.

.

A bully is someone who hurts or intimidates someone less powerful

• Bully: A person who uses strength or influence to harm or intimidate those who are weaker.  Oxford Dictionary
• Bully: Someone who hurts or frightens someone who is smaller or less powerful, often forcing them to do something that they do not want to do. Cambridge Dictionary
• Bullying occurs when a person is exposed, repeatedly and over time, to negative actions on the part of one or more other persons. A negative action occurs when a person intentionally inflicts injury or discomfort upon another person, through physical contact, through words or in other ways. Dan Olweus
• Abuse,  Cowardice,  Suffering,  Cruelty,  Victim mentality

.

Bullying is the strong picking on the weak because they can

• I found one day in school a boy of medium size ill-treating a smaller boy. I expostulated, but he replied: ‘The bigs hit me, so I hit the babies; that’s fair.’ In these words, he epitomized the history of the human race. Bertrand Russell
• The bully has the power to do, but lacks the compassion not to. K. Thomas
• Bullies thrive wherever authority is weak. Tim Field

.

Bullying is a national epidemic that effects many

• The whole bullying issue has really struck a nerve with me. It affects so many different types of people at a vital time in their lives. Kenny Wormald
• I started visiting schools and talking to kids about bullying and what to do and how to deal with it. I don’t think that there is one person who has lived life without being bullied. Everybody gets bullied – whether it’s cyber-bullying or to your face or behind your back. Sammi Hanratty
• Everyone in America likely has a bullying story, whether as the victim, bully or as a witness. Michael M. Honda
• Bullying is a national epidemic. Macklemore

.

Bullying is a form of cowardice

• Bullies are just men who don’t know they are cowards, of course. Antonia Hodgson
• It doesn’t prove anything except that you’re bullying us. Which, as I recall, is a sign of cowardice. Veronica Roth, Divergent
• Courage is fire, and bullying is smoke.  Benjamin Disraeli
• Cowardice

.

.

Bullying does immense harm

• Bullying builds character like nuclear waste creates superheroes. It’s a rare occurrence and often does much more damage than endowment. Zack W. Van

.

Emotional bullying can be just as damaging as physical abuse …

• Stay away from people who gossip and spread rumours. They are choosing the path of emotional bullying and negativity. Steve Maraboli
• Not all forms of abuse leave bruises. Danielle Steel
• Nonetheless, with tears coming to her eyes she was also recalling every time that she had been cruelly teased and bullied for no reason that she could relate to. None of it had ever been physical, yet somehow the names she had been called, and the remarks made about her family, had scarred Lakshmi far deeper and more perpetually then any hand could have inflicted. Andrew James Pritchard

.

… for words can pack a mighty punch

• The small words hurt the most. Kris Harte
• Sticks and stones may break my bones, but your words…they’ll destroy my soul. Cassandra Giovanni
• People say sticks and stones may break your bones, but names can never hurt you, but that’s not true. Words can hurt. They hurt me. Things were said to me that I still haven’t forgotten. Demi Lovato

.

Bullying can bring great stress and unhappiness …

• Victims of bullying spare themselves distress, by detachment; denying their ability to experience happiness. James Horace
• Stress,  Unhappiness

.

… and can cause long term emotional damage

• Those who have been the targets of bullying can suffer from long term emotional and behavioural problems. Bullying can cause loneliness, depression, anxiety, lead to low self-esteem and increased susceptibility to illness. Louise Arsenault
• Could a scar be like the rings of a tree, reopened with each emotional season? Magenta Periwinkle
• A lot of people believe that mental illness does not affect our children within the school system. But the truth is that a lot of bullying stems from untreated or poorly treated mental and behavioural health problems. Tamara Hill

.

Bullying can force kids to try to dumb down

• Children usually have a natural curiosity about the world and everything in it until they get to school and somebody throws them against the locker because they get A’s and act intelligent. After that, some kids try to dumb it down and adapt. Joshua Neik

.

Bullying can even destroy lives

• Whilst accidents and assaults injure and kill people quickly and spectacularly, bullying and consequent prolonged negative stress injure and kill people slowly and secretively. The outcome, though, is the same. Tim Field
• There is a growing body of research which indicates that individuals, whether child or adult, who are persistently subjected to abusive behaviour are at risk of stress related illness which can sometimes lead to suicide. Mona O’Moore
• Bullying is killing our kids. Being different is killing our kids and the kids who are bullying are dying inside. We have to save our kids whether they are bullied or they are bullying. They are all in pain. Cat Cora
• The best indicator of a sociopathic serial bully is not a clinical diagnosis but the trail of devastation and destruction of lives and livelihoods surrounding this individual throughout their life. Tim Field
• Suicide isn’t cowardly. I’ll tell you what is cowardly; treating people so badly that they want to end their lives. Ashley Purdy

.

