Attention Seeking Quotes

“When the person you love can't see your love for them beneath the painful things you say when they reject you, remember this: Love is blind.”
― Shannon L. Alder

“Dr. Talbon was struck by another very important thing. It all hung together. The stories Cheryl told — even though it was upsetting to think people could do stuff like that — they were not disjointed They were not repetitive in terms of "I've heard this before". It was not just she'd someone trying consciously or unconsciously to get attention. really processed them out and was done with them. She didn't come up with them again [after telling the story once and dealing with it]. Once it was done, it was done. And I think that was probably the biggest factor for me in her believability. I got no sense that she was using these stories to make herself a really interesting person to me so I'd really want to work with her, or something. Or that she was just living in this stuff like it was her life. Once she dealt with it and processed it, it was gone. We just went on to other things. 'Throughout the whole thing, emotionally Cheryl was getting her life together. Parts of her were integrating where she could say,"I have a sense that some particular alter has folded in with some basic alter", and she didn't bring it up again. She didn't say that this alter has reappeared to cause more problems. That just didn't happen. The therapist had learned from training and experience that when real integration occurs, it is permanent and the patient moves on.”
― Cheryl Hersha, Secret Weapons: How Two Sisters Were Brainwashed to Kill for Their Country

“There’s nothing worse than having a fit and no one giving you the proper attention for it.”
― Christina Henry, Lost Boy: The True Story of Captain Hook

“It's always worthless sort of person who puts himself out in order to get somebody else worked up.”
― Riichi Yokomitsu, Kikai

“Something strange has happened to the idea of privacy in our surreal time. Instead of being cherished, it appears to have become, a valueless quality—actually undesirable. If a thing is not made public, it doesn’t really exist. Your dog, your wedding, your beach, your baby, your dinner, the interesting meme you recently saw—these things need, on a daily basis, to be shared. Where attention has become the thing most hungered for, where the quest for followers and likes is the new gluttony, privacy has become unnecessary, unwanted, even absurd.”
― Salman Rushdie, Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder

“Anxiously attached Codependents demonstrate the ability to maximize the attention they get from their partner, regardless of whether it is positive or negative (i.e., "I'd rather be screamed at than ignored"). Manipulation is used to keep the inattentive or inconsistent partner involved by alternating dramatic angry demands with needy dependence. When the partner is preoccupied and not paying attention, the anxious Codependent explodes in angry demands and behaviors that cannot be ignored.”
― Mary Crocker Cook, Awakening Hope. A Developmental, Behavioral, Biological Approach to Codependency Treatment.

“A great many people confuse attention with admiration, they think a stunt is an achievement and misbehavior a declaration of independence.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Ain't Enough to Look Human

“Why couldn’t there be two suns in the sky? Why did the rise of one large orb of light necessitate the setting of another?”
― Ayelet Gundar-Goshen, The Liar

“Would Hamlet have felt the delicious fascination of suicide if he hadn’t had an audience, and lines to speak?”
― Jean Genet, Prisoner of Love

“Some people love attention so much that they usually wish for their rhetorical question to be answered.”
― Mokokoma Mokhonoana

“The very existence of social media is predicated on humankind's primitive drive of attention seeking. And when they successfully monetize your attention, they end up with billions of dollars and you end up with a screwed up mental state. And if we don't do anything about it now, the next generation will be a generation of mentally unstable glass creatures.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Good Scientist: When Science and Service Combine

“Let expression be the reason for expression, not attention.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Good Scientist: When Science and Service Combine

“Enough with climbing the greasy pole of validation! Grab hold of your backbone, toughen up your conviction.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Honor He Wrote: 100 Sonnets For Humans Not Vegetables

“what is an author without an audience”
― R.F. Kuang, Yellowface

“If you want a positive and happy life then stop feeling self-pity or seeking attention for your problems and take action towards creating a positive and fulfilling life.”
― Hina Hashmi, Your Life A Practical Guide to Happiness Peace and Fulfilment

“The main problem with the 'histronic behaviour' hypothesis, like the alternatives, is that it is unitary and simplistic, while the phenomena are complex and heterogeneous. When advanced as a sole and complete explanation, ''hysteria' is a vague and inadequate construct. ... "secondary gain and hysteria can occur as reactions to real events, real sociological problems, and real biomedical diseases, so the presence of these elements does not necessarily weigh in favour of Satanic ritual abuse's being entirely unreal. Ritual abuse cases need to be managed in such a way that hysteria, regression, grandiosity, and secondary gain are discouraged rather than fostered. However, it must be remembered that 'hysteria' and 'attention seeking' explanations generally function as justifications for not thinking about the complexities of the clinical problem.”
― Colin A. Ross, Satanic Ritual Abuse: Principles of Treatment

