It’s not my fault. What did I do to deserve this? Why is it always me? Do you know somebody who does this negative self-talk? It might be a friend or relative, or even on occasion, our own selves. A lot of us have fallen to playing victim without even meaning to in order to get out of difficult situations.
While these occasional lapses of judgment can be worked on, some people make victim playing a habit. It helps them receive attention, justify their abuse of others, and manipulate other people. Ultimately though, people who play victim end up being the real victims of their actions. They fail to examine themselves and make positive changes, get stuck in life, and attract similarly negative-minded people.
Check out these cautionary quotes about playing victim so you can recognize it immediately in your life and make corrective action.
Some people said beware of enemies. Some said beware of friends and some said beware of frenemies, but the most dangerous people are those that will hurt you and still play the victim. – Uzoma Nnadi
Burn the victim card down to the ground – for you are so much more than that! – Sijdah Hussain, Red Sugar, No More
Erase the victim mentality. Remember you are capable of achieving greatness. If only you’d believe in your abilities to overcome. You are victorious. Celebrate the victory. – Amaka Imani Nkosazana
Perception is everything. If you see everything through the lens of the naysayers or through a victim perspective, then it’s hard to get what you really want in life. – Keisha Blair, Holistic Wealth: 32 Life Lessons to Help You Find Purpose, Prosperity, and Happiness
As I’d seen over and again, people who see themselves as victims sometimes don’t notice when they become oppressors. – Souad Mekhennet
You can’t play the role of a victim all your life without becoming one in the end. – Danilo Kis
When you choose to act on your problems, you cease to be a victim of circumstance and become a force of change; that’s when you transition to not only being a survivor, but to being a leader or hero too, and an inspiration to those still in the victim’s mindset. – Innocent Mwatsikesimbe
They don’t see themselves as victims, because of what has happen to them, but they see themselves as victims , because what has happen to them is now exposed . It might give them exposure, destroy someone or some might even cash in. It is sad that people don’t care about the wrong and bad things that happened to them. They care what those things might get them and how others view them. – De philosopher DJ Kyos
I stumble on this path
with an open wound
but I am not
my woundedness.
– Sheniz Janmohamed, Reminders on the Path
When you don’t need to play the victim or create victims you are FREE – Richard Rohr
Where I had felt a victim, I had become a determiner by recognizing I had choices. When considering a purchase, I stopped saying, “I can’t afford it,” and started saying, “That’s not where I want to spend that amount of money”. – Oriah Mountain Dreamer, The Dance: Moving To the Rhythms of Your True Self
The victim mindset will have you dancing with the devil, then complaining that you’re in hell. – Steve Maraboli
Self-pity is spiritual suicide. It is an indefensible self-mutilation of the soul. – Anthon St. Maarten
I am not a victim. No matter what I have been through, I’m still here. I have a history of victory. – Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
There are really only two ways to approach life – as victim or as gallant fighter – and you must decide if you want to act or react, deal your own cards or play with a stacked deck. And if you don’t decide which way to play with life, it always plays with you. – Merle Shain
Abandon the idea that you will forever be the victim of the things that have happened to you. Choose to be a victor. – Seth Adam Smith
I never play the victim, I’d rather be a stalker. – Rihanna
Life doesn’t victimize us, we do that to ourselves.
