Reciprocity Quotes

“Friendship- my definition- is built on two things. Respect and trust. Both elements have to be there. And it has to be mutual. You can have respect for someone, but if you don't have trust, the friendship will crumble.”
― Stieg Larsson, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo

“It is an absolute human certainty that no one can know his own beauty or perceive a sense of his own worth until it has been reflected back to him in the mirror of another loving, caring human being.”
― John Joseph Powell, The Secret of Staying in Love

“Sometimes loneliness makes the loudest noise.”
― Aaron Ben-Ze'ev

“While we are threading our way through the vagaries of life, our shortage of reciprocity and solidarity may corner us into breaches of culpability. We can eschew this and kindle a dream of universalism that does not impose itself but emerges from the world's numerous cultural and topical particularities and enable us to compare, discern, and identify, allowing us to marvel at the diversity. In this way, we can embrace universal recognition, human understanding, peace of mind, and compassion with others and with ourselves. ("I only needed a light ")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Allegiance, after all, has to work two ways; and one can grow weary of an allegiance which is not reciprocal.”
― James Baldwin, Nobody Knows My Name

“If communication cannot achieve consensus, we must live with the broken pieces of unfulfilled expectations and recognize the failure of dialogue, trust, and reciprocity. In the meantime, let us identify the cracks and breaches in the blurred mirror of the past and build a new canvas of hope and clarity. ("Poste Restante")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“If love is not tied to a desire for reciprocity or mutual recognition, we should make no emotional investment, leaving behind only memories of lost hope or broken promises. ("Poste Restante")”
― Erik Pevernagie

“Love is never wasted, for its value does not rest on reciprocity.”
― C.S. Lewis

“THE UNFORGIVEN


Tell me if you've ever had to deal with these kinds of people:

The kind who take and don't give.
The kind to whom you give and give,
And they keep asking.
The kind to whom you give and give and they say you gave nothing.
The kind whom have never offered anything,
But act like they're the ones providing
EVERYTHING.

The kind you give and give,
But take more than you can give.
And when they have already taken everything,
They get mad at you when you say you have
Nothing more to give.

The unforgiving,
The misgiving,
Wastefully living -
And selfishly driven.
The rat that never gives back,
Yet is so quick to attack -
Because they think the word
TAKING
Seriously means
GIVING.”
― Suzy Kassem, Rise Up and Salute the Sun: The Writings of Suzy Kassem

“The truly gifted negotiator, then, is one whose initial position is exaggerated enough to allow for a series of concessions that will yield a desirable final offer from the opponent, yet is not so outlandish as to be seen as illegitimate from the start.”
― Robert Cialdini, Influence

“On No Work of Words

On no work of words now for three lean months in the bloody
Belly of the rich year and the big purse of my body
I bitterly take to task my poverty and craft:

To take to give is all, return what is hungrily given
Puffing the pounds of manna up through the dew to heaven,
The lovely gift of the gab bangs back on a blind shaft.

To lift to leave from the treasures of man is pleasing death
That will rake at last all currencies of the marked breath
And count the taken, forsaken mysteries in a bad dark.

To surrender now is to pay the expensive ogre twice.
Ancient woods of my blood, dash down to the nut of the seas
If I take to burn or return this world which is each man's work.”
― Dylan Thomas, Collected Poems

“Know that you get second chances so that you may change the art of your interaction, not so that others might finally treat you with the loving respect you deserve (and you do deserve loving respect).”
― Alexandra Katehakis, Mirror of Intimacy: Daily Reflections on Emotional and Erotic Intelligence

“Reciprocal accountability, or criticism [is] the only known antidote to error.”
― David Brin

“...she grasped the terrible truth that love can never be compelled, from man, from sprite, from beast; that one who loves, however she longs for requital, however long she waits, may receive in return the reverse of what she gives, the dark side of the moon.”
― Thomas Burnett Swann, The Weirwoods

“Perhaps the most legitimately dispiriting thing about reciprocal altruism is that it is a misnomer. Whereas with kin selection the "goal" of our genes is to actually help another organism, with reciprocal altruism the goal is that the organism be left under the impression that we've helped; the impression alone is enough to bring the reciprocation.”
― Robert Wright

“When we speak of these not as things or natural resources or commodities, but as gifts, our whole relationship to the natural world changes.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

“The essence of the Torah is the command: Do not do unto others as you should not want them to do unto you—the rest is commentary. Go and study.”
― Erich Fromm, You Shall Be as Gods: A Radical Interpretation of the Old Testament and Its Traditions

“Those who make withdrawals without making deposits, eventually find the relationship empty for future withdrawals”
― John Arthur, The Law Of Reciprocity

“To harm nature is to harm yourself. To care for it is to care not just for yourself, but for the entire universe.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, These Words Pour Like Rain

“The prosperity of the community grows from the flow of relationships, not the accumulation of goods. When the natural world is understood as a gift instead of private property, there are ethical constraints on the accumulation of abundance that is not yours to own. Gifts are not meant to be hoarded, and thus made scarce for others, but given away, which generates sufficiency for all.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, The Serviceberry: Abundance and Reciprocity in the Natural World

“Making deposits in relationships are as important as making withdrawals.”
― John Arthur, The Law Of Reciprocity

“This principle of reciprocity--a give-and-take in a relationship of balance--is not just some transaction done to advance one's own aims. Traditionally, Native Americans see reciprocity as a natural law of the universe and as crucial for humans to maintain harmony.”
― Randy Woodley, Journey to Eloheh: How Indigenous Values Lead Us to Harmony and Well-Being

“When you find love, keep it. When you have love, give it.”
― Michael Bassey Johnson, These Words Pour Like Rain

“In a culture of gratitude, everyone knows that gifts will follow the circle of reciprocity and flow back to you again.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants

“I am not sure that energy company executives who say they want to understand the concerns of Indigenous people can actually do so unless they can grasp the emotional weight and social obligations carried by people who balance on the knife-edge of permanent cultural loss.”
― Ryan Emanuel, On the Swamp: Fighting for Indigenous Environmental Justice

“Even a thousand acts of kindness can be undone by a single unintentional harm, revealing the fragility of trust in human relationships, and the harsh truth stares into one's eyes that humans are often so self-centered and selfish that reliability and reciprocity seems an illusion in this world.”
― Renuka Goria

“You deserve to be treated well, respected and supported; particularly by the people you treat well, respect and support. If there is no reciprocity, it is time to say goodbye for good.”
― Rodolfo Peon

“What I'm really saying is
in the end, we all turned to each other,
carried and held and helped each other,
gave what comfort we could to each other,
thrown over and over back to each other.
What I'm really saying is -
our ability to care for each other,
to stand with each other,
it's all that we have
in the end.

In the End”
― Clare Shaw, Straight Ahead

“You don’t remember it, but when you were a baby… someone protected and helped you, too. The strong protect the weak. Then the weak get stronger and help those weaker than themselves. That is the law of nature!”
― Koyoharu Gotouge, Demon Slayer 08

“The land doesn’t forget who listened. Neither do people.”
― Lawrence Nault