43 Quotes About Friends Saying Hurtful Things

Just because you are friends does not mean you always know the right thing to say or when to say it. Sometimes we inadvertently hurt one another. These quotes about friends saying hurtful things capture the mistakes we sometimes make with others.

“A hurtful act is the transference to others of the degradation which we bear in ourselves.”

“A moderate addiction to money may not always be hurtful; but when taken in excess it is nearly always bad for the health.”

“Anger, if not restrained, is frequently more hurtful to us than the injury that provokes it.”

“Breaks in trust are infuriating and hurtful, but they don’t entitle you to flame out, throw a fit, or stomp around rolling your eyes. Try to keep the steam from coming out of your ears.”

“Christlike communications are expressed in tones of love rather than loudness. They are intended to be helpful rather than hurtful. They tend to bind us together rather than to drive us apart. They tend to build rather than to belittle.”

“Every time you overhear something hurtful, I want you to do something kind for someone else.”

“I am accountable for every lie that I tell, but I am also accountable for the effects of every harsh truth I deliver.”

“I don’t like remembering the way that hurt her. Hurts her. I’m sure it still does; I’m just not around to see, and I don’t like dwelling on that, either. That’s only normal.”

“I have sometimes done cartoons that are hurtful to people – immature, spiteful stuff. Some are so self-indulgent, and some have just failed. I look back and sometimes cringe. But one regret as I get older is that I haven’t been radical and wild enough.”

“I try to create businesses that I think are not hurtful.”

“If something hurtful enters your body, you create something beautiful to protect yourself from it. That’s my philosophy.”

“If you’re constantly making business decisions on behalf of your investors first, ultimately you’re going to wear down your other stakeholders. It’s going to be potentially hurtful for your employees and your customers and the community you do business with.”

“I’m not everybody’s cup of tea. But sometimes criticism can be hurtful. Be respectful. I’m a good piano player, I can sing well, I write good songs. If you don’t like it, fair enough. But give me a break.”

“Its crazy when people of high moral standards, feel its okay for an intimate friend to insult them in a jovial way, forgeting that even casual friends can do just the same in a jovial way.”

“I’ve run into a lot of companies that invent positions for great people just so they don’t get away. But hiring people when you don’t have real work for them is insulting to them and hurtful to you.”

“I’ve stopped reading about my books on the Internet because it’s too hurtful.”

“Lots of hurtful secrets are better off kept. The problem is that people find it so hard to keep them.”

“Majority of people prefer a good name to a bad name, but to me, anyone can call me anything, as long as it is not written on my face.”

“Mason knew what it was like to say things you didn’t mean, to just have them vomit out, and then feel that crushing ache when you realized you could never pull them back.”

“Maybe it’s legitimate criticism, though it can be hurtful. Maybe I haven’t paid sufficient attention to the people with whom I would have a natural affinity as a liberal, and they feel let down by that.”

“Not only do I never lie, I never respond to lies, no matter how vicious, no matter how hurtful.”

“Nothing can be more hurtful to the service, than the neglect of discipline; for that discipline, more than numbers, gives one army the superiority over another.”

“People who don’t know me have opinions about me. That’s the part that’s very hurtful. Because how do you form an opinion about somebody if you’ve never met them or spent any time with them? So it’s all based upon hearsay or things that they’ve read.”

“See, it’s like I’ve always told you, you’re a waste of human life and you would be better off as a grain of sand. If you were a grain of sand, you would serve a purpose in this life.”

“Sometimes, just the act of venting is helpful. Counseling provides a safe haven for precisely that kind of free-ranging release: You can say things in the therapist’s office, with the therapist present, that would be incendiary or hurtful in your living room.”

“Sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you… unless you believe them. Then, they can destroy you.”

“Strange how mean words can return to ones thoughts, years after they’ve been callously thrown at you. They replay in your mind, spiking a sense of remembered pain.”

“The most hurtful thing is not what comes from our adversaries, it’s what comes from our friends.”

“The most powerful and courageous heroes I know are those who bite their tongues when justification, validation, temptation, or vengeance would have them strike with truthful, hurtful words.”

“The scariest thought in the world is that someday I’ll wake up and realize I’ve been sleepwalking through my life: underappreciating the people I love, making the same hurtful mistakes over and over, a slave to neuroses, fear, and the habitual.”

“The unkind things we communicate can soil the best of relationships; even with the deepest of regrets…what lingers is a stain of hurt that may fade but will never truly go away.”

“There are some people that should stay quiet, because they understand. As there are those that should stay quiet, because they don’t understand. Some things are better left unsaid or voiced.”

“There’s so much stuff said about me that’s not true, so now if something is hurtful and wrong, I send an e-mail or letter immediately, saying, This is not true.”

“To me, constructive criticism is when people take ownership of their ideas. That’s why I don’t listen to anything that’s anonymous. But it’s hard; when there’s something hurtful out there, I still want to read it over and over and memorize it and explain my point of view to the person.”

“We cannot uphold the rule of law only when it is consistent with our beliefs. We must uphold it even when it protects behavior that we don’t like or is unattractive or is not admirable or that might even be hurtful.”

“When someone tells you that you have done something that has hurt them, you don’t get to decide that you didn’t.”

“When something bad is written about me, I find it hurtful. So I choose not to look at it.”

“When the person you love can’t see your love for them beneath the painful things you say when they reject you, remember this: Love is blind.”

“While it has been hurtful to my family and me to read constantly in the media that I was under investigation, I am pleased that as expected my spending has been found to be in order.”

“Yes, a person can accept your apology and forgive you for what you’ve said, but they will never forget how you made them feel at that very moment.”

“You can never be annoyed by anyone when you are just alone, insults comes from being too familiar even with the most respectful persons.”

“You get built up and put on a pedestal and then people want to bring you down. It can be hurtful. Some people try to make me look bad or not a nice person but it’s completely false.”

“You’re too sensitive’ victims of sexual abuse are told over and over by those whose reality depends on being insensitive. Most adults who have been in the victim role cringe when anyone tells them they are sensitive.”

Having the power to speak up in difficult times take courage.