39 Quotes About Passive Aggressive

Passive aggression is something that many people experience when dealing with another. These quotes about passive aggressive behavior capture some of the most commonly experienced symptoms and characteristics.

“A lot of the things that involve power on the highest levels sometimes involve the darker side of human psychology. People can be very passive aggressive or they can be aggressive and they can conceal their intentions.”

“A passive approach to professional growth will leave you by the wayside.”

“Bad things happen when you try to let things just happen. You can’t be passive.”

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there to convincing yourself to do something stupid.”

“Every time we speak, we choose and use one of four basic communication styles: assertive, aggressive, passive and passive-aggressive.”

“Faith is not belief. Belief is passive. Faith is active.”

“Feedback for leaders is often nuanced and difficult to deliver. That said, hearing you are passive-aggressive from 10 different people described 10 different ways becomes hard to ignore.”

“I discourage passive skepticism, which is the armchair variety where people sit back and criticize without ever subjecting their theories or themselves to real field testing.”

“I don’t believe in anarchy, because it will ultimately amount to the power of the bully, with weapons. Gandhi is my life’s inspiration: passive resistance. I don’t want to live in the Thunderdome with Mad Max.”

“I know that I brought this all on myself. I know that I deserve this. I’d do anything not to be this way. I’d do anything to make it up to everyone. And to not have to see a psychiatrist, who explains to me about being”passive aggressive.”

“I think I have some anger-management issues, and they end up coming out in these passive-aggressive songs that sound happy.”

“If you have an image of someone cutting off a relationship, it’s the cutting off that will lead to your suffering.”

“I’m not passive aggressive. If something bothers me, I think about it, then I act on it. I express it.”

“It is a struggle; for though the black man fights passively, he nevertheless fights; and his passive resistance is more effective at present than active resistance could possibly be. He bears the fury of the storm as does the willow tree.”

“Love without sacrifice is like theft.”

“Most people are passive aggressive in this world. I have the idea that the human being is born with a kind of reservoir of aggression.”

“Never judge anyone until you walk a mile in their shoes. Unless they’re bad shoes. Then you should totally say something.”

“Never judge someone until you’ve walked a mile in his shoes. That way, when you do judge him, you’re a mile away and you have his shoes.”

“Never push a loyal person to the point where they no longer care.”

“Observation is a passive science, experimentation an active science.”

“Passive inactivity, because you have not been given specific instructions to do this or to do that, is a serious deficiency.”

“Passive pleasure is no pleasure at all.”

“Passive righteousness tells us that God does not need our good works. Active righteousness tells us that our neighbor does. The aim and direction of good works are horizontal, not vertical.”

“Passive violence can be as simple as someone honking their horn at you for not turning fast enough when the light changes. And it can be highly complex, like when your co-worker undermines all of your work relationships by spreading rumors and lies about you. That’s how passive violence rolls.”

“Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict – alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence.”

“Peace is not the absence of conflict, but the ability to cope with it.”

“People around me like me the best when I’m depressed because I’m a bit more passive.”

“People who feel the need to push and control tend to keep their feelings bottled up. As a result, they get shut down or remote, and their feelings come out in twisted, unhealthy ways. They become irritable, passive-aggressive, or volatile, for example.”

“Some people are like clouds … When they’re gone it’s a beautiful day.”

“Some people just need a high-five. In the face. With a chair.”

“Sometimes it’s not the people who change, it’s the mask that falls off.”

“Teaching has always been, for me, linked to issues of social justice. I’ve never considered it a neutral or passive profession.”

“To be depressed or neurotic is passive. It happened to us; we are its victim, and we have no control over it.”

“To be silent is to be passive.”

“Victims may be defensive, submissive, over-accommodating to others, passive-aggressive in conflict, dependent on others for self-worth, overly sensitive, even manipulative.”

“We met for a reason, either you’re a blessing or a lesson.”

“Whatever you do always give 100%. Unless you’re donating blood.”

“You are free to choose, but you are not free to alter the consequences of your decisions.”

“You guys are so caught up in your polished images and your passive-aggressive comments that no one ever comes right out and says anything. Well, I’m going to.”

There are many ways to defuse passive aggressive behavior and find a solution that helps everyone involved.