“People are never quite so strange to each other as when they are forced into artificial, crowded and stifled relationship.”

—  Eugene V. Debs

The Issue (1908)
Context: People are never quite so strange to each other as when they are forced into artificial, crowded and stifled relationship.
I would rather be friendless out on the American desert than to be friendless in New York or Chicago.

Adopted from Wikiquote. Last update June 3, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "People are never quite so strange to each other as when they are forced into artificial, crowded and stifled relationsh…" by Eugene V. Debs?
Eugene V. Debs photo
Eugene V. Debs108
American labor and political leader 1855–1926

Related quotes

Ben Croshaw photo

“A 'relationship' occurs when two people run out of things to say to each other, so they shut each other up by putting their genitals in each other's mouths. A break up comes about when they run out of things to do with those, too.”

Ben Croshaw (1983) English video game journalist

11 November 2010
Fully Ramblomatic

“Love is the free exercise of choice. Two people love each other only when they are quite capable of living without each other but choose to live with each other.”

M. Scott Peck (1936–2005) American psychiatrist

Mark Manson photo

“The mark of an unhealthy relationship is two people who try to solve each other’s problems in order to feel good about themselves. Rather, a healthy relationship is when two people solve their own problems in order to feel good about each other.”

Mark Manson (1984) American writer and blogger

Source: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck (2016), Chapter 8, “The Importance of Saying No” (pp. 177-178)

“If our love for each other really is participatory, then all other human relationships nourish it; it is inclusive, never exclusive.”

Madeleine L'Engle (1918–2007) American writer

The Crosswicks Journal, The Irrational Season (1977)
Context: If our love for each other really is participatory, then all other human relationships nourish it; it is inclusive, never exclusive. If a friendship makes me love Hugh more, then I can trust that friendship. If it thrusts itself between us, then it should be cut out, and quickly.

“Never reveal all of yourself to other people; hold back something in reserve so that people are never quite sure if they really know you.”

Michael Korda (1933) British writer

Power : How To Get It, How To Use It (1976)

Virginia Woolf photo

“But nothing is so strange when one is in love (and what was this except being in love?) as the complete indifference of other people.”

Virginia Woolf book Mrs Dalloway

Source: Mrs. Dalloway

Neamat Imam photo

“Imagine a day when this yard will be crowded with hundreds of leaders of the country. They will compete with each other, argue with each other, insult each other, throw shoes, leather bags, teacups, microphones and chairs at each other, break each other’s neck and determination, and then, at the end of the day, shamelessly compromise with each other for the sake of the party, and on the order of the leader.”

Neamat Imam book The Black Coat

The Black Coat (2013)

“The strongest relationships are between two people who can live without each other but don't want to.”

Harriet Lerner (1944) American psychologist

Source: Marriage Rules: A Manual for the Married and the Coupled Up

“This is fusion, when two people become one. They are so close and so well suited to each other that they blend together. They merge and can't live without each other after that.”

Danielle Steel (1947) American author of romance novels

“The essence of any interpersonal relationship is interaction. Two individuals may be said to have formed a relationship when on repeated occasions they are observed to interact. By interaction it is meant that they emit behavior in each other's presence, they create products for each other, or they communicate with each other. In every case we would identify as an instance of interaction there is at least the possibility that the actions of each person affect the other.”

John Thibaut (1917–1986) American social psychologist

Source: The social psychology of groups. 1959, p. 10

Related topics