“In summary, the conclusion that having DID is generally rewarding is unfounded because the vast majority of the attention such patients receive is skeptical, critical, exploitative, or hostile; they are often ignored if they do present symptoms of DID.
It is certainly possible that some individuals have attempted to feign the disorder. However, the hostile treatment that one would most likely receive would make feigning another disorder more rewarding.”
― David H. Gleaves

“There was nothing about her that was offensive and there was nothing about her that was attention seeking. It was as if her body functioned so well and silently that she barely even noticed it except that she needed it.”
― Donna Goddard, Faith

“Character No Commodity (The Sonnet)

Character, I say, is no commodity,
To be traded in for luxury.
Integrity, I say, is no commodity,
To be traded in for security,
Virtues, I say, are no commodity,
To be traded in for applause.
Values, I say, are no commodity,
To be traded in for comfort.
Warmth, I say, is no commodity,
To be traded in for image.
Humility, I say, is no commodity,
To be traded in for respect.
A life without honor, I say,
Is a life totally gone astray.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Mücadele Muhabbet: Gospel of An Unarmed Soldier

“Those who focus on attention never attain ascension, those who live for ascension don't have time for attention.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Either Reformist or Terrorist: If You Are Terror I Am Your Grandfather

“so that's - that's probably why self-esteem is a wash - that, on the one hand, it could be seen as, well, that means you'll go and take the initiative, but on the other, maybe you won't. If you're already great, why should you do anything? You know, another example that illustrates this is, in the U.S., the ethnic group that has the lowest self-esteem is Asian-Americans. Those are the kids with the best academic performance, the adults with the highest educational attainment, lowest unemployment rate. It - of course, it's a cultural thing, but it really does really demonstrate in one piece of data how this idea that you have to be supremely self-confident to succeed just isn't true.”
― Jean Twenge

“Besides casual onlookers there were also permanent watchers. This was merely a formality: the artist would never swallow the smallest morsel of food.

No one could possible watch the hunger artist continuously, therefore he was bound to be the sole spectator completely satisfied with his own fast.

Such suspicions, anyhow, were a necessary accompaniment to the profession of fasting.

Yet for other reasons he was never content.

For he alone knew how easy it was to fast.

Experience had proven that the interest of the public could be sustained for about forty days.

But after that their enthusiasm began to wane.

So on that day
the cage was opened.
Two doctors entered to
measure the results of the fast,

and two young ladies were selected for the honor of helping the hunger artist in a small table,

on which was spread a carefully chosen meal.

And at this moment the artist always turned stubborn. Why should he be cheated of the fame he would get for fasting longer, breaking his own record as the greatest hunger artist of all time?

- A Hunger Artist”
― Peter Kuper, Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories

“One day, the ringmaster's eye fell upon the cage and he asked: "Why?"
this perfectly good spot should be left standing there unused.

Nobody knew, until one man remembered about the hunger artist.

"Are you still fasting?"
"Forgive me, everybody.

"I've always wanted you to admire my fasting.
"But you shouldn't admire it.
Because I have to fast. I can't help it."

"And why can't you help it?"

"Because I couldn't find the food I liked. If I had, I should have stuffed myself life you or anyone else."

Those were his last words, but in his dimming eyes remained the firm conviction that he was still continuing to fast.

And they buried the hunger artist, straw and all.

- A Hunger Artist”
― Peter Kuper, Kafkaesque: Fourteen Stories

“You don't need to be an activist to be good people, particularly when most activists of today are just attention-craving hypocrites.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Tum Dunya Tek Millet: Greatest Country on Earth is Earth

“Take off your clothes and post a selfie,
A million animals will shower you attention.
But cover up all and open your heart,
Only precious few humans will care to listen.

Don't confuse attention with care,
Those who care might not follow you.
But you can be sure of one little thing,
99% of your followers don't care about you.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“Take off your clothes and post a selfie,
A million animals will shower you attention.
But cover up all and open your heart,
Only precious few humans will care to listen.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“Don't confuse attention with care,
Those who care might not follow you.
But you can be sure of one little thing,
99% of your followers don't care about you.”
― Abhijit Naskar, Visvavictor: Kanima Akiyor Kainat

“[attention seeking] is a way of wanting something without knowing what it is. A social ability, an appeal to others to help us with our wanting.
To be and make others comfortable with our attention-seeking, we transform it into art, or success, or likable public snippets of our lives. If we were to take these gestures in the literal sense, maybe all we’re trying to communicate is that we want to be cared for. ”
― Adam Phillips