Manipulative People Quotes

“There are those whose primary ability is to spin wheels of manipulation. It is their second skin and without these spinning wheels, they simply do not know how to function. They are like toys on wheels of manipulation and control. If you remove one of the wheels, they'll never be able to feel secure, be whole.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“Will people ever be wise enough to refuse to follow bad leaders or to take away the freedom of other people?”
― Eleanor Roosevelt, This is My Story

“Whether they’re family or friends, manipulators are difficult to escape from. Give in to their demands and they’ll be happy enough, but if you develop a spine and start saying no, it will inevitably bring a fresh round of head games and emotional blackmail. You’ll notice that breaking free from someone else’s dominance will often result in them accusing you of being selfish. Yes, you’re selfish, because you’ve stopped doing what they want you to do for them. Wow. Can these people hear themselves?!”
― Rosie Blythe, The Princess Guide to Life

“make an agreement to exercise mutual control over each other. The unspoken pact between them is, “It’s my job to make you happy, and your job to make me happy. And the best way to get you to work on my life is to act miserable. The more miserable I am, the more you will have to try to make me feel better.” Powerless people use various tactics, such as getting upset, withdrawing, nagging, ridiculing, pouting, crying, or getting angry, to pressure, manipulate, and punish one another into keeping this pact. However, this ongoing power play does nothing to make them happy and mitigate their anxiety in the long term. In fact, their anxiety only escalates by continually affirming that they are not actually powerful. Any sense of love and safety they feel by gaining or surrendering control is tenuous and fleeting. A relational bond built on mutual control simply cannot produce anything remotely like safety, love, or trust. It can only produce more fear, pain, distrust, punishment, and misery. And when taken to an extreme, it produces things like domestic violence.”
― Danny Silk, Keep Your Love On: Connection Communication And Boundaries

“There are types of people who want to have leverage over other people's lives. For no other reason than they feel the need to have leverage. I find this to be a certain type of sickness of the mind. You could argue that they wish you no harm, however, the desire to simply have leverage over another— whether this is mental, emotional or physical— is, I think, a sickness of the mind. I can honestly say right now that I, 100%, have no manipulative intentions to gain leverage over any other person that I know.”
― C. JoyBell C.

“When people are vulnerable to control, they feel that they are selfish for deciding what to do with their own property. In reality, deciding for ourselves is the only way we can ever have true love, for then we are giving freely.”
― Henry Cloud, Changes That Heal: How to Understand the Past to Ensure a Healthier Future

“As I was growing up, no one in my family got their needs met through respectful negotiation and compromise. The only victories I had ever seen my mom achieve were small, and she had accomplished them through manipulation, which was one of the few techniques she had for surviving her relationship with my father. Later, after his death, manipulation had become a way of life for her. It became innate for me too, even though I wanted her to be more direct, and I hated it when she manipulated me.”
― Olga Trujillo, The Sum of My Parts: A Survivor's Story of Dissociative Identity Disorder

“Manipulation is application of intelligence on people to achieve a pre-meditated outcome solely benefitting the former than latter.” ”
― Ramana Pemmaraju

“Manipulation gets people to do something they aren't likely to do if given the opportunity to think.

Appeals to emotion are some of the easiest methods of manipulation, because strong emotions can cloud our minds while also getting us to act.”
― Vincent H. O'Neil, The Unused Path: Skills for living an authentic life

“Be aware, beware what lies, what lies? ... behind the light...

Some people are highly skilled manipulators. And some people's whole lives are built on lies. They can cause a huge amount of damage to others.”
― Efrat Cybulkiewicz

“It can be extremely difficult to discern evil hearts because their intention is to look good, not be good.”
― Leslie Vernick, The Emotionally Destructive Relationship: Seeing It, Stopping It, Surviving It

“The Flock have come a long way in their acceptance of this, and when a professional refused to deal with them in a straightforward manner and, in fact, manipulated and deceived them in return-they rebelled fiercely but self-protectively.”
― Joan Frances Casey, The Flock: The Autobiography of a Multiple Personality

“When David and I went to visit my mom, she treated me well and seemed interested in our lives, focusing less on what she needed from me or how I should be taking care of her.

Mom saved those conversations for our daily phone calls because she thought David wouldn't find out about this other side other. But he could see the changes in me when I talked to my mom.”
― Olga Trujillo, The Sum of My Parts: A Survivor's Story of Dissociative Identity Disorder

“If you want to continue to play, never become a pawn!" - On Survival”
― Lamine Pearlheart, To Life from the Shadows

“Clever manipulators master the art of telling just enough of the truth to sell their lie.”
― Kurian Mathew Tharakan

“A manipulator puts his hand on your shoulder to sit on your neck.”
― Tamerlan Kuzgov

“You catch more flies with honey than with vinegar.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“Manipulative people use silence to hurt you deep.”
― Garima Soni - words world