Quotes about conflicts
Clinic (Scrubs)
Conflicts resolve themselves when you remember why you became friends. In the end, it doesn’t matter how, but the main thing is that you still became friends.
Stephen King. Insomnia
...in life, conflicts are resolved completely differently than in the movies. In life they are not resolved at all, but simply drag on and drag on until they quietly exhaust themselves... They simply dry up, like dirty puddles in the sun.
Mikhail Litvak. Sperm principle
Don’t conflict: make an agreement with a smart person, deceive a fool.
Ayn Rand. Atlas Shrugged
“If you can't make a decision because of a conflict between your head and your heart,” Galt said, “trust your mind.”
heart mind, intellect conflict mind
Francis Scott Fitzgerald. The Great Gatsby
It takes two to collide.
Black Books
Agree with me when I yell at you!
Being Erica
Conflicts are everywhere, they affect everything we do, everyone we communicate with, but the funny thing is that all disputes are essentially the same. Two people shout, blame each other, avoid each other and at the same time are afraid to tell each other about their feelings. Just talk when you want to run away, open up when you want to attack, it’s so simple, so obvious, but at the same time so hard.
Evelina Khromchenko
If the problem can be avoided, then I will prefer the conflict-free option. However, if there is no choice, believe me, I know how to take a punch.
Source
Quotes about conflict
A collection of quotes on the topic of conflict.
Total 118 quotes , filter:
“Our younger generation goes to the park and sees a baseball field or a football field. Some of you will say: “Well, that’s good.” This is trash! There is not a single chemistry laboratory for children who love chemistry. There is no place where children can go to study aeronautics or geosciences. Why is there no music, art, science, theater or photography in any damn park? Why is there always one football or baseball? I'll tell you what it's for. To develop aggressive behavior in people. For one guy to grab the ball, snatch it from someone else and knock him down. Then, in case of war or conflict, he will already have developed loyalty to his team and aggression.”
— Jacques Fresco American manufacturing engineer, industrial designer and futurist 1916 - 2017
Jacques Fresco, The Main Law of Business, audio recording 1974.
“I am no longer going to put up with a lot of things, and not because I have become arrogant or arrogant, no, only because I have reached a certain stage in life - a stage at which I no longer want to waste time on things that do not satisfy me or on something that touches me, causing me pain. I am no longer going to tolerate cynicism, excessive criticism, harsh demands of any kind. I no longer have the desire to satisfy those who do not like me, to love those who do not like me, and to smile at those who will not smile back at me. I will no longer devote a single minute to those who lie or try to manipulate me. I decided to no longer exist in pretense, hypocrisy, lies and cheap, insincere praise. I will no longer tolerate partially educated or arrogant scientists. I'm not going to deal with gossip, I hate conflicts and comparisons. I believe that the world consists of opposites, that the world is diverse, so I try to avoid people with a rigid character who are unable to adapt to their surroundings. I despise betrayal and infidelity in friendship. I will not be able to get along with those who are not capable of a real compliment, who are not able to encourage and inspire with their words, and I will not be able to get along with those who do not like animals. Exaggerations bore me. And yes, above all else, I will no longer tolerate those who do not deserve my patience.”
“Conflict is a very important thing. “The cat sat on the pillow” is not the beginning of a novel, but “the cat sat on the dog’s pillow” is.”
“In such a truly complex conflict, it is rare that one side is to blame at all.”
— Angela Merkel Current Federal Chancellor of Germany 1954
About the military conflict in South Ossetia, August 2008. 2008
“Love has three dimensions. One is the dependency dimension; it happens to most people. The husband depends on the wife, the wife depends on the husband; they exploit each other, subjugate each other, reduce each other to commodities. In ninety-nine percent of cases in the world, this is exactly what happens. That is why love, which can open the doors of heaven, only opens the doors of hell. The second possibility is love between two independent people. This also happens occasionally. But this also brings suffering, because there is constant conflict. No attunement is possible; both are so independent that no one is ready to compromise or adapt to the other. With poets, artists, thinkers, scientists, with all those who live in a kind of independence, at least in their minds, it is impossible to live; they are too eccentric people. They give the other freedom, but their freedom seems more like indifference than freedom, and it looks like they don't care, like it doesn't matter to them. They let each other live in their own space. The relationship seems only superficial; they are afraid to go deeper into each other because they are more attached to their freedom than to love and do not want to compromise. And the third possibility is interdependence. It happens very rarely, but when it does, it's heaven on earth. Two people, neither dependent nor independent, but in immeasurable synchronicity, as if breathing together, one soul in two bodies - when this happens, love happens. Just call this love. The first two types don't really love, they just take measures - social, psychological, biological measures. The third is something spiritual.”