How would your life be different if…You stopped validating your victim mentality? Let today be the day…You shake off your self-defeating drama and embrace your innate ability to recover and achieve. – Steve Maraboli, Life, the Truth, and Being Free
I was a redhead and a middle child; both can make you feel excluded. It’s like fighting to be included, in the swim of things. After a while you start to develop a bit of a victim mentality, which isn’t great for a happy life. – Shirley Manson
If you always play the victim you’ll always be the victim. – Steven Aitchison
The psychological phrase secondary gain describes the behavior of using illness or pain to attract attention. There is another term to describe this: victim mindset. Both may feel comforting for a time but, sadly, prevent all efforts to live a fulfilling life. – Charles F. Glassman
Don’t play the role of victim AGAIN, just to massage your bullies ego. – J. Yates
Nobody with a victim mentality will get anywhere, ever. They will never succeed. – Jon Lovitz
Victim Mentality. Some choose to believe that there is nothing they can do to solve their problems, even when they in fact could. Victims seek to blame others for their problems or blame outside circumstances. – Mark Manson
The Victim Card Is An Unique Card Loaded With Features Like Blind, Confuse, Darken, Dim, Disguise, Mask, Muddy And Overshadow Facts;In Short It Obscures The Truth. – Sachin Ramdas Bharatiya
A victim mentality is a prolonged form of suicide. – Steve Maraboli
Baseless victimhood is usually the last stage before outright aggression. – Stefan Molyneux
People with victim mentality do not have the habit of thinking on their own or thinking in general. – Sunday Adelaja
When absorbing the sadness of the loss, we must concentrate on bad guys to demonize, or black holes of sympathy in which we get to play the cosmic victim of terrible circumstances. Demonizing and victimizing are the sources of those stories in which we can get so woefully stuck – John P. Schuster
Strong women don’t play victim, don’t make themselves look pitiful, & don’t point fingers. They stand & they deal. – Mandy Hale
While it is easy to get caught up in the beliefs and attitudes of others, it is easier still to make one’s self a victim of circumstance. Victims of circumstance believe they have no power over their lives, since they are merely the play-things of fate. Since they believe this, it is therefore so. – Stephen Richards
Go ahead, blame the victim! The villain is my favourite role to play. – Raziel Reid
Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself. – Harvey Fierstein
I’ve been a victim in every film I have done so far. It would be nice to play someone who doesn’t get killed for once. Then again, I am getting really good at screaming and fake tears. – Rachel Hurd-Wood
You are a victim only when you have decided to play the part. – Gary Hopkins
People with victim mentality spend their energy not on achieving their target but on meaningless complaints. – Sunday Adelaja
And i know better, not to be friends with boys with girlfriends, oh I know better than that, i know better. you’ll play the victim, and i’ll be the bad guy, but i know better than that, no i know better. – Meiko
Today is a new day. Don’t let your history interfere with your destiny! Let today be the day you stop being a victim of your circumstances and start taking action towards the life you want. You have the power and the time to shape your life. Break free from the poisonous victim mentality and embrace the truth of your greatness. You were not meant for a mundane or mediocre life! – Steve Maraboli
A man with a victim mentality attracts autocrats into his life who will decide how he should live. – Sunday Adelaja
Your complaints, your drama, your victim mentality, your whining, your blaming, and all of your excuses have NEVER gotten you even a single step closer to your goals or dreams. Let go of your nonsense. Let go of the delusion that you DESERVE better and go EARN it! Today is a new day! – Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
We are stuck in the maize that we created. Most people keep complaining about being stuck rather than finding the way out, and they call themselves unlucky! – Maddy Malhotra
I think it’s so wrong to play the victim. There’s too many brave women out there that just won’t even tolerate it, you know? – Elisha Cuthbert
A person with victim mentality cannot find himself, his life mission, and go towards his aims. – Sunday Adelaja
In a world infatuated with victimhood, has trauma emerged as a passport to status – our red badge of courage? – Parul Sehgal
Is life happening to you, or are you happening to life? – Michael Bassey Johnson, Song of a Nature Lover
There is a fine line between compassion and a victim mentality. Compassion though is a healing force and comes from a place of kindness towards yourself. Playing the victim is a toxic waste of time that not only repels other people, but also robs the victim of ever knowing true happiness. – Bronnie Ware, The Top Five Regrets of the Dying: A Life Transformed by the Dearly Departing
Defeat is a state of mind; No one is ever defeated until defeat has been accepted as a reality. – Bruce Lee
I don’t do damsel in distress very well. It’s hard for me to play a victim. – Scarlett Johansson
Those with a perpetual victim mindset tend to create the situations from which they suffer. – Steve Maraboli
The more we see ourselves as victims who need to be saved, the more we’ll attract people offering to help. While this is not necessarily a bad thing, it keeps us depending on others and hence, stuck in the disempowering cycle of the victim mentality. Truly, once you save yourself, the universe will somehow conspire to help you out. But the work must be ignited from within. At the very end, we are our own victim as well as our own saviour… The rest are mere excuses.
