Stigma Quotes

• Follow the path of the unsafe, independent thinker. Expose your ideas to the danger of controversy. Speak your mind and fear less the label of "crackpot" than the stigma of conformity.

  Thomas J. Watson

  Life, Motivational, Fear

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• Stigma is a process by which the reaction of others spoils normal identity.

  Erving Goffman

  Identity, Normal, Reactions

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• Mental illness is nothing to be ashamed of, but stigma and bias shame us all.

  William J. Clinton

  Healing, Bipolar, Helpful

  "10 Male Celebrities Who Are Smashing Mental Health Stereotypes" by Lindsay Holmes, www.huffingtonpost.com. June 16, 2016.

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• Step by step, we will break this cycle of silence, poor information and stigma.

  Chevy Chase

  Silence, Information, Steps

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• Stigma hurts. Because of AIDS, children are bullied, isolated and shut out of school. They are missing out on education. They are missing out on medicines. Children are missing your love, care and protection. Join me. And become a stigma buster. UNITE FOR CHILDREN UNITE AGAINST AIDS

  Jackie Chan

  Hurt, Children, School

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• For there are two possible reactions to social ostracism - either a man emerges determined to be better, purer, and kindlier or he goes bad, challenges the world and does even worse things. The last is by far the commonest reaction to stigma.

  John Steinbeck

  Men, Two, Challenges

  John Steinbeck (2009). “The Short Novels of John Steinbeck: (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition)”, p.429, Penguin

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• By telling my own story, I hope to help remove the stigma. It never should be something to hide.

  Richard Dreyfuss

  Stories, Helping, Should

  "Richard Dreyfuss Opens Up About His Battle with Bipolar Disorder" by Paul Chi, people.com. November 11, 2013.

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• The only reason I've shared my story is to take that tiny baby step of breaking down the stigma attached to depression.

  Clara Hughes

  Baby, Stories, Tiny

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• The bravest thing I ever did was continuing my life when I wanted to die.

  Juliette Lewis

  Life, Mental Health, Mental Illness

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• I want to change the cycle of stigma and prejudice that destroys lives all over the world every day. Until we can get in front of people and awaken them to the idea that this is not acceptable.

  Timothy Shriver

  Ideas, People, Prejudice

  Source: abilitymagazine.com

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• There is no stigma attached to recognizing a bad decision in time to install a better one.

  Laurence J. Peter

  Decision, Bad Decision, Recognizing

  DR. LAURENCE J. PETER (1972). “THE PETER PRESCRIPTION HOW TO MAKE THINGS GO RIGHT”

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• Guilt is one side of a nasty triangle; the other two are shame and stigma. This grim coalition combines to inculpate women themselves of the crimes committed against them.

  Germaine Greer

  Two, Guilt, Triangles

  "Guilt poisons women" by Germaine Greer, www.cnn.com. March 12, 2013.

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• Any stigma, as the old saying is, will serve to beat a dogma.

  Philip Guedalla

  Dogma, Beats, Old Saying

  'Masters and Men' (1923) 'Ministers of State'

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• The problem with the stigma around mental health is really about the stories that we tell ourselves as a society. What is normal? That's just a story that we tell ourselves.

  Matthew Quick

  Stories, Normal, Problem

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• Until women themselves reject stigma and refuse to feel shame for the way others treat them, they have no hope of achieving full human stature.

  Germaine Greer

  Way, Shame, Achieve

  "Guilt poisons women" by Germaine Greer, www.cnn.com. March 12, 2013.

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• I want to break down some of the stigma associated with mental illness.

  Gail Porter

  Want, Mental Health, Mental Illness

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• We're all in this together. It's okay to be honest. It's okay to ask for help. It's okay to say you're stuck, or that you're haunted or that you can't begin to let go. We can all relate to those things. Screw the stigma that says otherwise. Break the silence and break the cycle, for you are more than just your pain. You are not alone. And people need other people.

  Jamie Tworkowski

  Letting Go, Pain, People

  Jamie Tworkowski (2015). “If You Feel Too Much: Thoughts on Things Found and Lost and Hoped For”, p.103, Penguin

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• Where LGBT and mental health issues collide is over stigma. And stigma is society's problem not the problem of the LGBT or mental health community. What we have to deal with is the ignorance, fear and prejudice that blight the lives of those who have nothing wrong with them in any moral or transgressive sense. It is society that is ill.

  Stephen Fry

  Ignorance, Issues, Community

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• Joe Louis and I were the first modern national sports figures who were black... But neither of us could do national advertising because the South wouldn't buy it. That was the social stigma we lived under.

  Jesse Owens

  Sports, Black, Firsts

  The Tampa Tribune, April 1, 1980.

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• And we have come so far like that. I mean, the advances on the medication side have been enormous, and the advances on the human side have been enormous. But we still have this stigma to get rid of, and then we really will be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

  Elton John

  Mean, Tunnels, Light

  "Elton John on AIDS: Compassion is Part of the Cure". "PBS Newshour", www.pbs.org. July 24, 2012.

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• Given the reality of unintended parenthood and parental unhappiness, one would think that women and men who make the decision not to have children - who are deliberate and thoughtful about the choice to bring another person into the world - would be seen as less selfish than those who unthinkingly have children. Yet the stigma remains.

  Jessica Valenti

  Children, Selfish, Thoughtful

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• I don't have any stigma attached to my body. When I'm in my own private space, I have very little on.

  Padma Lakshmi

  Space, Littles, Body

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• That all men are alike is exactly what society would like to hear. It considers actual or imagined differences as stigmas indicating that not enough has yet been done; that something has still been left outside its machinery, not quite determined by its totality.

  Theodor Adorno

  Men, Differences, Culture

  Theodor Adorno, Richard Leppert, Susan H. Gillespie (2002). “Essays on Music”, p.79, Univ of California Press

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• I still cannot fathom how difficult it was for the women I met to find out that they were HIV-positive. It is such a courageous undertaking in countries where there is still considerable stigma about the disease. They got tested to ensure that their unborn babies would have a chance of life by being born free of the virus.

  Gabriel Byrne

  Country, Baby, Fighting

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• America is the greatest engine of innovation that has ever existed, and it can't be duplicated anytime soon, because it is the product of a multitude of factors: extreme freedom of thought, an emphasis on independent thinking, a steady immigration of new minds, a risk-taking culture with no stigma attached to trying and failing, a noncorrupt bureaucracy, and financial markets and a venture capital system that are unrivaled at taking new ideas and turning them into global products.

  Thomas Friedman

  Independent, Thinking, Ideas

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