Defensive Quotes

“Here's my philosophy. Adopt it, and you'll make it out alive. Every man for himself. You watch your own ass. Your con goes orange? You fall back to defensive position. No heroics. And no stupidity. Got it?”

— Eve Silver

“Human beings remember "firsts"- the first time something happens, or the begining of an experience- and we tend to remember "lasts" as well. So when you are about to make a critical/negative delivery , start your criticism with a positive begining, it will affect the rest of the experience. Start by giving them solid ground to stand by expressing the fact that you value them and they matter. Once they are reassured of their own worth, people will accept your comments far more easily and they'll get less defensive.”

— Olivia Fox Cabane

“The present dominant values (xenophilia, cosmopolitanism, narcissistic individualism, humanitarianism, bourgeois economism, hedonism, homophilia, permissivenes, etc.) are actually anti-values - values of devirilising weakness, since they deplete a civilization's vital energies and weaken its defensive or affirmative capacities.”

— Guillaume Faye

“When you talk of not wanting children, it is impossible to avoid sounding defensive, like you're trying to prove the questionable beauty of a selfish and too-tidy existence.”

— Meghan Daum

“The man who is meek is not even sensitive about himself. He is not always watching himself and his own interests. He is not always on the defensive ... To be truly meek means we no longer protect ourselves, because we see there is nothing worth defending ... The man who is truly meek never pities himself, he is never sorry for himself. He never talks to himself and says, You are having a hard time, how unkind these people are not to understand you.”

— D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“Just because a guy wears glasses and smiles at you doesn't mean he's nice." Lisa dug around in her purse for a tube of lip-gloss. "Maybe he's a visually impaired cannibal. Did you ever think of that? Like one of those serial killers you love so much."
"I don't love serial killers," Katie argued, defensive. "Not romantically, at least.”

— Cecily White

“I stopped hating and started just being. My whole life, I had been the most defensive person you'd meet, unable to tolerate any criticism. But now I started listening and being.”

— Anthony Kiedis

“We were staggered and immediately on the defensive, for she looked intellectual, and it made us feel shy.”

— W. Somerset Maugham

“As for the boys ... vulnerable fathers turn to time-honored defensive responses to maintain the function that father knows best' Parents, especially fathers, teach their sons to obey authority no matter what.”

— Martha Stout

“His silhouette blocked the starlight. She turned her head and a sticky kiss landed below her ear. She tried to relax, but her arms wouldn't move from their defensive position on his shirtfront. His next kiss grazed her cheek. "Jesse." "You remembered my name.”

— Catherine Richmond

“But we most of us lose our sense of proportion in the presence of a nun; and George, thus exposed at short range to this bride of Christ in her uncompromising medieval habit, finds himself becoming flustered, defensive. An unwilling conscript in Hell's legions, he faces the soldier of Heaven across the front-line of an exceedingly polite cold war.”

— Christopher Isherwood

“Though defensive violence will always be 'a sad necessity' in the eyes of men of principle, it would be still more unfortunate if wrongdoers should dominate just men.”

— Augustine Of Hippo

“Look at me, I'm getting defensive about something that happened so many years ago, somebody said. I'll have to find out who that was and if he's still alive.”

— Paul Reubens

“Defensive spells?" Professor Umbridge repeated with a little laugh. "Why, I can't imagine any situation arising in my classroom that would require you to use a defensive spell, Miss Granger. You surely aren't expecting to be attacked during class?”

— J.K. Rowling

“The challenge to America is to extend to Asia the defensive shield of American power in forms consonant with Asian freedom and self-respect.”

— Ferdinand Marcos

“In most of the European countries - France stands out in its resistance to this particular form of American cultural imperialism - the national film industries were forced onto the defensive after the war by such binding agreements.”