Healing begins when you shed the ‘victim mentality’.
Life is not compassionate towards victims. The trick is not to see yourself as one. It’s never too late! I know I’ve felt like the victim in various situations in my life, but, it’s never too late for me to realize that it’s my responsibility to stand on victorious ground and know that whatever it is I’m experiencing or going through, those are just the clouds rolling by while I stand here on the top of this mountain! This mountain called Victory! The clouds will come and the clouds will go, but the truth is that I’m high up here on this mountaintop that reaches into the sky! I am a victor. I didn’t climb up the mountain, I was born on top of it! – C. JoyBell C.
Feminism…is not ‘women as victims’ but women refusing to be victims. – Gloria Steinem, The Trouble With Rich Women
A wise woman wishes to be no one’s enemy; a wise woman refuses to be anyone’s victim. – Maya Angelou
The problem that we have with a victim mentality is that we forget to see the blessings of the day. Because of this, our spirit is poisoned instead of nourished. – Steve Maraboli, Unapologetically You: Reflections on Life and the Human Experience
You’re only a victim to the degree of what your perception allows. – Shannon L. Alder
People who have a victim mentality – those who constantly tend to blame others – never walk in the victory Jesus promises. – Perry Noble
People play the victim forever,” she continued. “But who are they kidding? They are only robbing themselves. Life doesn’t owe you anything. Neither does anyone else. Only you owe yourself. So the best way to make the most out of life is to appreciate the gift of it, and choose not to be a victim”. – Bronnie Ware
The sun does not shine differently on different people. If you’re good, it shines on you. If you did something bad, it shines on you. It’s the same with the inner energy. The only difference is that with the inner energy, you have the ability to close up inside and block it. – Michael A. Singer, The Untethered Soul: The Journey Beyond Yourself
I believe that there’s no improvement if you have an inferiority complex and victim mentality. – Kim Namjoon, BTS
Empaths did not come into this world to be victims, we came to be warriors. Be brave. Stay strong. We need all hands on deck. – Anthon St. Maarten
The victim mentality may be the last uncomplicated thing about life in America. – Anna Quindlen
Victims declare,“The world is responsible for me,” and never do anything to better their quality of life. – Henry Cloud, Changes That Heal: The Four Shifts That Make Everything Better…And That Anyone Can Do
We’re dealing with an entire generation of people who are absolutely committed to taking zero responsibility for their lives. Everything is somebody else’s fault. Classic victim mentality. Don’t worry, we’ll clean up the mess for you. We’ll pick up the check. We’ll tip the waiter. You hear it day in and day out from the… – Matthew Norman
I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything. – Kamala Harris
You can’t expect to be a victor if you’re living with a victim mentality. – Billy Cox
The feeling of superiority is a defect that tends to accompany a victim mentality…as if you deserved any merit for being a product of fate. – Rosa Montero
I don’t like to play the victim. – Barry Pepper
We need to be careful not to fall into the victim mindset. This usually happens because we have a dis-empowering perspective of the circumstance. We forget about “who we are” in Christ and that God is in control. – Michael Barbarulo
I am not going to play the victim. – Gloria Trevi
Continuing to play the victim is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Blaming others for your station in life will indeed make you a victim but the perpetrator will be your own self, not life or those around you. – Bobby Darnell
Poor people choose to play the role of the victim. – T. Harv Eker
When you complain you make yourself a victim. Leave the situation, change the situation or accept it, all else is madness. – Eckhart Tolle
I have no physical symptoms, but psychologically there’s this burden. I’ve got to get rid of it somehow. Of course, when I first went back to work I was scared the same thing might happen again. It takes positive thinking to overcome fear, otherwise you’ll carry around this victim mentality forever. – Haruki Murakami