.

People bully for different reasons

• Research on the self-esteem of bullies has produced equivocal results. While some bullies are arrogant and narcissistic, bullies can also use bullying as a tool to conceal shame or anxiety or to boost self-esteem: by demeaning others, the abuser feels empowered.  Bullies may bully out of jealousy or because they themselves are bullied.  Edward M. Levinson

.

People may bully out of envy

• Envy and resentment can often be the motive for bullying. Ståle Einarsen
• Envy

.

People may bully to show off

• “Now, I’ve always known that there were bullies in the world. We’ve seen a lot of it in politics lately as well as in daily life. You see it where people who may be stronger, or bigger, or better with verbiage than other folks… show off. To me, that’s what bullying is, showing off. It’s saying, I’m better than you, I can take you down. Not just physically, but emotionally. Whoopi Goldberg

.

People may bully out of a need to control and dominate

• Research indicates that adults who bully have authoritarian personalities, combined with a strong need to control or dominate. Carroll M. Brodsky
• Control

.

People may bully as a way to cover up insecurity and vulnerability

• I realized that bullying never has to do with you. It’s the bully who’s insecure. Shay Mitchell
• A bully may project his/her own feelings of vulnerability onto the victim. Wikipedia
• A bully may project his/her own feelings of vulnerability onto the target(s) of the bullying activity. Despite the fact that a bully’s typically denigrating activities are aimed at the bully’s targets, the true source of such negativity is ultimately almost always found in the bully’s own sense of personal insecurity and/ or vulnerability. Edward M. Levinson
• Vulnerability

.

The truth is that bullies are often dealing with their own battles

• My mom always told me growing up that anyone who is rude, mean, or bullying someone is dealing with their own battle at home or internally. That’s always been my mentality. For every bad thing that happens or nasty comment, there’s a really deep-rooted meaning behind it. It’s important to see the bigger picture and realize that person is dealing with something as well. Lucy Hale

.

A typical child bully has self-esteem issues and comes from a troubled home

• A typical bully has trouble resolving problems with others and also has trouble academically. He or she usually has negative attitudes and beliefs about others, feels negatively toward himself/herself, comes from a family environment characterized by conflict and poor parenting, perceives school as negative and is negatively influenced by peers. Dr Clayton R. Cook
• Most bullies are the product of a stressful and often abusive home life. Next time a bully threatens or attacks you, just yell, ‘Don’t abuse me like your parents abuse you!’ Then call children’s services and tell them you saw this bully crying in the bathroom and you’re worried about him. Bam! He just got moved to a foster home. Eugene Mirman
• People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer. Dan Pearce
• Self-esteem

.

It’s understandable and natural to hate those who bully …

• He understood it when other kids were mean to him. It didn’t bother him. He simply hated them. As long as he hated them, it didn’t matter what they thought of him. Louis Sachar
• It’s been happening since I was in kindergarten. Not them all the time, but other kids, you know. Every day. It never stops, and it never goes away, thanks to the Internet–it just keeps happening every minute, every day. And I just want it to stop. I think about how to do it, you know. How to kill them. All kinds of elaborate things, like trapping them in pits and burying them alive, or covering them with concrete. Rachel Caine, Bite Club
• Hate

.

… and to wish the worst on them

• When bullies grow old and frail their only victims are themselves. Fear and vulnerability paints warped haggardness upon their skin, and they become as ugly on the outside, as they are within. Bona
• The narcissistic bully gazed upon himself in his mind’s recess until he died of his own dear nastiness. Bona

.

However, loving the bully and helping the bully to love themselves is often a more effective solution

• If bullies actually believe that somebody loves them and believes in them, they will love themselves, they will become better people, and many will even become saviours to the bullied. Dan Pearce
• Don’t hate the bullies. Experience tells me that hating them, or being angry with them, will always make it worse. Instead, put your arm around them. Love them. Tell them that they are valuable. Tell them that you expect great things from them. They will stop the bullying. They will stop, because they will start to love themselves. And people who love themselves don’t bully others. Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing
• People who love themselves, don’t hurt other people. The more we hate ourselves, the more we want others to suffer. Dan Pearce
• Love

.

