Quotes from Dear Bully: Seventy Authors Tell Their Stories

Bystanders who do nothing give bullies permission inadvertently to go on being bullies. Most are afraid they’ll lose friends or be bullied themselves if they help victims or report bullies, and some feel guilty for years afterward.

My self-wroth is not linked to your cruel words and actions.
My self-esteem is not affected by your deliberate attempts to destroy my character.
You have no power over me.
You will not silence me.

It was because of the way you treated me that I learned to be my own person, have my own opinion, stand my ground. It’s at least partially because I survived you that I’m the person I am today.

In order to find some solution to the bullying problem, we’ll have to be more tolerant of ambiguity, subtlety, and strangeness not just in other people but in ourselves. It may be important to your identity that you are a soccer player, but it may be equally important that you can whistle the national anthem backward and make the world’s best spicy popcorn and do a wicked impression of Victoria Beckham. Schools, parents, and educational endeavors should encourage people not just to empathize but to discover and celebrate the weirdness in others and in ourselves. We need not just to think but to live outside the box. Weirdness is good. It keeps things interesting.

Bullying is a horrible thing. It sticks with you forever. It poisons you. But only if you let it.

Bullying happens because weak people need to prop up their ego by beating up or humiliating others.

Charlie: "You didn't have to do that. I'm used to people saying stuff about me."
Nick: "No. But you shouldn't have to be. People shouldn't be saying stuff about you in the first place. You shouldn't have to put up with anything like that."

Goldie Wilson: "Stand tall, boy! Have some respect for yourself. Don't you know if you let people walk over you now, they'll walk over you for the rest of your life."

I don't believe in revenge. When people are bullies, it's because of a deeper-rooted issue. Either their family life is tough or they're being bullied by someone bigger than they are.

I find it's usually the bullies who are the most insecure.

I allowed myself to be bullied because I was scared and didn't know how to defend myself. I was bullied until I prevented a new student from being bullied. By standing up for him, I learned to stand up for myself.

I think school is so much harder than real life. People are so much more accepting when they are adults.

Indifference and neglect often do much more damage than outright dislike.

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself!

Bullying is a vital part of every ecosystem. It teaches kids resilience. The world is a rough place. Bullying is like getting inoculated. It's a vaccine.

All of my favorite people - people I really trust - none of them were "cool" in their younger years.

I was bullied as a boy - lots of kids are, but hopefully most of us get on with our lives and grow up.

He loved libraries. Nowhere else in the world felt so safe and homey. Nowhere else smelled like books and dust and happy solitude quite like a library did.

Because pieces of your heart clearly weigh more when they're sitting shattered at the bottom of your stomach.

The worst pain in the world goes beyond the physical. Even further beyond any other emotional pain one can feel. It is the betrayal of a friend.

Because teachers, no matter how kind, no matter how friendly, are sadistic and evil to the core.

It never gets easier, missing you. And sometimes I wonder if it ever will.

There are many people in the country today who, through no fault of their own, are sane. Some of them were born sane. Some of them became sane later in their lives.

I'm not crazy - my reality is just different from yours.

The world is full of monsters with friendly faces.

If citizens followed their leaders' example throughout history, the human race would have died out centuries ago.

Compassion is not a weakness. It is a gift to be embraced.

For years, every time I'd close my eyes, I'd see monsters. Ones with claws as long as steak knives, teeth as sharp as glass. That was before I learned the worst ones always look human.

Walk until the darkness is a memory, and you become the sun on the next traveler's horizon.