'Controlling People' Quotes to Help You Detect and Avoid Them

A controlling personality can be a major source of frustration for many people. Those who deal with this kind of behavior often feel oppressed and disrespected, ending up hurt and unhappy. Here are quotes about controlling people to give us an insight into the psyche.

Control means taking charge and making decisions without considering others' opinions or emotions. A controlling person may not care about privacy or limits and may make decisions without thinking about how they will affect others.

Some other signs of control and manipulation include guilt-tripping, gaslighting, jealousy, and insecurity. These behaviors are often present in various relationships, such as in the workplace, with friends, and within the family.

This kind of attitude can cause fights and misunderstandings, making people feel alone and cut off. To gain a better understanding of this personality, here are 62 insightful quotes that are worth considering.

Melanie A. Smith's quote: "All you can do is try. You cannot control another's reactions. And if you truly accept that, you'll have peace no matter the outcome." | Image: AmoDays

Quotes about Controlling People

"We have a lot of controlling people who are trying to tell us how to live our lives, and a lot of co-dependent people around us. We bump up against these people, too, when we're trying to get on the spiritual path." ― Echo Bodine

"Nobody knows what God's plan is for your life, but a whole lot of people will guess for you if you let them." ― Shannon L. Alder

"You can't manipulate people who know how to think for themselves." ― Trish Mercer

Trish Mercer's quote" "You can't manipulate people who know how to think for themselves." | Image: AmoDays

"Being a king was not about pleasing people. It was about controlling them." ― Elizabeth Chadwick

"If they cannot control you in the four directions, they will control you inside the four walls."― P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

"You always seek to control others when you are not in full ownership of yourself." ― Cicely Tyson

"Control and manipulation are not love; the outcome is a life of imprisonment ultimately leading to deep-rooted feelings of resentment." ― Ken Poirot

Lundy Bancroft's quote: "Abuse grows from attitudes and values, not feelings. The roots are ownership, the trunk is entitlement, and the branches are control." | Image: AmoDays

"Domineering-types may appear omnipotent but, inevitably, will smother everything they love and lose all." ― Stewart Stafford

"Abuse grows from attitudes and values, not feelings. The roots are ownership, the trunk is entitlement, and the branches are control." ― Lundy Bancroft

Diane E. Steinbach, Song of Mornius’s quote: "No point in wasting your days trying to control what you can't." | Image: AmoDays

"Toxically shamed people tend to become more and more stagnant as life goes on. They live in a guarded, secretive and defensive way. They try to be more than human (perfect and controlling) or less than human (losing interest in life or stagnated in some addictive behavior)." ― John Bradshaw

Controlling People Quotes That Teach Us to Avoid Toxic Situations

"Attempting to constantly control everyone and everything around you is not only exhausting…it is also futile. The only real power you can achieve in this life is being in control of yourself." ― Anthon St. Maarten

"The people's silence is a tyrant's greatest advocate. The less captives talked, the less they knew; the less they knew, the more they feared; and the more they feared, the more easily others could manipulate them to their own ends, the more easily the captives could be controlled." ― John Kramer

"All you can do is try. You cannot control another's reactions. And if you truly accept that, you'll have peace no matter the outcome." ― Melanie A. Smith

"Let go of controlling all of the details (Doing) in order to help others do what they need to be doing (Managing) so you can deliver what people truly need from you (Leadership)." ― Liz Weber

Gilda Radner's quote: "Comedy is very controlling - you are making people laugh." | Image: Amo

"No one has the patent on you." ― Katie St. Claire

"To take back your power in any given situation, focus on the things you can control. The thoughts you choose to think is usually the best place to start." ― Anthon St. Maarten

"Education is the strongest weapon available for restricting the questions people ask, controlling what they think, and ensuring that they get their thoughts ''from above.'" ― John Carroll

"Some people say, therefore, that violence and war are inevitable. I say rubbish: Our brains are fully capable of controlling instinctive behavior." ― Jane Goodall

Ken Poirot's quote: "True love is built on free will and free choice, not control and manipulation." | Image: AmoDays

"When people are vulnerable to control, they feel that they are selfish for deciding what to do with their own property. In reality, deciding for ourselves is the only way we can ever have true love, for then we are giving freely." ― Henry Cloud

"I think the important thing is that there be plenty of newspapers, with plenty of different people controlling them, so that there are a variety of viewpoints, so there is a choice for the public. This is the freedom of the press that is needed." ― Rupert Murdoch

"Don't expect too much from others because people behave according to their perspective, not yours. Accept people as they are and avoid controlling them, only then they will give you their best." ― Hina Hashmi

"True love is built on free will and free choice, not control and manipulation." ― Ken Poirot

John Carroll's quote: "Education is the strongest weapon available for restricting the questions people ask, controlling what they think, and ensuring that they get their thoughts 'from above.'" | Image: AmoDays

"Thoughtfully Fit is all about focusing on how you can be different—not anyone else. This isn't about changing your boss or your spouse or your neighbor. Only they can do that. All you can do is change yourself." ― Darcy Luoma

Quotes about Control and Freedom

"Like my freedom. If I feel like I'm being controlled, I get crazy. Because I know I made it this far by following my intuition. I think people like who I am, and I like who I am, and I want to be a better version of myself every single day. So stop controlling me!" ― Katy Perry

"People aren't interested in others controlling what they can do or read or see in the privacy of their own homes." ― Larry Flynt

"A lot of us have jobs where we need to give people structure but that is different from controlling." ― Keith Miller

