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

“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

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

“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

“Despair is paralysis. It robs us of agency. It blinds us to our own power and the power of the earth… Restoration is a powerful antidote to despair. Restoration offers concrete means by which humans can once again enter into positive, creative relationship with the more-than-human world, meeting responsibilities that are simultaneously material and spiritual. ...

Restoration is imperative for healing the earth, but reciprocity is imperative for long-lasting, successful restoration. Like other mindful practices, ecological restoration can be viewed as an act of reciprocity in which humans exercise their caregiving responsibility for the ecosystems that sustain them. We restore the land, and the land restores us.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

“Reciprocity is key in a Permaculture Economy.”
― Hendrith Vanlon Smith Jr, Principles of a Permaculture Economy

“Take advantage of the time that people give you, without taking advantage of the people giving you time.”
― Curtis Tyrone Jones

“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

“You deserve the level of peace you give to others.”
― Kierra C.T. Banks

“One of the worst things you can do is put kindness out into the world and expect to get it back. Kindness isn’t meant to be reciprocated in vain. It’s a gift. Give it for the sake of giving it. Those who don’t give it back may need it the most, and that in itself is the reward.”
― Daryl Banner, When I See You Again

“Through reciprocity the gift is replenished. All of our flourishing is mutual.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

“When we disconnect from ourselves, we cannot truly connect with others”
― Leo Lourdes, A World of Yoga: 700 Asanas for Mindfulness and Well-Being

“An equally compelling point regarding the power of reciprocity comes from an account of a woman who saved her life not by giving a gift as did the captured soldier, but by refusing a gift and the powerful obligations that went with it.”
― Robert Cialdini, Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion

“If we are going to grow good citizens, then let us teach reciprocity. If what we aspire to is justice for all, then let it be justice for all of creation.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

“Your soulmate never makes you chase them; they might challenge your idleness and lack of initiative, but they never play games with you. You never really count who contributes more in a soulmate relationship. The giving process happens naturally and intuitively, balanced on both sides.This creates abundance and there is never any scarcity in the relationship.
True love means reciprocity. Both of you recognise each other as the One. There is no perfect person, but there is a person who is perfect for you. What makes them perfect for you, apart from their wonderful qualities and their suiting personality traits, is the mere fact that they chose YOU.”
― R.P. Heaven, Awakening Ignited

“Your soulmate never makes you chase them; they might challenge your idleness or lack of initiative, but they never play games with you. You never really count who contributes more in a soulmate relationship. The giving process happens naturally and intuitively, balanced on both sides.This creates abundance and there is never any scarcity in the relationship.
True love means reciprocity. Both of you recognise each other as the One. There is no perfect person, but there is a person who is perfect for you. What makes them perfect for you, apart from their wonderful qualities and suiting personality traits, is the mere fact that they chose YOU.”
― R.P. Heaven, Awakening Ignited

“Knowing her grandchildren would inherit the world she left behind, she did not work for flourishing in her time only. It was through her actions of reciprocity, the give and take with the land, that the original immigrant became Indigenous. For all of us, becoming Indigenous to a place means living as if your children's future mattered, to take care of the land as if our lives, both material and spiritual, depended on it.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants

“Indigenous people have always inherently respected and given back to the Earth. We are taught to walk with gratitude, reverence, and reciprocity in our relationships with the Plants, Trees, Waters, and Animals, yet we can also apply this to our relationships with other humans. I love the practice of blessing all things: people, relationships, challenging interactions, or situations included.”
― Asha Frost, You Are the Medicine

“If we all lived in a reciprocal way, the flow of abundance would begin to cut through the systems and structures that keep us down. Gratitude is the gateway for abundance. Practice mindfulness, share, give back, and walk with grace. If we all walked in this Indigenous way, our Earth would heal.”
― Asha Frost, You Are the Medicine

“The idea of conformism among animals is increasingly supported for social behavior as well. One study tested both children and chimpanzees on generosity. The goal was to see if they were prepared to do a member of their own species a favor at no cost to themselves. They indeed did so, and their willingness increased if they themselves had received generosity from others—any others, not just their testing partner. Is kind behavior contagious? Love begets love, we say, or as the investigators put it more dryly, primates tend to adopt the most commonly perceived responses in the population.”
― Frans de Waal, Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?

“The mutuality of moss and water. Isn’t this the way we love, the way love propels our own unfolding? We are shaped by our affinity for love, expanded by its presence and shrunken by its lack.”
― Robin Wall Kimmerer, Gathering Moss: A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses