"The charm of elegant manners, of simplicity, and of apparent frankness was almost magical. It could never have entered his head that all this simple frankness and nobility, wit, and refined personal dignity was perhaps only an exquisite artistic veneer. The majority of the guests, in spite of their prepossessing exterior, were rather empty-headed people, who were themselves unaware, however, that much of their superiority was mere veneer, for which they were not responsible indeed, as they had adopted it unconsciously and by inheritance."
The Idiot
Fyodor Dostoevsky
Learning to set boundaries comes with so much anxiety. Anxiety over confrontation, the other persons reaction, potentially losing that other person. And yet it is so necessary for healing. Make some space for that anxiety and allow it to exist, but continue setting your boundaries in the face of it.
"Nothing is easier for 'ordinary' people of limited intelligence than to imagine themselves exceptional and original and to revel in that delusion without the slightest misgiving."
"Everything has its path, and everything knows its path, and with a song goes forth, and with a song returns. Only he knows nothing, and understands nothing, neither men nor sounds; he is outside it all, and an outcast."
"But the friend of humanity with shaky moral principles is the devourer of humanity, to say nothing of his conceit; for, wound the vanity of any one of these numerous friends of humanity, and he's ready to set fire to the world out of petty revenge.."
"teach your children that palestine is occupied, that al-aqsa mosque is a captive, that the zionist entity is an enemy, that resistance is an honor, and that there is no state called israeel"
"Haven't I dreamed of you myself? You are right, I dreamed of you long ago, when I lived five years all alone in his country home. I used to think and dream, think and dream, and I was always imagining someone like you, kind, good and honest, and so stupid that he would come forward all of a sudden and say, "You are not to blame, Nastasya Filippovna, and I adore you.” I used to dream like that, till I nearly went out of my mind... And then this man would come, stay two months in the year, bringing shame, dishonour, corruption, degradation, and go away. So that a thousand times I wanted to fling myself into the pond, but I was a poor creature, I hadn't the courage..."
"When I have money, I shall become a highly original man. What's most low and hateful about money is that even talent can be bought with it, and will be, till the end of the world."