— Osho Indian religious figure, founder of mystical teachings 1931 - 1990
"I'm not a diplomat. And I'm not going to be a diplomat. And the fact that we reached an agreement was absolutely undiplomatic. Absolutely. (On the Balkan conflict).“
- Viktor Stepanovich Chernomyrdin Russian economic and statesman, Prime Minister of Russia in 1992-1998, 1938 - 2010
“... problems are resolved when a person begins to understand that interpersonal conflicts often arise due to different ways of perceiving the world, and not as a result of egocentrism or malicious intent.”
— Carl Gustav Jung Swiss psychologist 1875 - 1961
“I would like to appeal to Mr. Putin. Dear Vladimir Vladimirovich! Don’t allow even a hint of a military conflict on your part, because Russia and Ukraine are truly fraternal peoples.”
— Vladimir Zelensky Ukrainian showman, screenwriter, actor, comedian, TV presenter 1978
“Russia has spoken and stands against interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states and provoking armed conflicts. This practice in relation to a number of countries in North Africa, the Middle East and the Middle East has led to rampant terrorism there, and near our borders it has given rise to a bloody drama among our neighbors in Ukraine.”
— Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, current President of the Russian Federation 1952
Source
The wit of ancient conflicts
A joke or a mocking word is often more successful and better defines even important things than a serious and deep study.
Horace
We are able to absolutely correctly understand the psychological motives that guide the heroes of ancient Greek tragedy; we laugh in the same comedy scenes where the public of those times laughed. Winged words spoken, for example, two thousand years ago by a Roman commander, are winged words for us too. The wit of the ancient Greeks and Romans was characterized by a certain classical severity, laconicism, simplicity; a successful and apt word was more valued than a funny everyday anecdote.
One of the soldiers once behaved so badly during a campaign that Augustus was angry with him and ordered him to return home. The offender was horrified and began to beg for forgiveness.
“What will I tell my people that will justify my return home?”
“Say that you were dissatisfied with me,” August advised him.
* * *
The Thracian king Rimetacles betrayed Antony and went over to Augustus. When he later decided to boast about this, Augustus said about him:
“Sometimes you have to endure betrayal, but I don’t tolerate traitors.”
* * *
Wanting to flatter Augustus, the inhabitants of one city informed him that a palm tree had grown on the altar that they had erected in the temple in honor of Caesar.
“From this it is clear,” Augustus remarked, “that you do not light a fire on my altar very often.”
* * *
One day, having met a visiting young man who was extremely similar to him in appearance, Augustus, struck by this similarity, asked his double: has your mother been to Rome?
The quick-witted and witty young man immediately understood the trap and replied that his mother had not been to Rome, but his father had.
* * *
The courtiers once told Augustus that the Senate and the people had decided to erect a very expensive monument to him in Rome. August asked the price, and when it was called, he said:
“For that kind of money, I’m ready to stand on a pedestal instead of a monument!”
* * *
One day the emperor bought a raven from a craftsman who could shout:
- Long live Augustus, conqueror, emperor! Seduced by this example, the craftsman's neighbor also caught a raven and began to teach it to speak. But in vain - the raven was silent. Then the neighbor said in his hearts:
- I tried in vain, you fool!
And yet he took the raven to the palace to sell it cheaply to the court fortunetellers. But Augustus ordered him to be kicked out, saying that a whole flock of crows had already accumulated in the palace, glorifying the emperor. And at that time the raven shouted:
- I tried in vain, you fool! The emperor laughed and bought this bird too.
* * *
Someone once invited Augustus to dinner, but he prepared a meal that was not Caesar’s at all, but the most ordinary one, as if he was hosting the first person he met. Caesar said to him at parting:
- I didn’t think that we knew each other so briefly!