— Fredric Jameson

“But for years questions persisted about whether most cannibalism was religiously motivated and selective or culinary and routine. DNA suggests routine. Every known ethnic group worldwide has one of two genetic signatures that help our bodies fight off certain diseases that cannibals catch, especially mad-cow-like diseases that come from eating each other's brains. This defensive DNA almost certainly wouldn't have become fixed worldwide if it hadn't once been all too necessary.”

— Sam Kean

“It really doesn't matter to me whether it's defensive end or linebacker. I just want to play the game of football. I've been working on linebacker drills since I got out to Fischer Sports in Phoenix.”

— Gaines Adams

“I used to feel defensive when people would say, 'Yes, but your books have happy endings', as if that made them worthless, or unrealistic. Some people do get happy endings, even if it's only for a while. I would rather never be published again than write a downbeat ending.”

— Marian Keyes

“Our whole philosophy was to intimidate the quarterback. We were able to do it. We were pioneers. People still recognize us as, maybe, the best defensive line of all time.”

— Merlin Olsen

“My focus had always been the on-side. My coach wanted me to work on the offside strokes since he was convinced of my ability and timing on the leg side. I worked hard and firmed up my defensive technique. I am happy getting runs all around the wicket now, and getting a lot of boundaries. No one calls me a 'leggie batsman' anymore.”

— Virat Kohli

“All men are homosexual, some turn straight. It must be very odd to be a straight man because your sexuality is hopelessly defensive. It's like an ideal of racial purity.”

— Derek Jarman

“The Istiqlal was powerful, which did not at all coincide with his conception of it, nor with the picture the organization painted of itself: a purely defensive group of selfless martyrs who were willing to brave the brutality of the French in order to bring hope to their suffering countrymen.”

— Paul Bowles

“Seventy-five percent of the time when I'm ordering my "almond milk matcha latte with no sugar added, lukewarm, please," I'll be recognized by an employee. And yes, my order is a pin in the ass, but I'm determined to enjoy the liquid indulgences of modern life. Might as well take advantage of it all before the zombie apocalypse. I have no practical skills; I'm fully aware that I'll be one of the first ones "turned." Instead of learning motorcycle repair or something else disaster-scenario useful, I'll order the drink I want until I become a shambling corpse.
AND I WON'T BE DEFENSIVE ABOUT IT, OKAY?”

— Felicia Day

“Like all old, good schools, Devon did not stand isolated behind walls and gates but emerged naturally from the town which had produced it. So there was no sudden moment of encounter as I approached it; the houses along Gilman Street began to look more defensive, which meant that I was near the school, and then more exhausted, which meant that I was in it.”

— John Knowles

“A great commotion immobilized her in her center of gravity, planted her in her place, and her defensive will was demolished by the irresistible anxiety to discover what the orange bells and whistles and the invisible globes on the other side of death were like.”

— Gabriel Jose Garcia Marquez

“Tanks being deployed far forward is an indication of offensive action; tanks in depth is an indication of defensive action.”

— Norman Schwarzkopf

“[People] who are no longer sure that God loves and accepts them in Jesus, apart from their present spiritual achievements, are subconsciously radically insecure persons ... Their insecurity shows itself in pride, a fierce, defensive assertion of their own righteousness, and defensive criticism of others.”

— Timothy Keller

“The Hit Stick is a tremendous invention. It really gave you control as a defensive player because most of the time, 'Madden' is such an offensive game. But the Hit Stick really gave you the opportunity to shine on defense for the first time.”

— Larry Fitzgerald

“It's absolutely philistine not to recognize what a great book 'An American Dream' is. Norman Mailer is his own worst enemy, and if you don't catch him in a defensive position, he'll admit it. I'd really like to help that man.”

— Germaine Greer

“We must go beyond being reactive and defensive. As Europeans we must regain our self-confidence and realize our own strengths.”

— Donald Tusk

“We are a terrible defensive team right now. We're not putting forth the maximum effort that we need to put forth, especially in our position. You'd think that we'd put forth that maximum effort to not only win the game, but to get a good rhythm to get into the playoffs.”

