Negative Assumptions Quotes

The soft bigotry of low expectations

I think there's a misconception of my wanting to do dark stuff.

Prejudice doesn't make me mad. It just - I guess 'pisses me off' is the word.

Year after year, politicians have drafted huge piles of legislation on the assumption that most people are not good. And we know the consequences of that policy: inequality, loneliness and mistrust.

People are always saying, 'You're really nice, I thought you were going to be a complete asshole.' I'm getting pretty fed up with it. I just want to say to them, 'Well I could always piss on your head.'

...my experience with people who tried to label me was that they usually did it to either dismiss me or use me.

Many men I come across see women in an antagonistic way, and it's always the basis for a bad relationship. What I mean by that is men who come with pre-conceived notions that women are trying to tie them down, or hold them back, or that women are shallow, or that women are only attracted to money, or whatever it is.

Everyone is ready to speak ill of a stranger.

Because I am a bad girl, people always automatically think that I am a bad girl. Or that I carry a dark secret with me or that I'm obsessed with death. The truth is that I am probably the least morbid person one can meet. If I think more about death than some other people, it is probably because I love life more than they do.

All too often we're filled with negative and limiting beliefs. We're filled with doubt. We're filled with guilt or with a sense of unworthiness. We have a lot of assumptions about the way the world is that are actually wrong.

I am annoyed to find myself continually described by people whom I have never set eyes on as bad-tempered.

Never assume, no matter how strong the temptation, that other people are low-life lying manipulators without a shred of human decency.

If I'm a cop, and every time I see a young black youth - whether I watch them on TV, movies, or just see them hanging out - and they're not looking properly dressed, properly refined, you know, carrying himself, conducting himself proper hours of the day - things that a man does - you're going to have a certain fear and stereotype of them.

I don't like it when I hear it said: 'but these youth say stupid things!'

Sometimes you can have a reputation for not being relatable and nice because you had a bad day once.

I think it's horrible that we Turks are always seen under the aspect of Islam first. I am constantly asked about religion, and almost always with a negative undercurrent that makes me furious.

It's a very weird cultural perception that if you're fat you're dumb, that you're lazy or a loser. Clearly, those are the preconditions for fatness. You're a failure, because only a lazy person, only a dumb person, would allow themselves to get into this situation. It's appalling that this is the mindset. People generally treat fat people like we don't know anything about anything. It's incredibly demeaning. And incredibly frustrating.

It's so easy to make a person who hasn't got anything seem wrong.

That's one of the things I like about Mary Lou. She's willing to believe the worst about anyone.

Suspicion often creates what it suspects.

I worry that's what people are going to think about me if they kind of go backwards. But if that didn't happen to you, I'll feel better.

I think something that really shocked me as a nanny were parents who sort of assumed the worst from the get-go. People who didn't accept the benefit of the doubt.

Assume the worst about people and you get the worst.

Evil: That which one believes of others. It is a sin to believe evil of others, but it is seldom a mistake

Our very best friends have a tincture of jealousy even in their friendship; and when they hear us praised by others, will ascribe it to sinister and interested motives if they can.