Top 1200 Self-Defeating Quotes & Sayings

I am dead against trying to keep religious conservatives out of the political debate. The tactic of exclusion is self-defeating.

I witnessed first-hand the self-defeating results of putting yourself under so much pressure to perform.

Putin has an obvious problem. His country's economy is in stagnation. He needs to constantly be pointing a figure at who is at fault. America is at fault. He needs to show those fronts - those directions in which he is defeating America. In Syria, for example, in Syria, he is defeating America; not ISIS, he's defeating America.

Fear is the enemy of logic. There is no more debilitating, crushing, self-defeating, sickening thing in the world--to an individual or to a nation.

here's a payoff for everyone. The reason we hang on to self-defeating behaviors is because it's easier not to take responsibility.

I think women have a hard time not apologizing their way into negotiations. We tend to back in to these conversations in a self-deprecating and ultimately self-defeating way.

There are three creativities: creativity in technology, in product planning, and in marketing. To have any one of these without the others is self defeating in business.

Revenge is self-defeating. It will eat away you until there is nothing left.

A tax on capital is self-defeating, in that it slows down capital accumulation, investment and economic growth.

The good fighters of old first put themselves beyond the possibility of defeat, and then waited for an opportunity of defeating the enemy. To secure ourselves against defeat lies in our own hands, but the opportunity of defeating the enemy is provided by the enemy himself. Thus the good fighter is able to secure himself against defeat, but cannot make certain of defeating the enemy.

As buoyancy is not contrary to other characteristics of leadership, including decisiveness, accountability and performance standards, I don't ever think it can be self-defeating.

When somebody says that all statements are false, the obvious problem is that as an assertion it's self-defeating.

Is there anything more self-defeating than using technology to free up your time - so that you can learn how to do an even better job at it?

...I am opposed to all attempts to license or restrict the arming of individuals... I consider such laws a violation of civil liberty, subversive of democratic political institutions, and self-defeating in their purpose.

Hostility toward Iran may not be the silliest of all American foreign policies - that would probably be the continuing trade embargo of Cuba - but it is undoubtedly the most self-defeating.

Is Russia worried that defeating Daesh will open the door for defeating Bashar Assad? That would be a different story. But I don't think World War III is going to happen in Syria.

Referring to the PAP as uncaring so as to persuade some of our fellow Singaporeans to consider casting their vote for the WP will be self-defeating for us.

Striving for excellence is a positive quality. Striving for perfection is self-defeating.

I think you'll find that one would be self-defeating." Jace said lightly shoving his feet into his boots. "We are bound, he and I. Cut him and I bleed.

This self-defeating behavior, so the argument goes, must be the result of warped domestic politics.

Furthermore, I don't believe you have to be quite that competitive to compete effectively. Beyond a certain point, all that bearing down is self-defeating.

All we have to do is to receive what we are given...We are given the naturalness to love someone, to be calm in crisis, to ignore self-defeating suggestions, to be pleasant, forgiving, tender, helpful, unworried, brave, energetic.

Cynicism is the easiest of all reactions, right? But it's also so disappointing and self-defeating.

You have considerable power to construct self-helping thoughts, feelings and actions as well as to construct self-defeating behaviors. You have the ability, if you use it, to choose healthy instead of unhealthy thinking, feeling and acting.

There is something self-defeating in the too-conscious pursuit of pleasure.

Spare yourselves from the indulgence of self-pity. It is always self-defeating. Subdue the negative and emphasize the positive.

The very lack of opportunity the group faces creates a self-defeating cycle and puts pressure on members to limit their aspirations.

A blind, anemic, weak-kneed flea on crutches would have a greater chance of defeating a herd of a thousand wild stampeding elephants, than the enemy has of defeating God.

There is nothing more foolish or self-defeating than for a Christian to say that he is not interested in doctrines.

We have to learn to stand up for our interests. To seek purity is self-defeating and a stereotype in itself: women have to be pure, women are not concerned about money.

Gnostic politics is self-defeating in so far as its disregard for the structure of reality leads to continuous warfare.

Imagine the word CANCEL being a huge rubber stamp in your mind. Stamp CANCEL on any self-defeating image you place in your head, and begin to think in a self-enhancing way.

Love what you do and do what you love, otherwise you will become unhappy and self-defeating.

Love requires that we overcome the traditional and self-defeating fears that place distance between ourselves and others.

Transformation occurs when existing solutions, assumed truths and past decisions are exposed as unrealistic and self-defeating.

Trying to get my music performed live by bar bands was a self defeating experience. It really just distracted me from what I should've been doing all along, writing and recording.

I used to believe that George Michael was a total actor. It was self-defeating, because it made me also feel fraudulent.

The technology of mass production is inherently violent, ecologically damaging, self-defeating in terms of non-renewable resources, and stultifying for the human person.

The wrong kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior. The right kind motivates students to learn.

Legislation that would withhold funding for the United Nations is fundamentally flawed in concept and practice, sets us back, is self-defeating, and doesn't work.

In 1817, Czar Alexander I personally founded the Society of Israelite Christians but had less luck defeating Judaism than he'd had defeating Napoleon; gentile serfs and merchants in areas bordering the Pale even showed disturbing new signs of 'Judaizing.'

In spite of the fact that the law of revenge solves no social problems, men continue to follow its disastrous leading. History is cluttered with the wreckage of nations and individuals that pursued this self-defeating path.

It's morally wrong, and economically self-defeating, that so much wealth flows upwards towards the richest of Americans, while millions work full time but still can't provide for their families.

Isolation is a self-defeating dream.

When you defeat somebody, you're not really defeating them: they're defeating themselves.

Replace your self-defeating thoughts with self-supporting thoughts.

Sitting with a bunch of adults and arguing about what's going to be most effective for kids is just sort of self-defeating.

Waging a colonial war in the post-colonial age is self-defeating.

There is nothing worth having that can he obtained by nuclear war - nothing material or ideological - no tradition that it can defend. It is utterly self-defeating.

All forms of self-defeating behavior are unseen and unconscious, which is why their existence is denied.

There is nothing worth having that can be obtained by nuclear war - nothing material or ideological - no tradition that it can defend. It is utterly self-defeating.

What's certain is that ranking powerful people is inherently self-defeating. For starters, true potentates know who they are without being told, and they have no need to announce it.

Today, to allege corruption seems to be the pastime of most people. All kinds of allegations are leveled. I think it is self-defeating.

Since ancient times, philosophers have maintained that to strive too hard for one's own happiness is self-defeating.

All conservation of wildness is self-defeating, for to cherish we must see and fondle, and when enough have seen and fondled, there is no wilderness left to cherish.

Attempts to help humans eliminate all self-ratings and views self-esteem as a self-defeating concept that encourages them to make conditional evaluations of self. Instead, it teaches people unconditional self-acceptance.

You don't want to go around willy-nilly suing news organizations. That's probably self-defeating.

Every specific tax, as well as the nation's whole tax system, becomes self-defeating above a certain height of the rates.

Uncritical American boosterism - automatic endorsement of every government action - is myopic and self-defeating.

Where are the exhortations for children to reject the self-defeating stereotypes that reduce black people to violent, oversexed 'gangstas,' minstrel show comedians and mindless athletes?