Composure Quotes

“If you truly want to be respected by people you love, you must prove to them that you can survive without them.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, The Infinity Sign

“Always remember that you were once alone, and the crowd you see in your life today are just as unecessary as when you were alone.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“There are better people in the world, do not let the worst do the worst to you, you deserve the best in life.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson

“The truly cultured are capable of owning thousands of unread books without losing their composure or their desire for more.”
― Gabriel Zaid, So Many Books: Reading and Publishing in an Age of Abundance

“Always behave like a duck- keep calm and unruffled on the surface, but paddle like the devil underneath.”
― Jacob Braude

“Losing your head in a crisis is a good way to become the crisis.”
― C.J. Redwine, Defiance

“A lady must retain always her composure. Even in a rainstorm, she must appear joyous and dry. When she loses her composure, then the respect of her peers and her staff will follow in short order.”
― Anna Godbersen, The Luxe

“With a philosophy education, one can infuriate his peers, intimidate his date, think of obscure, unreliable ways to make money, and never regret a thing.”
― Criss Jami, Diotima, Battery, Electric Personality

“composure, n.

You told me anyway, even though I didn’t want to know. A stupid drunken fling while you were visiting Toby in Austin. Months ago. And the thing I hate the most is knowing how much hinges on my reaction, how your unburdening can only lead to me being burdened. If I lose it now, I will lose you, too. I know that. I hate it.

You wait for my response.”
― David Levithan, The Lover's Dictionary

“He’d pushed it back, where he’d kept the thought for weeks, but it wouldn’t stay. Wouldn’t stop. Wouldn’t let him go.”
― Veronica Rossi, Through the Ever Night

“To live with tremendous and proud composure; always beyond —. To have and not to have one's affects, one's pro and con, at will; to condescend to them, for a few hours; to seat oneself on them as on a horse, often as on an ass — for one must know how to make use of their stupidity as much as of their fire. To reserve one's three hundred foregrounds; also the dark glasses; for there are cases when nobody may look into our eyes, still less into our "grounds." And to choose for company that impish and cheerful vice, courtesy. And to remain master of one's four virtues: of courage, insight, sympathy, and solitude.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil

“Although she was fragile in appearance, every prohibition lost substance in her presence.”
― Elena Ferrante

“If we are calm," replied the policeman, "it is the calm of organized resistance."
"Eh?" said Syme, staring.
"The soldier must be calm in the thick of the battle," pursued the policeman. "The composure of an army is the anger of a nation.”
― G.K. Chesterton, The Man Who Was Thursday: A Nightmare

“She had the experience to suffer with discretion.”
― John le Carré, Call for the Dead

“Common man's patience will bring him more happiness than common man's power.”
― Amit Kalantri, Wealth of Words

“Do not be proud of the fact that your grandmother was shocked at something which your are accustomed to seeing or hearing without being shocked. ... It may be that your grandmother was an extremely lively and vital animal and that you are a paralytic.”
― G.K. Chesterton

“As soon as anger knocks at one’s door, wisdom prepares to leave.”
― Pawan Mishra, Coinman: An Untold Conspiracy

“- 'Poise is perfect balance, an equanimity of body and mind, complete composure whatever the social scene. Elegant dress, immaculate grooming, and perfect deportment all contribute to the attainment of self-confidence.' -”
― Muriel Spark, The Girls of Slender Means

“Idly, Wick wondered if he should feel insulted. Then he decided there really wasn't any room for considering an insult with all the fear running rampant in his mind. Maybe he was quiet on the outside, but he knew he was running around screaming inside his thoughts.”
― Mel Odom, The Quest for the Trilogy: A Rover Novel of Three Adventures

“When you have mastery in combat, you not only meet a fight with composure and skill, you become an artist of movement, expressing yourself powerfully in the immediate, unfolding present with absolute freedom and certainty.”
― Shannon Lee, Be Water, My Friend: The Teachings of Bruce Lee

“If you wish to know things better and understand their workings more profoundly, make sure that you keep yourself at a certain distance from them, like presbyopic eyes that demand a particular range in order to see clearly.”
― Giannis Delimitsos

“Receive wealth or prosperity without arrogance and you shall then be ready to part from them with equal composure”
― Marcus Aurelius, Meditations

“There's undeniable strength in remaining calm and composed in any situation—it's often the least anticipated response.”
― N'Zuri Za Austin

“I discovered that it is necessary, absolutely necessary, to believe in nothing. That is, we have to believe in something that has no form and no color - something which exists before all forms and colors appear. This is a very important point. No matter what god or doctrine you believe in, if you become attached to it, your belief will be based more or less on a self-centered idea. You strive for a perfect faith in order to save yourself. But it will take time to attain such perfect faith. You will be involved in an idealistic practice. In constantly seeking to actualize your ideal, you will have no time for composure. But if you are always prepared for accepting everything we see as something appearing from nothing, knowing that there is some reason why a phenomenal existence of such and such form and color appears, then at that moment you will have perfect composure.”
― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice

“Although the demeanour is calm, the glint in the eyes betrays a maelstrom of emotions.”
― Danilo Vukovljak

“It's not what happens to you, but how you react to it that matters.
We cannot choose our external circumstances, but we can always choose how we respond to them”
― Epictetus

“That's you being shot at, is it?'
'Afraid so,' says Amy.
'Welcome to Dublin,' says the taxi driver, putting her foot hard to the floor and screeching away. As they take a bend at speed, one final shot smashes the back window.
The driver looks at where her window used to be, and at Amy brushing glass from her jacket.
'I'll not ask if it's business or pleasure.”
― Richard Osman, We Solve Murders

“Hustle in silence and let your thunder shake the world.”
― Sarah Voldeng, The Art of an Enlightened Woman: A Manifesto

“But in times of difficulty or misfortune he was completely master of his nerves.” — on Napoleon”
― Napoléon Bonaparte

“Composure isn’t hiding emotion it’s guiding it so others don’t lose theirs.”
― Shamail Aijaz, The Calm Within the Storm: Leading Beyond Ego