Provocation Quotes

“These are the few ways we can practice humility:

To speak as little as possible of one's self.

To mind one's own business.

Not to want to manage other people's affairs.

To avoid curiosity.

To accept contradictions and correction cheerfully.

To pass over the mistakes of others.

To accept insults and injuries.

To accept being slighted, forgotten and disliked.

To be kind and gentle even under provocation.

Never to stand on one's dignity.

To choose always the hardest.”
― Mother Teresa, The Joy in Loving: A Guide to Daily Living

“Those who are determined to be ‘offended’ will discover a provocation somewhere. We cannot possibly adjust enough to please the fanatics, and it is degrading to make the attempt.”
― Christopher Hitchens

“Some people take offense like it's a limited time offer.”
― Tim Fargo

“People are not always very tolerant of the tears which they themselves have provoked.”
― Marcel Proust, The Captive / The Fugitive

“Truly speaking, it is not instruction, but provocation, that I can receive from another soul. What he announces, I must find true in me, or reject; and on his word, or as his second, be he who he may, I can accept nothing.”
― Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Portable Emerson

“Provocation is on the opposite lane of resolution.”
― Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity

“Lay not the blame on me, O sailor, but on the winds. By nature I am as calm and safe as the land itself, but the winds fall upon me with their gusts and gales, and lash me into a fury that is not natural to me.”
― Aesop, Aesop’s Fables

“we only shout when we neglect what silence can do”
― Ernest Agyemang Yeboah

“Those wars are unjust which are undertaken without provocation. For only a war waged for revenge or defense can be just.”
― Marcus Tullius Cicero

“You don't need a provocateur,
if demon's been there within you.”
― Toba Beta, Master of Stupidity

“All men are bastards. Some are obvious bastards. Some are covert bastards. The ones who appear to be bastards are safer as you know what you are dealing with. The men who hide behind a facade of manners and politeness are the coldest of bastards’.”
― Reham Khan, Reham Khan

“When you are wronged and your heart and feelings are hardened, do not be distressed, for this has happened providentially; but be glad and reject the thoughts that arise within you, knowing that if they are destroyed at the stage when they are only provocations, their evil consequences will be cut off, whereas if the thoughts persist the evil may be expected to develop.”
― St. Mark the Ascetic

“Let’s just say, there’s not much of a moon out tonight,” Nose continued anyway, “but if Yale joined us, there would be.”
― Ripley Patton, Ghost Hand

“I provoke thought, because that is what needs provoking. Humanity seems to hate thinking more than any other activity, and yet that is the activity most needed. I do what I can to force thought along, and I am hated and worse—ignored—for it. That's ultimately acceptable to me, because the work needs to be performed; I can perform it; and I wish to perform it. Let others appreciate it or not as they may; it pleases me to do what I do, so I do it.”
― Robert Peate

“Never do what the devil provokes you to do”
― Sunday Adelaja

“We lose our temper easily when we know that the other person can’t hit us back. We rarely lose our temper before our bosses, valuable clients, or powerful people in spite of great provocation. Our temper immediately gets annulled when we are pitted against a person more powerful than us.”
― Awdhesh Singh, 31 Ways to Happiness

“There is another dangerous component to armed robberies, one that I could never understand. I noticed some time ago that with each robbery I committed there was an intense out of control anger that gripped me. It was as if I was there to get something that was inherently mine, and I came to take it by force. I’ve heard many stories directly from individuals about how they just burst into stores with their guns drawn. They would be shouting at people, gun butting them sometimes for no reason at all. One individual told me that he ran into a store and jump kicked a fella who just stood there. The only reason he was kicked is that he was there.
It’s as if once you’ve overridden your conscience of going through with the act, it is replaced with anger and a level of brutality that is usually reserved for when you are fighting for your life. This, to me, is what makes armed robberies so dangerous—because the slightest provocation or any sudden movement by anyone could lead to them being shot or killed. It is always an extremely delicate and dicey situation, because the armed robber is pulling the trigger out of fear more than anything else.”
― Drexel Deal, The Fight of My Life is Wrapped Up in My Father

“It is natural to feel angry once in a while, but it becomes a serious problem when you are getting angry regularly even in routine situations at home or in the office. When the anger becomes frequent and flares up at the slightest provocation, it is an indication that all is not well in your life. Frequent and uncontrolled anger is a symptom of a fragile state of mind, which gets manifested at the slightest unfavourable situation.”
― Awdhesh Singh, 31 Ways to Happiness

“Do not give in to the provocation of the devil”
― Sunday Adelaja

“The problem with provocation is that it is often counterproductive.”
― Frédéric Martel‏, Global Gay: How Gay Culture Is Changing the World

“As state-sanctioned measures evolve to erode fundamental rights, so too does the arsenal of defensive tools the security community relies on to protect them, and this provocation ignites the residue of our defiance.”
― Jacob Riggs

“there were at least three that we know of, public efforts and proposals by Russia to be considered for Nato membership, begin the process. And all of those were turned down. So the prospect moving forward was of Nato being the non-Russia, the security organization aimed at Excluding Russia from European security.... as John Mearsheimer will tell you, it's not about what people claim, it's about what the other side believes that you might do to them.”
― Nicolai N. Petro

“An idea was forming in his mind. It was only rudimentary, but in the circumstances, it could be called a plan. He loathed the alien for attacking them, without any provocation. He hated the way it was smashing up his ship – and all of them – with hardly any effort or regard for life at all.
“How’s that message coming?”
“Umm – they must be jamming us, sir – I can’t get through.”
― Christina Engela, Space Sucks!

“Use my thoughts and words as a provocation, not as a prescription.”
― Pedro Gaspar Fernandes

“There were no doubts. My new friends obviously ‘collected’ men from different countries. I realized that therein lies their revenge on their errant husbands.”
― Mariia Manko, Through the Magic Sunglasses

“those who believe in facts and logic will quickly discover that the United States and its Allies are mainly responsible for this trainwreck. the April 2008 decision to bring Ukraine and Georgia into Nato was destined to lead to conflict with Russia. the Bush administration was the principal architect of that fateful choice, but the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations have doubled down on that policy at every turn...”
― John J. Mearsheimer

“The most unexpected provocation is unprovoked.”
― Tamerlan Kuzgov

“(Bauchelain) ...If, however, you are afraid to do so, you might be able to convince him to hold your hand for the duration of this enterprise...

(Gruntle) Ever done any fishing?

(Bauchelain) Fishing?

(Gruntle) The ones that rise to any old bait are young and they don't get any older...I ain't young. You want a rise, fish elsewhere.”
― Steven Erikson (Author)