Internal Conflict Quotes

“We’re built of contradictions, all of us. It’s those opposing forces that give us strength, like an arch, each block pressing the next. Give me a man whose parts are all aligned in agreement and I’ll show you madness. We walk a narrow path, insanity to each side. A man without contradictions to balance him will soon veer off.”
― Mark Lawrence, King of Thorns

“Dad, will they ever come back?"

"No. And yes." Dad tucked away his harmonica. "No not them. But yes, other people like them. Not in a carnival. God knows what shape they'll come in next. But sunrise, noon, or at the latest, sunset tomorrow they'll show. They're on the road."

"Oh, no," said Will.

"Oh, yes, said Dad. "We got to watch out the rest of our lives. The fight's just begun."

They moved around the carousel slowly.

"What will they look like? How will we know them?"

"Why," said Dad, quietly, "maybe they're already here."

Both boys looked around swiftly.

But there was only the meadow, the machine, and themselves.

Will looked at Jim, at his father, and then down at his own body and hands. He glanced up at Dad.

Dad nodded, once, gravely, and then nodded at the carousel, and stepped up on it, and touched a brass pole.

Will stepped up beside him. Jim stepped up beside Will.

Jim stroked a horse's mane. Will patted a horse's shoulders.

The great machine softly tilted in the tides of night.

Just three times around, ahead, thought Will. Hey.

Just four times around, ahead, thought Jim. Boy.

Just ten times around, back, thought Charles Halloway. Lord.

Each read the thoughts in the other's eyes.

How easy, thought Will.

Just this once, thought Jim.

But then, thought Charles Halloway, once you start, you'd always come back. One more ride and one more ride. And, after awhile, you'd offer rides to friends, and more friends until finally...

The thought hit them all in the same quiet moment.

...finally you wind up owner of the carousel, keeper of the freaks...

proprietor for some small part of eternity of the traveling dark carnival shows....

Maybe, said their eyes, they're already here.”
― Ray Bradbury, Something Wicked This Way Comes

“Years already I'd been trying to understand what was inside me, while the rest of the world was trying it to tear it out.”
― Kawai Strong Washburn, Sharks in the Time of Saviors

“The internal war you wage with yourself may not be seen by others, but is always felt by you!”
― Lorraine Nilon, Your Insight and Awareness Book: Your life is an expedition to discover the truth of yourself

“I'm silent when there is a war inside me. There's a need to keep the people outside intact.”
― Darnell Lamont Walker

“What many may call 'the silent treatment' is sometimes merely a matter of some individual being angry while trying not to be angry - that internal war and self-reflection on whether or not the bomb should be dropped, and if so, in what way shall it be dropped.”
― Criss Jami

“The inner wars, and the outer ones, go on while I pray and struggle; sometimes in the middle of a dark night of the soul I wonder how they became my wars to fight. And then I hear a voice that says, “Why not me?”
― Judy Collins, Sweet Judy Blue Eyes: My Life in Music

“Your biggest battles internally happen in boredom.”
― J.R. Rim

“Chasing a butterfly with a hammer. - On Uncouth Diplomacy”
― Lamine Pearlheart, Awakening

“I knew it would end. I pretended I didn't because that seemed like the human thing to do. But I knew. She wanted monogamy, indefinitely. It's who she was. I wanted non-monogamy, indeterminately. It's who I am. We settled on monogamy, indeterminately, sacrificing parts of ourselves to be together and calling it love.”
― Tali Sara, Screaming into Pillows

“I am my own monster.”
― Kerri Maniscalco, Capturing the Devil

“She had an internal battle between letting go and holding on to tradition.”
― Soroosh Shahrivar, Tajrish

“… Did you, too … think me a dog turd as Dad did? If not, why didn’t you fight, gouge his eyes out when he regretted you conceiving me? You know Mom; I felt like I was an illegitimate child dumped in a waste bin by her incestuous mother.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… I loved you, didn’t I, Dad? I could’ve come on one of these days to apologize to you for all my acts that had hurt you, only if you were there.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… The ferocious feeling of guilt within me, possesses me, time and again, shoving me to let them know. Nevertheless, how can I? Facts so explosive … every time I decide to tell, my courage fails me.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“… Why didn’t you ever tell me, Dad? I never loved you less than I did when you were so confident about the success of my tennis career; never.”
― P. Sheelwant, The Foe Within

