“The ultimate manipulation is to kill someone, and sociopathy is murderous in a psychological sense—there’s a kind of soul-murder going on.”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“Most of us have some kind of positive goal in mind when we think of winning. A sociopath thinks in terms of successfully manipulating someone into doing something that he or she would not have done otherwise. That can be a small thing or a tremendous thing, but the point for the sociopath is to win,…”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“Well, the perfect victim, from the sociopath’s point of view, is the person who is smart enough and capable enough to do him some good in the world and who is also fun to manipulate. How much fun is it to manipulate someone who is stupid and incompetent? Another good person to manipulate is someone…”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“Another lynchpin is dishonesty. Lying for the sake of lying. Lying just to see whether you can trick people. And sometimes telling larger lies to get larger effects. The other thing that needs to be stressed is that sociopaths are often extremely charming. They are people who are better than you and…”— Martha Stout, interviewmagazine.com
“Once a wolf, always a wolf – but you don’t have to remain their sheep.”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com
“Wolves are out for blood, for live prey, and malignant narcissists are no different. They will treat you appallingly once they’ve gotten you hooked on their praise and presence.”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com
“It's a waiting game with the vocal, poetic, 'feminist' softboy who waxes eloquent about women's rights. At least you can trust obvious misogynists to be obviously misogynistic. The former, however, is a dangerous infiltrator. A far more powerful wolf in sheep's clothing.”— Imaan Sheikh, twitter.com
“A person who keeps their word is incredibly attractive to a morally impoverished narcissist. Individuals with integrity have a wealth of attributes that narcissists feel they can exploit for their own gain.”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com
“Malignant predators know that a conscientious person will give them the benefit of the doubt, will believe in granting them second chances, and will care about serving the narcissist’s needs even at the expense of their own.”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com
“Covert fighters count on the fact that you won’t trust your gut instincts or pass simple judgment on their character or the true character of their actions. They count on you being far too conscientious for that.”— Dr. George Simon, drgeorgesimon.com
“Sometimes just the manipulator speaking with apparent conviction can invite the overly conscientious person to doubt themselves. And often, manipulators “bundle” tactics together, giving vague, misleading, half-answers, distracting, minimizing and rationalizing... they might pull out a “trump card”…”— Dr. George Simon, drgeorgesimon.com
“Covert-aggression is at the heart of most interpersonal manipulation. What the artful, subtle fighter knows is that if they can get you to doubt yourself, feel like you have to explain yourself, and question your perceptions and judgment, there’s a good chance they can get you to back down, back-off…”— Dr. George Simon, drgeorgesimon.com
“I think it is because we, as women, have been devalued artistically to an indecent state, to the point where the film industry stopped making an effort to find out what female audiences wanted to see and what stories we wanted to tell.”— Salma Hayek, nytimes.com
“According to a recent study, between 2007 and 2016, only 4 percent of directors were female and 80 percent of those got the chance to make only one film. In 2016, another study found, only 27 percent of words spoken in the biggest movies were spoken by women. And people wonder why you didn’t hear ou…”— Salma Hayek, nytimes.com
“Even the most hardened police officers can witness an impressive performance of faux remorse from a narcissist they’re meeting for the first time and find themselves thinking, “Aww, how noble.” You look at the same performance after years of being with them and see a snake attempting to put on a fur…”— Shahida Arabi, thoughtcatalog.com