulation and projected sexual desire? No princess would want this crass gibberish around her, nor would she recognize music which neglected the finer parts of composition, melody, harmony, rhythm, and narrative. She would hire Schubert instead.

Schools that treat students like livestock, jobs that are jails, marriages that are suicide pacts, and boring tract housing? Similarly, a princess would have no use for those, and perceive that these would be abusive to her so must be to others as well.

As children, we made fun of the sensitivity of the princess. A pea, under twenty mattresses, really? The point — in the visual-metaphorical language of fable, religion, literature, and conspiracy theory — tells us that sensitivity is in fact needed, and it needs power to save the rest of us from what we do not yet perceive.

In this story, the princess is simply a finer instrument. After twenty years, we might notice that we woke up tired in the mornings, and eventually investigate and find the pea, but she knew right away, intuitively and by the nature of her character. This is part of what makes an aristocrat.”
― Brett Stevens

“We have to be as strong as we are sensitive, as intelligent as we are feeling, and as logical as we are creative.”
― Donna Goddard, Prana

“I think I might like to grow thorns. Tough spines that barb anyone who grabs at me, tries to take from me, moves toward me any way other than delicately. Or thick boney horns I can point in front of me to shield the soft, sensitive parts. Not cruel, protected.”
― Heather Durham, Going Feral: Field Notes on Wonder and Wanderlust

“Your sensitivity opens up six sensory world. It's connected to the other side. If you block your sensitivity, you block what's coming in from the other realm. The thing is to be aware that you're giving your power to the outside world, and to start giving it to your own inner world or to your higher self.”
― Anita Moorjani, Sensitive Is the New Strong: The Power of Empaths in an Increasingly Harsh World

“Emotion is not encumbrance, emotion is energy.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“I fell in love with the girl who fell in line for one serving of strawberries," he admitted. A series of thoughts swirl around Miguel’s head of the girl waiting in line with one medium-sized tub of strawberries. The image of it. He asked: “Was it her persistence of wanting the fruit? Was it the youthfulness of the fruit? Was it the mystery of wondering how she’d eat them—on the grass outside or at home or in the car? Why? Was it wanting to know if she felt stupid herself for waiting in such a long line? Or wanting to know if she at any point felt like abandoning the line? Was it the simplicity of someone who knows what they want? The pleasantness of going to the market and not being seduced by other treats? Was it her patience?” Charm is so dissatisfying.”
― Karl Kristian Flores, The Goodbye Song

“If I am remembered for anything, I want it to be for this: that throughout my entire life, I was deeply sensitive. Sensitive to feelings, words and surroundings. Sensitive to people, places and things. The smallest of things make me emotional in this world. It could be a memory, a truthful face, or a flash of childhood; it could be the smile of a stranger or the openness of the sky. And throughout my life I saw it as an isolating difference. But in my maturity as a man I’ve discovered my sensitivity is a liberating gift. Because I feel deeply about things. I feel deeply about people. About doing right. About keeping my word. Seeing others achieve. Seeing loved ones grows. I am sensitive to the feelings of the less fortunate, the few, and those struggling. And whenever I get so angry about the world or how people treat each other, I burn bitterly and fierce. Yet, when that flame extinguishes what is left is what is greatest of me; the slow moving tide of my heart. That tide is kind. It is understanding. It is calm. And it is the central moving force in my soul and the rhythm that I am and that I always return to: my sensitivity. I’ve always been this way. Since I was a boy. Now I am a man and I don’t take anything less than pride in it. Because I have found that the tiniest of moments, memories, smiles, dreams and people can make the most emotional impact on me, and the lives of others. And what this brings me all back to is what I what I understand: I have found that I feel more, I care more, and I want people to be more. And that is why I have decided that I must love more. But if I’m remembered for anything — over my laugh, my love or my wonderous beautiful life, I want it to be for my sensitivity. And that I believe that true greatness in the depths of any man, woman or child, is a place of care, consideration and true sensitivity.”
― Drue Grit

“Be sensitive about the sensitivity of others.”
― Lynn Ujiagbe

“Kiyoaki and Honda were perhaps as different in their makuep as the flower and the leaf of a single plant. Kiyoaki was incapable of hiding his true nature, and he was defenceless against society's power to inflict pain. His still unawakened sensuality lay dormant within him, unprotected as a puppy in a March rain, body shivering, eyes and nose pelted with water. Honda, on the other hand, had quite early in life grasped where the danger lay, choosing to shelter from all storms, whatever their attraction.”
― Yukio Mishima, Spring Snow

“To fully grasp the extent and peerless importance of the sensory intelligence, sensitivity and vulnerability of the newborn is to change not only our understanding of birth, but of humanity itself.”
― Antonella Gambotto-Burke, Apple: Sex, Drugs, Motherhood and the Recovery of the Feminine

“Only sensitivity to our own experience can drag us back from self-deception,”
― David Smail, Illusion and Reality: The Meaning of Anxiety