* * *
After the death of a noble Roman, who was burdened with terrible debts, Augustus gave an unexpected order - to purchase for him the pillow on which the deceased slept. Of course, those who heard about such an order could not resist asking what reasons it was caused by.
“It’s very interesting,” explained Augustus, “to own this pillow on which a man could sleep peacefully, having so many debts around his neck.”
* * *
One dignitary, severely suffering from gout, kept cheering up and insisted that he was getting better day by day, although in fact it was the opposite. Once he boastfully claimed that that day he walked an entire stage[3].
“What’s surprising,” Augustus remarked, “the days are getting longer now.”
* * *
Augustus willingly composed various things and, by the way, wrote the tragedy “Ajax,” but he did not like it, and he erased it with a sponge from the tables on which it was written. When someone asked him about Ajax, he replied:
- My Ajax killed himself by throwing himself on a sponge - an allusion to the usual Roman method of suicide: falling on a sword.
* * *
The famous comic actors Pylades and Hycas, who lived during the reign of Augustus, quarreled incessantly among themselves, and their quarrel took such proportions that the entire Roman public involuntarily engaged in it. Caesar did not like this and he reprimanded the actors.
“You are unfair to us, sir,” one of them told him, “it’s better for you that the public is occupied with us.”
* * *
The poet Pacuvius, a great beggar, once asked Augustus for a cash handout and at the same time mentioned that everyone had been chatting for a long time about the fact that Caesar had awarded Pacuvius.
“These are nonsense rumors, don’t believe them,” Augustus replied.
* * *
Another time, to a military man who asked for a reward and at the same time insisted that money was not important to him, but that everyone knew that he had received the mercy of the emperor, Augustus said:
“You can tell everyone that I rewarded you, but I won’t contradict.”
* * *
Many stories from the family life of Augustus have also been preserved. Thus, Macrobius writes that his daughter Julia once appeared before him in a suit that was too open, which he did not like. The next day she was already in a different, more modest attire, and Augustus immediately noticed to her that such clothing was much more appropriate for the daughter of Caesar. Julia was found and answered that the day before she had been dressed for her husband, and now for her father.
* * *
Another time, entering his daughter while the slaves were dressing her, he saw gray hair on her clothes; She was already beginning to turn gray and ordered her women to carefully pull out every gray hair from her. August asked her:
- Tell me, what would you prefer: to be gray or to be bald? Julia replied that she would rather go gray.
“So why do you allow your maids to make you bald by tearing out your hair?”
* * *
The trick of one Greek poet, who presented his poems to Augustus, is very witty. Augustus still did not accept his poems and did not reward him, and this happened many times. One day, in response to a new offering, Augustus quickly wrote a short poem himself in Greek and gave it to the poet. He immediately read the work of Caesar and began to loudly praise him, and then approached Augustus and, handing him a few coins, said:
“Forgive me, sir, I would give more, but I don’t have it.” The prank, which amused everyone present, also pleased Caesar, who gave the Greek a large monetary reward.
* * *
Some old retired soldier was being brought to trial for something, and he begged Augustus to help him. Caesar appointed him a skilled defender. But the old soldier noticed that when it was necessary to defend Caesar, he personally went into battle, and did not send anyone in his place. Augustus was so afraid of appearing ungrateful that he personally took upon himself the defense of the old campaigner at the trial.
But people were often ungrateful towards him. One day he paid off debts for one of his friends without even waiting for him to ask him to do so. And he, instead of gratitude, reproached Caesar for saying that my creditors received the money, but what did I get?
* * *
One day, while attending some public spectacle, Augustus saw a noble man who, without hesitation, was eating in front of the public. Caesar told him to say: “When I am hungry, I go home.”
“It’s good for him to say,” he answered, “he is Caesar, his place in the circus will remain with him when he leaves, and mine will be taken in an instant, as soon as I leave.”
* * *
Among the other Roman Caesars there are not so many wits. Some sharp words are attributed to Julius Caesar, Vespasian, Diocletian, Gallienus.
Julius Caesar allegedly said to some warrior who was boasting of his exploits and, by the way, the wound he received in the face:
“When you run from the battlefield, you should never look back. However, this wit is also attributed to Octavian.
