94 Quotes by Gavin de Becker

Americans are experts at denial, a choir whose song could be titled, “Things Like That Don’t Happen in This Neighborhood.

As long as there are parents preparing children for little more than incarceration, we’ll have no trouble keeping our prisons full.

Charm is another overrated ability. Note that I called it an ability, not an inherent feature of one’s personality. Charm is almost always a directed instrument, which, like rapport-building, has motive. To charm is to compel, to control by allure or attraction. Think of charm as a verb, not a trait. If you consciously tell yourself, “This person is trying to charm me” as opposed to, “This person is charming,” you’ll be able to see around it.

In ourselves our safety must be sought. By our own right hand it must be wrought.” – William Wordsworth All.

Worry is a way to avoid change; when we worry, we don’t do anything about the matter.

TIME syndrome, which is the introduction of threats, intimidations, manipulations, and escalation.

Persistent, Mike thought. Mark of those who succeed. Indeed, it was the mark of something, but not success. It was refusing to hear “no,” a clear signal of trouble in any context. Forty.

I don’t believe in such a thing as the criminal mind. Everyone’s mind is criminal; we’re all capable of criminal fantasies and thoughts.

A Federal research project selected 1,600 children who had been abused or neglected and followed them for nearly twenty years.