— Jermaine O'Neal

“I get very weird and defensive about what I'm working on - I wouldn't even tell my secretary what the next page of my novel was about.”

— Joan Juliet Buck

“A defensive war is apt to betray us into too frequent detachment. Those generals who have had but little experience attempt to protect every point, while those who are better acquainted with their profession, having only the capital object in view, guard against a decisive blow, and acquiesce in small misfortunes to avoid greater.”

— Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor

“Children have an unerring instinct for knowing when they are being patronized. They go immediately on the defensive against head-patting adults who treat them like strange beings.”

— Art Linkletter

“Celebrities used to be found in clusters, like oysters - and with much the same defensive mechanisms.”

— Barbara Walters

“Before, shortstops and second basemen were mostly defensive guys that made all the plays and didn't really hit that well. But now it's beginning to change a little bit. Now, shortstops and second basemen are very productive in terms of run producing.”

— Chase Utley

“I believe that one can't command sitting on one's ass in the rear.One has to up among the forward brigade commanders, even as far as battalion commanders, especially if one is fighting a defensive action. One simply has to know what is going on.”

— Christopher Vokes

“In the clearness of this Himalayan air, mountains draw near, and in such splendor, tears come quietly to my eyes and cool on my sunburned cheeks. this is not mere soft-mindedness, nor am I all that silly with the altitude. My head has cleared in these weeks free of intrusions- mail, telephones, people and their needs- and I respond to things spontaneously, without defensive or self-conscious screens. Still, all this feeling is astonishing: not so long ago I could say truthfully that I had not shed a tear in twenty years.”

— Peter Matthiessen

“Linebacker is a lot more detail oriented and you have to know a lot more than a defensive end necessarily would on any given play.”

— Justin Cole

“The neutron warhead is a defensive weapon designed to offset the great superiority that the Soviet Union has on the western front against the NATO nations.”

— Ronald Reagan

“I don't know about habit, we've had a practice of it for as long as I've been doing this program [the Rush Limbaugh show], and a lot of the motivation for it is defensive.”

— Rush Limbaugh

“Defensive strategy never has produced ultimate victory.”

— Douglas MacArthur

“The halberd is inferior to the spear on the battlefield. With the spear you can take the initiative, the halberd is defensive.”

— Miyamoto Musashi

“Living in fear is what every hater, negative person, and the devil wants. Live a righteous life with God and nothing but positivity. You must forgive anyone who has done you dirty, and move on. Your personal life, career, and love life will be that much more amazing after. Life is too short to live it being empty inside, sad, angry, and defensive just to hide your pain. Let it all go and let love and happiness in. Put yourself out there all the way and don't be fearful of losing love. If you don't live life by fully enjoying it and opening your heart, your just not living.”

— Behdad Sami

“We need to learn how to give a defense for our belief in Christ without getting defensive.”

— Beth Moore

“Wit has its place in debate; in controversy it is a legitimate weapon, offensive and defensive.”

— Theodore Parker

“Science fictions are suppressed only when likely to contribute more knowledge and freedom than the defensive orthodoxies they challenge.”

— Timothy Leary

“What a general could do, Thomas did; no more dependable soldier for a moment of crisis existed on the North American continent, or ever did exist ... Thomas comes down in history as the Rock of Chickamauga, the great defensive fighter, the man who could never be driven away but who was not much on the offensive. That may be a correct appraisal, Yet it may also be worth making note that just twice in all the war was a major Confederate army driven away from a prepared position in complete rout - at Chattanooga and at Nashville. Each time the blow that routed it was launched by Thomas.”

— Bruce Catton

“The art of living is based on rhythm - on give & take, ebb & flow, light & dark, life & death. By acceptance of all aspects of life, good & bad, right & wrong, yours & mine, the static, defensive life, which is what most people are cursed with, is converted into a dance, 'the dance of life,' metamorphosis.”

— Henry Miller