* * *
Once, seeing some speaker who, while delivering a speech, kept swaying from side to side, Caesar joked that this man stood on the ground too unsteadily, and therefore his words were worthless.
* * *
Threatening death to Metedl, a supporter of Pompey, Caesar told him:
- Remember that for me it is more difficult to say than to do.
* * *
His other famous words: “The die is cast”, “It is better to be first in the village than second in Rome” and others, of course, are witty, but not in the humorous sense of the word.
Vespasian told someone who was swearing at him that he “does not kill dogs that bark at him.”
* * *
Vespasian's son, Titus, expressed displeasure to his father about the tax he imposed on public toilets. Vespasian allegedly gave his son a coin and asked him what it smelled like, and to his negative answer he told him:
- You see, they don’t smell like anything, and yet they were taken from shit... Money doesn’t smell.
* * *
Vespasian was generally a joker of bad taste. They inform him, for example, that it has been decided to erect a monument to him at a very high cost.
“Here is a pedestal for him,” says Caesar, pointing to a pile of his own crap, “put it here.”
* * *
Shortly before death, already feeling its approach, he still does not miss the opportunity to joke. Hinting at the Roman custom of declaring their emperors after their death as deities, he said:
“I must soon become a god.”
* * *
Adrian I, one man, already turning gray, asked for some kind of mercy. Adrian refused him. Then the petitioner dyed his hair and again began to pester Caesar.
“But recently your father already asked me about this,” Adrian joked, “and I refused him.”
* * *
One day the same Adrian gave a beggar money to buy a device similar to our washcloth, which the Romans used to rub their bodies in the baths. Another time he was besieged by a whole crowd of beggars begging him for handouts for the same washcloth.
“You’ll get along just like that,” answered Adrian, “rub against each other.”
* * *
It is said about Gallienus that he once awarded a wreath to the winner of a gladiator who struck a bull twelve blows before striking him to death. There was a murmur from the audience, but Gallien declared that he considered this a feat, because “missing a bull so many times is not an easy thing.”
* * *
Diocletian was predicted that he would ascend the throne after killing a boar, and he, believing this, led an unusually fierce boar hunt. But others kept slipping into Caesarea instead of him. Then he said:
“I kill the boars, but others eat them.”
* * *
Many sharp words are attributed to the famous Cicero.
“There is no need to lose hope,” they told him after Pompey, whose supporter was Cicero, was defeated, “Pompey still has seven eagles left (i.e., signs with eagles, banners with the legions).
“It would mean something if we fought with ravens,” answered Cicero.
-Who was your father, Cicero? - asked him someone whose mother did not enjoy a very good reputation.
“But your mother,” answered Cicero, “perhaps it would be difficult to answer if she were asked such a question about you.”
* * *
When they asked him which of Demosthenes’ speeches he liked best, he answered:
- Which is the longest.
* * *
When discussing the law in the Senate, one of the senators, Gallius, a man of very advanced age, said that while he was alive, he would not allow such a law to be issued.
“It’s okay, we can wait,” Cicero remarked, “Gallius assigns a very short delay.”
When he was reproached for ruining more people with his accusatory speeches than he saved with his defense, he replied:
“It’s true, for I have more conscience than eloquence.”
* * *
One man, who boasted of a deep knowledge of the laws, but in fact, as everyone knew, was a complete ignoramus in them, was once called to court as a witness in some case and, in response to an ordinary question, responded that he knew nothing.
“You probably think they’re asking you something about the laws?” - Cicero remarked to this.
* * *
Cicero's friend Atticus suffered so severely from dropsy in his old age that he decided to starve himself to death. But fasting, instead of killing him, on the contrary, stopped his illness. To the doctors’ assurances that he was now healthy and that all he could do was enjoy life, he replied:
“I’ve already come so close to death that I’m ashamed to go back.”
And he starved himself to death.
* * *
While treating Cicero to wine at dinner, the owner persistently drew his attention to the qualities of the drink, assuring him that the wine was forty years old.
“Tell me, please,” remarked Cicero, “how young it still looks for its age!”
* * *
“Who tied my dear son-in-law to the sword?” - he joked about his daughter’s extremely short husband.