.

Bullies tend to pick on those who are different

• I find ‘Edward Scissorhands’ a very inspiring movie – it’s one of the first movies about bullying, in a way – about being treated unkindly for being different. Denise Di Novi
• I was different unique and always happy. At school this attracted playground harassment. Nowadays, while I remain effervescent, quicker to perceive enmity I reserve my warmest touches and smiles for those who smolder with envy. Clarence Day

.

Bullies tend to pick on the good

• The common mistake that bullies make is assuming that because someone is nice that he or she is weak. Those traits have nothing to do with each other. In fact, it takes considerable strength and character to be a good person. Mary Elizabeth Williams
• Only the best are bullied. Tim Field

.

.

When bullied, sometimes it’s best to stand your ground and fight back

• Some people won’t be happy until they’ve pushed you to the ground. What you have to do is have the courage to stand your ground and not give them the time of day. Hold on to your power and never give it away. Donna Schoenrock
• Life is a fight, but not everyone’s a fighter. Otherwise, bullies would be an endangered species. Andrew Vachss
• Liston is like most big bullies, if you can stay away and make him miss for a few rounds he’ll get frustrated. Once you strip away that feeling of invincibility, he can be had. Rocky Marciano
• If there are no heroes to save you, then you be the hero. Denpa Kyoshi
• Am I allowing my inner bully to trip me up? How can I reframe what my inner bully is saying so that it’s constructive criticism which I can use to improve?
• Perhaps it is only human nature to inflict suffering on anything that will endure suffering, whether by reason of its genuine humility, or indifference, or sheer helplessness. Honoré de Balzac

.

When bullied, sometimes it’s best not to respond

• Here’s what I’ve learned – people will hurt you, but you don’t have to respond – not every mean comment or cruel act deserves to be noticed. John Geddes

.

When bullied, remember no-one can take away your dignity

• One’s dignity may be assaulted, vandalized and cruelly mocked, but it can never be taken away unless it is surrendered. Michael J. Fox
• No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Eleanor Roosevelt
• Dignity

.

When bullied, take heart …

• If I could give one message to the bullied, it would be this: You are not alone. You are strong. You have a voice. You are beautiful. You are intelligent. There are many kids who want to speak up for you, but they don’t because they are afraid of becoming bullied themselves. There are many of us in the world who love you. I love you. You have the power to end this now. That power is in your voice. Find it. Once you use your voice, bullies want no part of you. If you feel that you lack the courage, fake it until you do. Finally, I know it’s hard to see a life that exists beyond high school. It is there, and it is beautiful. Dan Pearce, Single Dad Laughing
• If the wicked flourish, and thou suffer, be not discouraged; they are fatted for destruction, thou art dieted for health. Thomas Fuller
• When people hurt you over and over, think of them like sand paper. They may scratch and hurt you a bit, but in the end, you end up polished and they end up useless. Chris Colfer

.

… and keep hope alive

• There is a light at the end of the tunnel but first you’ll have to find the light switch and change the bulb before switching it on yourself. No problem, as targets of bullying are picked on for their competence and abilities. Tim Field
• No matter how much bullying they inflict on my body, as long as I have this hope, I can endure any pain. Ruth Ozeki
• Hope

.

When bullied, see it as an opportunity to rise above

• I got made fun of constantly in High School. That’s what built my character. That’s what makes you who you are. When you get made fun of, when people point out your weaknesses. that’s just another opportunity for you to rise above. Zac Efron
• Go ahead, bully me; but in 30 years, the only thing people will remember is that I am your boss. J.E. Allotey
• By the time I came out, that kind of stopped it. The bullying stopped when I claimed myself and proved that I wasn’t afraid. A lot of it was when I was hiding when I was younger. Randy Harrison
• Transcendence

.

.

Bullying should be taken seriously

• Being bullied by a serial bully is equivalent to being stalked or being battered by a partner or being abused as a child and should be accorded the same gravity. Tim Field

.

Don’t stand by and allow others to be bullied

• If you see someone being bullied, make it stop. Why is that so hard for us to do? Susane Colasanti
• If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor. If an elephant has its foot on the tail of a mouse, and you say that you are neutral, the mouse will not appreciate your neutrality. Desmond Tutu
• I’ve realized that you become a bully if you are just watching someone get bullied and you don’t say anything. Speak up! Emma Roberts
• I was bullied quite a lot when I was growing up in my Peking Opera School. I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn’t know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself. Jackie Chan

.

