Gavin de Becker - The Gift of Fear (1997)

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The hijacking of an American jet in Athens looms larger in our concern than the parent who kills a child, even though the one happens rarely, and the other happens daily.

Gavin de Becker
It is understandable that the perspectives of men and women on safety are so different—men and women live in different worlds...at core, men are afraid women will laugh at them, while at core, women are afraid men will kill them.

Gavin de Becker
I encourage people to remember that "no" is a complete sentence.

Gavin de Becker
Intuition is always right in at least two important ways; It is always in response to something. it always has your best interest at heart

Gavin de Becker
"No" is a word that must never be negotiated, because the person who chooses not to hear it is trying to control you... Declining to hear "no" is a signal that someone is either seeking control or refusing to relinquish it.

Gavin de Becker
Only human beings can look directly at something, have all the information they need to make an accurate prediction, perhaps even momentarily make the accurate prediction, and then say that it isn't so.

Gavin de Becker
You have the gift of a brilliant internal guardian that stands ready to warn you of hazards and guide you through risky situations.

Gavin de Becker
Persistence only proves persistence-it does not prove love. The fact that a romantic pursuer is relentless doesn't mean you are special-it means he is troubled.

Gavin de Becker
No matter how famous the victim, no matter how powerful the advocates, it simply isn't always possible to control the conduct of other people.

Gavin de Becker
And why do we worship hindsight (as in the news media's constant rehash of the day, the week, the year) and yet distrust foresight, which actually might make a difference in our lives?

Gavin de Becker
We must learn and then teach our children that niceness does not equal goodness. Niceness is a decision, a strategy of social interaction; it is not a character trait. People seeking to control others almost always present the image of a nice person in the beginning.

Gavin de Becker
Niceness is a decision, a strategy of social interaction; it is not a character trait.

Gavin de Becker
Every day people engaged in the clever defiance of their own intuition become, in midthought, victims of violence and accidents. So when we wonder why we are victims so often, the answer is clear: It is because we are so good at it.

Gavin de Becker