Inspirational Quotes Part Seven

Miss Beale assumed her bright professional smile. (P.D. James, Shroud for a Nightingale)

She had that bland, quiet, undisturbed look and manner which few [nurses] are deficient in — they study it no doubt… Catsmeatshop.blogspot.com

I have plenty of people to do things with. I just have no one to do nothing with. Katharine Whitehorn

...we could fall asleep in each other’s arms but I knew it was play acting and so did he. We weren’t really intimate — it had just been a game. The circus had left town.... Underneath my attempts to appear bubbly, I was hard...Dawn Eden, Sunday Times January 14 2007

"Everybody has a conversational party trick, a one line showstopper statement that makes listeners snap to attention and gives you an instant advantage in any social situation." Observer June 6 04

The study also found that both men and women and older and younger individuals were likely to evaluate relationships based on their conformity to traditional proposal scripts. Schweingruber et al

Best to have a script, to think it through. psychcentral.com

Are we liberated women or are we slags? (Sex and the City, paraphrase)

It’s important for doctors, family members and friends to understand the response type of their patient or loved one with breast cancer and to resist urging a different kind of response... psychcentral.com

“How we think others see us and how we see ourselves affects all our behaviour; book choice is one clue to others and ourselves.” Professor Pam Mara, a psychologist Guardian August 23, 2006

"For a long time, parents discouraged their children from worrying about what others think. They didn't realize how shortsighted and stupid that was," says Mark Leary, a social psychology professor at Duke University who studies impression management.

"We need other people to think well of us." (Time Oct 06)

Now try and reconcile all that with these unhelpful platitudes.

More here and here and here. And here. And here too. Yet more here.

Inspirational Quotes Part Six

What was quickly impressed upon us was that we were a team... We were being moulded into a conforming, disciplined unit. We dressed the same, talked the same, thought the same. There was no place for those who were different. Chris Blackhurst, Evening Standard City Editor, August 30, 2006, on working in the city

For younger people, work is an important social centre, a place to make friends and attract a partner. So their behaviour at work was about being entertaining, drawing attention to themselves and putting on a display. Guardian July 31, 2004

To be shown love is to feel ourselves the object of concern. Our presence is noted, our name registered, our views listened to, our failings treated with indulgence and our needs administered to. Under such care, we flourish. Alain de Botton

Nowadays we tend to be patronized into believing that it’s all there for us if we’d just work a little bit harder. Letter to Time

Researchers generally agree that the main components of anyone’s personality can be boiled down to five different aspects: neuroticism, extraversion, openness, agreeableness and conscientiousness. How a person rates in these five categories can predict many important life “outcomes,” such as health and mortality, academic success, job performance and the ability to have successful, lasting romantic relationships. (msnbc)

Monkey society is governed by the same two general rules that governed the behaviour of women in so many 19th century novels. Stay loyal to your relatives … but also try to ingratiate yourself with the members of high-ranking families. Dorothy Cheney and Robert Seyfarth of the Uni of Pennsylvania in Baboon Metaphysics

A year later all the bullies want to be your friend. (Catherine Tate)

A new study suggests abandoning insurmountable goals may be a prudent measure as internal markers of our body’s response to stress are lower among individuals who decide to cut their losses. Psychcentral.com

Once you've rehearsed to the mirror or a friend, it feels easier to say in person. Cornell University's Ask Uncle Ezra

Becoming human is learning to use our higher brain centers to reason through complex issues and find guidance from principles, values, goals and long-term planning. Uncle Ezra

But don't forget to be yourself and be spontaneous - if you can square it with the advice above.

More here and here and here. And here. And here too.