Quotes of All Topics . Occasions . Authors
Isolation is a self-defeating dream.
Waging a colonial war in the post-colonial age is self-defeating.
You don't want to go around willy-nilly suing news organizations. That's probably self-defeating.
Cynicism is the easiest of all reactions, right? But it's also so disappointing and self-defeating.
The wrong kind of praise creates self-defeating behavior. The right kind motivates students to learn.
I witnessed first-hand the self-defeating results of putting yourself under so much pressure to perform.
All forms of self-defeating behavior are unseen and unconscious, which is why their existence is denied.
A tax on capital is self-defeating, in that it slows down capital accumulation, investment and economic growth.
Uncritical American boosterism - automatic endorsement of every government action - is myopic and self-defeating.
When somebody says that all statements are false, the obvious problem is that as an assertion it's self-defeating.
I used to believe that George Michael was a total actor. It was self-defeating, because it made me also feel fraudulent.
Sitting with a bunch of adults and arguing about what's going to be most effective for kids is just sort of self-defeating.
It is always self-defeating to pretend to a generation younger than your own; it simply erases your own experience in history.
Dreaming is one thing, and working towards the dream is one thing, but working with expectations in mind is very self-defeating.
Today, to allege corruption seems to be the pastime of most people. All kinds of allegations are leveled. I think it is 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've never worn costume jewelry in my life. It's really very self-defeating. Why should a man buy a woman real jewelry when she wears false pieces?
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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?
Russians aren't perfect. Their politics are messed up, and they keep going through self-defeating economic cycles. But I have a lot of respect for Russia, and a lot of love for Russians.
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.
A lot of our Democratic consultants have fallen into the self-defeating prescription that the candidate that runs the most negative ads wins. I have a new theory: Positive is the new negative.
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.
Abduction was what it felt like on first listening to Public Enemy. Like the post-punks, Public Enemy implicitly accepted the idea that a politics which came reassuringly dressed in established forms would be self-defeating.
There are about 15 million Muslims in the EU. They face ignorance, insult and even persecution. They cannot be wished away. To impose Enlightenment freedoms is self-defeating. Anyway, the Muslims have their own enlightenment.
Paradoxically, the United States' determination to protect its troops can be self-defeating. Allies and adversaries see U.S. forces living in secure compounds, eating fancy chow and minimizing their exposure to potential terrorist assaults.
There is good evidence that the catastrophist framing of climate change is self-defeating because it alienates and polarizes many people. And exaggerating climate change risks distracting us from other important issues including ones we might have more near-term control over.
It's a bad strategy to have an identity-based strategy on the left. De-emphasizing identity all-around would help our politics because we would have to pay more attention to the issues. We may have to pay more attention to class if we didn't have these self-defeating identity agendas.
This is this thing I harp on: Sometimes acting can be a self-defeating psychological enterprise if we feel like we're desperate, if we feel like we're beggars at the door, praying that someone will take pity on us and give us a job. It would be so much better to feel like we're tradesmen.
Dedicating some time to meditation is a meaningful expression of caring for yourself that can help you move through the mire of feeling unworthy of recovery. As your mind grows quieter and more spacious, you can begin to see self-defeating thought patterns for what they are, and open up to other, more positive options.
I had a client who was getting ready for the Oscars, and all she ate was one meal a day - of two boiled eggs! I was able to persuade her to add some almonds and a protein shake and some vitamin supplements. It's a self-defeating strategy. You need to eat enough, particularly protein, to build lean and toned muscle in the first place.
Every time we watch a little story play out inside our head, we're fantasizing, whether we realize it or not, and it seems to me that, though succumbing to fantasies about other people can be dangerous or self-defeating, the act of fantasizing itself is also an essential part of being human, of being capable of both abstraction and empathy.