Never turn your face away

• Don’t turn your face away. Once you’ve seen, you can no longer act like you don’t know. Open your eyes to the truth. It’s all around you. Don’t deny what the eyes to your soul have revealed to you. Now that you know, you cannot feign ignorance. Now that you’re aware of the problem, you cannot pretend you don’t care. To be concerned is to be human. To act is to care. Vashti Quiroz-Vega
• There is no gesture more devastating than the back turning away. Rachel Simmons

.

Unless action is taken, a culture of bullying becomes perpetuated

• Often bullying takes place in the presence of a large group of relatively uninvolved bystanders. Unless the “bully mentality” is effectively challenged in any given group in its early stages, it often becomes an accepted, or supported, norm within the group. Science News, New Tactics To Tackle Bystander’s Role In Bullying, 2009
• Unless action is taken, a “culture of bullying” is often perpetuated within a group for months, years, or longer.  Ira Glass

.

Preventing bullying in school prevents bullying later on in life

• When I tell people I work to stop hazing in high schools I am almost always met with shocked expressions. ‘High school? Really? I thought that was something that only arrogant frat guys do in college.’ But it’s true – as long as I have worked on preventing bullying in high schools, I have worked to prevent hazing. Rosalind Wiseman

.

Child bullies turn into adult bullies

• People don’t stop being bullies when they grow up. They just dress differently to fool you. Patti Digh

.

.

Cyber bullying is turning into a huge concern

• Cyber-bullying is poised to turn into the biggest online concern, already affecting up to 35% of all children. Dr Martyn Wild

.

Cyberbullying is bullying, often at its most vicious

• Unless and until our society recognizes cyber bullying for what it is, the suffering of thousands of silent victims will continue. Anna Maria Chavez
• Cyberbullying is Bullying. Hiding behind a pretty screen, doesn’t make it less hateful, written words have power.
• Cyber bullies can hide behind a mask of anonymity online and do not need direct physical access to their victims to do unimaginable harm. Anna Maria Chavez

.

Cyber bullying, through its anonymity, allows the timid and weak to become bullies

• The proverb: “It is easy to frighten a bull from the window.” Means: When protected from retribution it becomes all too easy to frighten and torment someone more powerful than yourself. Thus, in the past we associated the school- bully with size and aggression, whereas now technology has brought us the cyber-bully an anonymous wannabe who is more likely to be witless and timid. Jerome Castlema
• The cyber bully is nothing more than a coward with a gadget. J. R. Bowen
• It’s easy to be mean when you’re anonymous. There’s a lot of people who wouldn’t have the cajones to say in person what they do online. But you can’t listen to somebody you don’t even know. Opinions of your friends and family matter, but you can’t listen to somebody who is nobody to you. Brendan Dooling
• Cyber-Bullies can be defined as the ultimate cowards. Technology offers a shield behind which they can snipe at random victims. Would these latent bullies have surfaced otherwise? Probably not. The childhood beast within them need never be tamed by social conditioning. Instead of being suppressed it becomes expressed, cultivated. Bona

.

.

The workplace hides many serial bullies

• Recently there’s been a trend to apply the term bullying to any kind of conflict at work, for example overwork and long hours. Although some bullying behaviours may be present in these issues, in my view this dilutes and devalues the term workplace bullying which should be used only for the more serious cases of conflict involving a serial bully. If there isn’t a serial bully involved, it’s probably not bullying you’re dealing with. Tim Field
• Nothing can prepare you for living or working with a sociopathic serial bully. It is the most devastating, draining, misunderstood, and ultimately futile experience imaginable. Tim Field

.

Workplace bullying is bad for business

• Workplace bullying – in any form – is bad for business. It destroys teamwork, commitment and morale. Tony Morgan
• The serial bully, who in my estimation accounts for about one person in thirty in society, is the single most important threat to the effectiveness of organisations, the profitability of industry, the performance of the economy, and the prosperity of society. Tim Field
• Most organisations have a serial bully. It never ceases to amaze me how one person’s divisive dysfunctional behaviour can permeate the entire organisation like a cancer. Tim Field

.

Bullying is never good management

• Good management and bullying have as much in common as great sex and rape. Tim Field
• Management

.

Managerial bullies often bully to hide their own deficiencies

• The bully tends to emerge in the professional workplace where managerial positions are often filled due to educational background and/or the means to purchase partnerships. Thus, those tutored beyond their level of intelligence stroll into positions of authority. When work demands surpass their abilities, these oafs begin to browbeat and bully subordinates in an effort to camouflage their own deficiencies. Jerome Castlema
• Bullying consists of the least competent most aggressive employee projecting their incompetence on to the least aggressive most competent employee and winning. Tim Field

.