“One, should be mindful, the conflicts inside you are greater and more destructive than those involving others and the environment. The internal conflict, centers on decisions and choices; where confliction takes root. Should we push the button lite by the conscious or the one, others have chosen for us. If the heart is in the picture, run in that direction.”
― Gandolfo – (RJ Intindola) – 1984

“Romanticism, when placed in the hands of a realist, is the psychological waging of war.”
― Tali Sara, Screaming into Pillows

“On days when I am still and quiet, I want her to remember that the real war wages on the inside.”
― Najaha Nauf, Slow Dancing with The Stars

“... I shudder at the thought of what people might do with this freedom from duty. The majority of our race has become too dysfunctional to embrace such freedom productively. Most have become addicted to work as a means to escape their own internal discomfort. More free time could spur either a worldwide healing, or a rapid decline into chaos.”
― Sita Bennett, She Who Rose From Ashes

“Sometimes simple words can rock your psyche and leave you struggling to find worth in your own life. When those words come from your parents, the scars are deeper and uglier.”
― Courtney M. Privett, Sand into Glass

“So many claim holy purity
Whilst dipping their toes into forbidden infernos
Hidden shame haunts their purity cloak
Still smoldering from their last inquisition
Both 'purity' and 'forbidden' serve as their internal partition
Declaring both Heaven and Hell are within them.

Deanna Lawlis”
― Deanna L. Lawlis, Of Ashes and Embers: Exploring Self Awareness After Spiritual Trauma

“You ask me about regret? Let me tell you a few things about regret, my darling. There is no end to it. You cannot find the beginning of the chain that brought us from there to here. Should you regret the whole chain, and the air in between, or each link separately, as if you could uncouple them? Do you regret the beginning which ended so badly, or just the ending itself? I’ve given more thought to this question than you can begin to imagine.”
― Janet Fitch, White Oleander

“I don’t want to have this conversation with him. It really isn’t my place.
This is his life. His wife. His house. And I’m only going to be here for another two days at the most. I dry my hands on a towel just as the microwave beeps. He doesn’t move to open it because he’s too busy staring at me, attempting to coax more out of me with that look.”
― Colleen Hoover, Verity

“Her voice was barely above a whisper. “What if I can’t?”
Echo’s gaze didn’t waver. “Then you’ll go back, and you’ll survive the way they want you to. But you’ll always wonder. And wonder has a way of eating at you, Lexa. It doesn’t let go.”
― Andrei Chetan

“(WHEN I WAS A CHILD)
I was told that I was insane,
seeing doctors in hospitals
far away from home.

LITTLE WHITE PILLS
inside small transparent containers
that could fit my baby teeth
like seashells, I dreamed.

WHEN I WAS A CHILD
my mind made up things—
not castles of sand,
nor careless childish dreams.

NOW I AM GROWN
I can’t see myself anymore,
behind walls of lights
I painted on as a child.

(BUT NOWADAYS)
I cannot think back and wonder
if these things ever really happened.”
― Laura Chouette

“Even though she was afraid of living, she didn't want to die.”
― Ava Reid, A Study in Drowning

“Conflict within is natural: just as gods quarrel in mythic tales, it’s normal for different parts of you to disagree or clash.”
― Kevin L. Michel, The Council of Gods

“The hidden struggles are often the hardest to fight.”
― Bhuwan Thapaliya

“Elara's voice, tight with desperation, cracked as she confided, "I'm trying to balance it all, sœur de mon cœur" [ sister of my heart]. The endearment, a subconscious plea, hung in the air – a lifeline tossed in hopes of finding understanding. "The coven, Declan... Ma Déesse- My Goddess, I don't want to choose, non, and I honestly don't know if I can, you see." She wrung her hands. "It's like... like trying to hold the moon and the bayou in the same hands, tu comprends- you understand? Both are so deeply a part of me, hein? Ingrained in who I am, woven into the tapestry of my soul. The coven is my heritage, my family, my duty. Mais Declan... Declan il est mon autre moitié.” [he is my other half] Her voice broke again. "I simply cannot bring myself to let either one go – it would be like tearing myself in half, mon ami.”
― Alexis Marie LaRue, Under The Blood Moon