* * *
A certain Vanicius became consul, but served as consul only for a few days. Cicero said about him that during his consulate a real miracle happened: there was no spring, no autumn, no summer, no winter.
* * *
This same Vanicius reproached Cicero for why he did not visit him when he was sick. Cicero replied that he was going to visit him during his consulate, but night overtook him on the road - a hint at the short duration of this consulate.
* * *
Cicero learned about the death of Vanicius by chance, according to rumors. After meeting one of Vanicius’s servants, he asked him if everything was fine in their house. He answered in the affirmative:
“Well, that means he really died,” concluded Cicero.
* * *
Lawyer Crisp had the weakness of greatly reducing his years. One day, catching him at this, Cicero said:
“It turns out that you and I spoke together before you were born.”
* * *
His brother-in-law kept repeating that his wife was thirty years old.
“I know and have no doubt,” Cicero remarked, “after all, you’ve been telling me this for twenty years.”
* * *
The Roman commander Livius Sodicator was not distinguished by particularly brilliant military talents, but did not miss an opportunity to show off his merits. So, he allowed the Carthaginians to occupy Tarentum, and he himself took refuge in its fortress. After this, the famous Fabius Maximus approached the city and took it away from the enemy. Livius, who at that time made several successful forays from the fortress, did not fail to make it clear to Fabius that he took the city only thanks to him, Livy.
“Be calm, I won’t forget this,” Fabius reassured him. “If you hadn’t given it to the enemy, then I wouldn’t have needed to take it.”
* * *
In the war with the Carthaginians, Fabius adhered to the same system that Kutuzov adopted during the war of 1812: he retreated before the enemy, always harassing and exhausting him with long marches. Many of his subordinates ridiculed his orders, but he invariably repeated:
“Fear of ridicule, in my opinion, is worse than cowardice in the face of the enemy.”
* * *
Cato collided with a passerby carrying a large box. The porter first hit him hard with this box, and then shouted:
- Be careful!
“Are you carrying anything else besides this box?” - Cato asked him.
* * *
He, regarding the many monuments and statues erected in memory of little-known people, said:
“In my opinion, it is better for everyone to ask why a monument was not erected to Cato than to have a monument among such people.”
* * *
The well-known jester Galba in Rome answered an acquaintance who asked him to borrow a cloak:
- If it rains, then I need a raincoat myself, and if it doesn’t rain, why do you need it?
* * *
He, when they served him somewhere a fish, one half of which had already been eaten the day before, so that it lay with that side down and untouched up, said:
“We need to eat it quickly, otherwise someone is eating it from under the table.”
* * *
A certain orator of very mediocre talent once tried with all his might to touch his listeners and, having finished his speech, was left with the complete conviction that he had achieved his goal.
“Tell me the truth,” he turned to the famous poet Catullus, who was among his listeners, “after all, my speech would not arouse sympathy in the hardest heart.”
“That’s right,” answered Catullus, “hardly anyone would be so cruel as not to pity you for this speech.”
* * *
Pompey, in the midst of his feud with Julius Caesar, was one day in a hurry to sail somewhere on a ship. But there was a terrible storm, and the commander of the ship did not dare to set off. Pompey jumped onto the ship and ordered the anchor to be raised:
“It is absolutely necessary to hit the road, more necessary than to take care of life!”
* * *
Mari took one city from the Cimbri and gave it to his soldiers to plunder. They pointed out to him that he had acted against the law.
“I don’t know, it might be, but the thunder of the weapon did not allow me to hear what the law was saying.”
* * *
The Sabines decided to bribe the Roman military leader Manius Curius. When they came to him with their proposals, he was eating turnips just at that time. Rejecting the Sabine gold, Curius said:
- As long as I am content with turnips, what do I need your gold for?
* * *
One of the friends of the consul Rutidius earnestly asked him for something, but since his request was unfounded and its fulfillment was associated with lawlessness, Rutidius refused him.
“Why do I need your friendship,” Rutidius answered him, “if because of it I have to commit injustices?”
* * *
Consul Carbone issued some unjust decree, and when the elderly Castricius reprimanded him for this, he said:
- There are many swords behind me.
Castritius objected: And I have many years behind me.