Unfortunately, the workplace often favours the bullies over the bullied

• Why does the UK government ignore workplace bullying? Our system of democracy – government and law – is based on the adversarial model. To be successful in these fields, bullying behaviour is almost a prerequisite. Tim Field
• One would not expect a victim of rape to have to single-handedly identify, trace, catch, arrest, prosecute, convict and punish the person who raped her. Targets of bullying often find themselves doing all of these whilst those in positions of authority persistently abdicate and deny responsibility. Tim Field
• Those in powerless positions aren’t about to complain about bullying bosses, abusive supervisors or corrupt co-workers. There is no safe way to do so and no process that promises redress. Margaret Heffernan

.

Workplace bullies need to be held accountable

• Any anti-bullying scheme, initiative or policy which fails to mention accountability for the bullies is likely to meet with little, and often no, success. Tim Field
• When a bully is held accountable for his actions, his future actions will change. Bad behaviour only continues for those who allow it. Gary Hopkins

.

.

Laughter at someone’s expense is a form of bullying

• My pain may be the reason for somebody’s laugh. But my laugh must never be the reason for somebody’s pain. Charlie Chaplin
• Most comedy is based on getting a laugh at somebody else’s expense. And I find that that’s just a form of bullying in a major way. So, I want to be an example that you can be funny and be kind, and make people laugh without hurting somebody else’s feelings. Ellen DeGeneres
• Everyone at his table laughs. They know I can hear them. They just don’t care. Susane Colasanti
• Laughter

.

Criticism can be a form of bullying

• Criticism can be a form of bullying on the one hand, and on the other hand – if it’s delivered by someone who genuinely has your best interests at heart – it can be a gift. Elly Prior
• Criticism

.

Gossiping can be a form of bullying

• All the whispering, glaring, pointing and judging makes them no better than whoever or whatever it is they’re gossiping about. Tiffany King
• Gossip

.

Constant self-criticism is a form of self-bullying

• Constant self-criticism makes it harder for you to deal appropriately with criticism from others. In a sense, you’re bullying yourself. It’s very unlikely that you’d say the things you’re telling yourself to your best friend. Yet you’re happy to undermine yourself? It’s time to stop.  Elly Prior
• Don’t let your mind bully your body into believing it must carry the burden of its worries. Astrid Alauda
• Am I allowing my inner bully to trip me up? How can I reframe what my inner bully is saying so that it’s constructive criticism which I can use to improve?

.

.

Don’t believe in a God who is a bully

• The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully. Richard Dawkins

.

Many bullies have a Jekyll and Hyde nature

• The Bully has a Jekyll and Hyde nature – is vile, vicious and vindictive in private, but innocent and charming in front of witnesses; no-one can (or wants to) believe this individual has a vindictive nature – only the current target of the serial bully’s aggression sees both sides; whilst the Jekyll side is described as “charming” and convincing enough to deceive personnel, management and a tribunal, the Hyde side is frequently described as “evil”; Hyde is the real person, Jekyll is an act. Tim Field

.

Don’t allow the world to bully you but instead, take it by the beard

• When a resolute young fellow steps up to the great bully, the world, and takes him boldly by the beard, he is often surprised to find it comes off in his hand, and that it was only tied on to scare away the timid adventurers. Ralph Waldo Emerson

.

Never be bullied into silence

• Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life, but define yourself.  Tim Fields

.

Bullying others achieves nothing

• You will never reach higher ground if you are always pushing others down. Jeffrey Benjamin
• No one heals himself by wounding another. Ambrose

.

If you are a parent, take care not to bully your children

• Teaching prejudice to a child is itself a form of bullying. You’ve got to be taught to hate. Roger Ebert
• Most adults would not dream of belittling, humiliating, or bullying (verbally or physically) another adult. But many of the same adults think nothing of treating their adolescent child like a nonperson. . . . Adolescents deserve the same civility their parents routinely extend to total strangers. Laurence Steinberg

.

• Asshole Proximity Disorder. Stefan Molyneux
• The cyber bully is nothing more than a coward with a gadget. J. R. Bowen
• I bought one of those anti-bullying wristbands when they first came out. I say “bought” I actually stole it off a short fat kid.  Jack Whitehall

.

.