"Comedy is very controlling - you are making people laugh." ― Gilda Radner

Larry Flynt's quote: "People aren't interested in others controlling what they can do or read or see in the privacy of their own homes." | Image: AmoDays

"No point in wasting your days trying to control what you can't." ― Diane E. Steinbach, "Song of Mornius"

"Why is it that we love surprising people? Is it because we like to know something they don't Does it give us a sense of power over others? Was I happy because I was controlling Asher? Or was I simply trying to do something nice?" ― Matthew Quick

"A bird cannot love freely when caged." ― Matshona Dhliwayo

"We can choose to use our growing knowledge to enslave people in ways never dreamed of before, depersonalizing them, controlling them by means so carefully selected that they will perhaps never be aware of their loss of personhood." ― Carl Rogers

Gary Kemp's quote: "I think sometimes my controlling instincts came out of a fear of other people." | Image: AmoDays

"It's amazing how effective simple disorientation is as a mechanism for controlling people." ― Mira Grant

"You don't always just have to do an indie movie to feel like you're controlling it with a few people that you really have connected with, creatively. You can do it on a bigger scale." ― Kristen Stewart

"You can't control the weather, but that doesn't stop some people from trying." ― Frank Sonnenberg

"He [March Briscoe] had been so preoccupied with his inability to control himself, he hadn't realize that even when you controlled yourself, you couldn't control other people." ― Stacey Swann, "Olympus, Texas"

Anthon St. Maarten's quote: "To take back your power in any given situation, focus on the things you can control. The thoughts you choose to think is usually the best place to start." | Image: AmoDays

"I think sometimes my controlling instincts came out of a fear of other people." ― Gary Kemp

"Gun control means control. It means control for the government and the government starts controlling the people." ― Luke Scott

"I'm so independent in writing stuff and controlling what I do. Sometimes I get calls from people asking to be in their movie, but I'm always writing or editing, and I can never get around to doing it. I'm so much more interested in my own stuff. I think I drive my agent crazy." ― Chris Lilley

"The first step - especially for young people with energy and drive and talent, but not money - the first step to controlling your world is to control your culture. To model and demonstrate the kind of world you demand to live in. To write the books. Make the music. Shoot the films. Paint the art." ― Chuck Palahniuk

Mira Grant's quote: "It's amazing how effective simple disorientation is as a mechanism for controlling people." | Image: AmoDays

"As an independent source of authority and knowledge, science has always had the capacity to challenge ruling powers' ability to control people by controlling their beliefs. Indeed, it has the power to challenge anyone who wishes to preserve, protect, or defend the status quo." ― Naomi Oreskes

"Many neglected and abused children grow up to be adults who are afraid to take risks of striking out on their own. Many will remain dependent on their abusive parents and unable to separate from them. Others leave their abusive parents only to attach themselves to a partner who is controlling." ― Beverly Engel

"Every civilization has had a form of currency, usually silver and gold, that is controlled by the rulers and kings of that society. The people in power remain in power by controlling the circulation of money. It is no different today than it was thousands of years ago." ― Joseph P. Kauffman

Stewart Stafford's quote: "Domineering-types may appear omnipotent but, inevitably, will smother everything they love and lose all." | Image: AmoDays

"In any Christian view of life, self-fulfillment must never be permitted to become the controlling issue. The issue is service, the service of real people. The question is, 'How can I be most useful?' not, 'How can I feel most useful?'" ― D. A. Carson

"You can have a broad popular democracy movement and have it end being taken over by the most vicious people and the result is you don't end up with free political systems or free economic systems, you end up with a handful of radicals controlling the country." ― Donald Rumsfeld

"Bigger-budgeted films have more restrictions and less freedom to create. Because of this, I try to find freedom in the people I work with. I often work in ways I don't want to. It's more about controlling the situation. Lower-budget films are freer." ― Takashi Miike

Jane Goodall's quote: "Some people say, therefore, that violence and war are inevitable. I say rubbish: Our brains are fully capable of controlling instinctive behavior." | Image: AmoDays

"Acting so obviously submissive to Max around strangers, I felt a lot of humiliation. The looks from people, the comments. But I also felt this strange sense of pride. I am his possession, his property. And I'm proud of that. I'm proud of how happy I make him." ― Willow Madison

"Race is not, as I have often been reminded while working on this project, a system of classification: it is a system of oppression. There has never been, and I can't imagine how there could ever be, a way of classifying the peoples of the world that isn't also a way of controlling people." ― Barbara Katz Rothman

"People pay attention when they see that God actually changes persons and sets them free. When a new Christian stands up and tells how God has revolutionized his or her life, no one dozes off. When someone is healed or released from a life-controlling bondage, everyone takes notice." ― Jim Cymbala

"You like to claim that you're in charge of the world, but it's as if the world hasn't noticed and it does whatever it pleases in spite of you. You claim the sky is blue, but almost on a daily basis it betrays you." ― Trish Mercer, "The Falcon in the Barn"

P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar's quote: "If they cannot control you in the four directions, they will control you inside the four walls." | Image: AmoDays

It can be hard to deal with people who are too controlling, especially if they hurt people you care about. However, there are steps you can take to manage the situation. If you're facing abuse, reach out for help from friends or law enforcement.

In severe cases, it may be necessary to distance yourself from the controlling person and realize your worth. No one controls you, and breaking free from toxic relationships is always possible.

Remember to empower yourself and stand up against any form of controlling behavior. To avoid being consumed by negative energy, try to cleanse your life with these 56 inspiring quotes.