“When the infants were between 6 and 9 months of age, caregivers in the experimental group were trained in sensitive responding. Then at 1 year of age, Strange Situation assessments were done. The effects of the intervention were dramatic. Compared with the control group, infants in the experimental group were almost three times as likely to show a secure pattern of attachment. Follow-up studies found that the effects of the intervention were enduring and were still evident more than 2 years later not only in child–caregiver relationships but also in child–peer interactions.”
― Christopher Peterson, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification

“In sum, secure attachment at all ages depends on the sensitivity of attachment figures. The results of intervention studies with infants, parents, and couples provide compelling evidence that sensitivity is a skill that can be taught and learned, and that can transform troubled relationships into well-functioning, satisfying ones.”
― Christopher Peterson, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification

“As he grew older, Rogers struggled to work out a set of responses to the challenges of life that could turn his caring, his belief in love, and his great sensitivity into a life course based not on fragility, but on quiet strength. He found a way to be true to himself that enabled him to build a uniquely thoughtful set of defenses that relied on empathy and sympathy. Ultimately, he developed a powerful authenticity that propelled him to popularity.”
― Maxwell King, The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers

“When you love everything and everyone, you fall in love so fast that it takes an awful lot of excruciating thinking to discern what is right for you and not just innate generosity. People like that must produce the difficult currency of thought. Bennett always needed to assess a situation further in order to determine what was good for him. No path was ever a waste, he thought, but if only there was one path that suited him above all. He hated this kind of thinking. It was tempting to distract oneself and go fall in love with something new down the street, so he usually had to find a place to confine himself. Bennett used to get himself arrested every couple of nights for this reason. Jail cells were quiet enough for him to think in peace. Plus, handcuffs restrained him from performing his next act. And sometimes he’d shiver, not out of the coldness of the bleak underground, but from the complication of untying the chains of the tangled human veritas.”
― Karl Kristian Flores, The Goodbye Song

“Even “Good luck!” is scary. Mr. Pryer said that today. He ended the class and he was like, ‘Good luck in life guys!’ and we all said thank you, but I was like: “Good luck in life? Seriously?" That's fucking terrifying. it seemed that life after someone says, ‘Good luck’ means we’re about to be eaten by wolves or something.”
― Karl Kristian Flores, The Goodbye Song

“We have to be careful how we treat others. The human brain is a sensitive flesh that can be punctured by a single event. Based on your sentence, you can leave someone an insult they’ll never forget. You can sometimes hear this frailty when shy voices ask things like: “Can I have another bite?”, “Please call me back” or “What days do you work?”
― Karl Kristian Flores, The Goodbye Song

“We want the mind of God; we seek the heart of Christ - and even pray it, then receive them to a degree. But people are unable to bear these fully: for He is both stronger and more sensitive than we.”
― Criss Jami

“When we are a spiritual student, our gender identity is omni-gender. It’s no longer okay to develop the traditional qualities of one of the genders and forget about the rest. We have to be as strong as we are sensitive, as intelligent as we are feeling, and as logical as we are creative. Underneath, or above, our birth-gender, we include it all. That isn’t a very romantic idea, but that’s the point. On the spiritual path, romance loses its worth. Romance implies that we need to be completed by another of a certain gender. And if we handle it correctly, we’ll supposedly get what we need. But when we are already complete, life and relationships become a whole different playing field.”
― Donna Goddard, Prana

“Sometimes when he would tell me those stories his eyes would fill with tears. People used to say he was sentimental, but it was because he cared. He felt everything deeply. People around here used to call a man like him ‘soft.’ ‘Maybe so,’ he used to say, ‘but I’m always hard when I have to be, you know that.’ He was full of little double meanings like that, my husband.”
― Alistair MacLeod, No Great Mischief: Adapted from the Novel by Alistair MacLeod

“It is perhaps symbolic of power, Anand mused, that nervousness trails confidence like a shadow. You do something that you think is right, but the very next moment you are no longer sure. A host of critics assail you at once.
They believe that you can't do anything right anyway, whatever you do. You end up with more doubts. Until you lose your sensitivity and persuade yourself that you're always right, whatever you do.”
― P.V. Narasimha Rao

“Stop thinking there's something wrong with you. Stop smothering your sensitivity and vulnerability. Start to acknowledge and honour your feelings. Once you look at life through a different lens, your life will never be quite the same again.”
― Dee Waldeck

“Hon lärde sig kort sagt otroligt snabbt hur han ville ha det. En människa med sådan känslighet för andras önskningar hade under andra förhållanden lätt kunnat bli politiker, Eller kanske art director i en byrå. Dick hade sett alldeles för mycket av livet för att tro att de som hade ett fint yrke var de som var speciellt lämpade för det. Ofta var det tvärtom. Vad människor dög till visade sig bara i långa loppet. Eller i något mycket unikt ögonblick, som var just deras och ingen annans.”
― Lars Gustafsson, La clandestina

“Everyone’s nature is not alike. Because you have found your convictions within yourself and can take refuge in your own strength, you fail to realize the predicament of others.”
― Rabindranath Tagore, Gora

“Let's all be sensitive to the feelings of others not only in their physical burden but also in their spiritual and emotional sufferings. And let us all be the agents of Jesus' healing.”
― Leo D. Mejia