27 Quotes Every Highly Sensitive Person Will Instantly Relate To
Highly sensitive people (HSPs) are the 20 percent of the population who process stimulation deeply and feel emotions intensely. Their sensitivity gives them incredible advantages, such as noticing details others miss, reading people well, and having high levels of compassion and empathy. But it also means they can become easily overwhelmed by day-to-day life. High sensitivity shows up differently in each HSP, but if you’re highly sensitive, there’s a good chance you’ll relate to these 27 quotes.
Highly Sensitive Person Quotes
1. “For a highly sensitive person, a drizzle feels like a monsoon.”
― Anonymous
2. “To feel intensely is not a symptom of weakness…”
“Highly sensitive people are too often perceived as weaklings or damaged goods. To feel intensely is not a symptom of weakness, it is the trademark of the truly alive and compassionate. It is not the empath who is broken, it is society that has become dysfunctional and emotionally disabled. There is no shame in expressing your authentic feelings. Those who are at times described as being a ‘hot mess’ or having ‘too many issues’ are the very fabric of what keeps the dream alive for a more caring, humane world. Never be ashamed to let your tears shine a light in this world.”
― Anthon St. Maarten, Divine Living: The Essential Guide To Your True Destiny
3. “Highly sensitive beings suffer more but they also love harder…”
“…dream wider and experience deeper horizons and bliss. When you’re sensitive, you’re alive in every sense of this word in this wildly beautiful world. Sensitivity is your strength. Keep soaking in the light and spreading it to others.”
— Victoria Erickson
4. “They hear nearly every sound, notice every movement, and process the expression on every person’s face. And that means that simply walking through a public space can be an assault on their senses.”
— Andre Sólo, Everything You Need to Know About Highly Sensitive People
5. “We try to be like others. But that leads to our becoming overaroused and distressed.”
“We are a package deal, however. Our trait of sensitivity means we will also be cautious, inward, needing extra time alone. Because people without the trait (the majority) do not understand that, they see us as timid, shy, weak, or that greatest sin of all, unsociable. Fearing these labels, we try to be like others. But that leads to our becoming overaroused and distressed. Then that gets us labeled neurotic or crazy, first by others and then by ourselves.”
― Elaine N. Aron, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
6. “No matter who it is or how comfortable you are with someone, when anyone yells at you or talks down to you, you immediately erupt in tears.”
― Lauren Jarvis-Gibson, 11 Things People Don’t Realize You’re Doing Because You’re a Highly Sensitive Person
7. “As a highly sensitive person, I can sense your mood from a mile away. Don’t try to hide it. You’re not fooling me.”
― Tracy M. Kusmierz, 9 Things I Wish People Knew About Me as a Highly Sensitive Introvert
8. “Am I too sensitive to be in this world?”
“How do you ever explain the feelings of anxiety and paralyzing fear? I can’t answer those questions. It’s just a feeling of ‘Am I crazy? Am I too sensitive to be in this world?’ A feeling that the world is just too complicated for me right now, and I don’t feel like I belong here. But it passes, and fortunately today I feel blessed for all the good things in my life.”
― Winona Ryder
9. “I’m extremely-extremely sensitive. I can cry at the drop of a hat…Anything upsets me. I cry all the time. I cry when I’m happy too.”
― Mandy Moore
10. “Sensitive people like a slower pace of life. We like pondering all our options before making a decision and regularly reflecting on our experiences. We hate busy schedules and rushing from one event to the next.”
— Jenn Granneman, 12 Things a Highly Sensitive Person Needs
11. “As a highly sensitive person, every little thing elicits a strong reaction in me.”
― Tracy M. Kusmierz, 9 Things I Wish People Knew About Me as a Highly Sensitive Introvert
12. “Being a sensitive empath is a beautiful thing as an artist…”
“I am very sensitive to the interactions I have with people. Whether it’s a momentary glance in an elevator, or a deep philosophical conversation over dinner, or a brush-by in a café, I feel (sometimes exhaustingly) attuned and affected by the subtle exchanges that pass seemingly benignly between us as human ships. Being a sensitive empath is a beautiful thing as an artist, and it fosters a deep burning curiosity about why we do the things we do.”
― Alanis Morissette
13. “You desperately want to be understood.”
— Marisa Donnelly, 10 Ways Women Raised By Sensitive Fathers Love Differently
14. “There is nothing wrong with you if there are times you get weighed down by the heaviness of the suffering in the world.”
― Rachel Samson
15. “By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.”
“The truly creative mind in any field is no more than this: A human creature born abnormally, inhumanly sensitive. To them… a touch is a blow, a sound is a noise, a misfortune is a tragedy, a joy is an ecstasy, a friend is a lover, a lover is a god, and failure is death. Add to this cruelly delicate organism the overpowering necessity to create, create, create — so that without the creating of music or poetry or books or buildings or something of meaning, their very breath is cut off… They must create, must pour out creation. By some strange, unknown, inward urgency they are not really alive unless they are creating.”
― Pearl Buck, The Good Earth
16. “Highly sensitive people learned early in life to try to control the external world as a way to attempt to manage their inner one.”
― Sheryl Paul
17. “Everything I experience hits me deep, raw, and intense. As an empath, I feel the energy of myself and others. As I age, this ability only grows deeper and stranger.”
― Sylvester McNutt III
18. “Even a moderate and familiar stimulation like a day at work can cause a highly sensitive person to need quiet by evening.”
― Elaine N. Aron, The Highly Sensitive Person: How to Thrive When the World Overwhelms You
19. “Highly sensitive people tend to have stronger emotional responses than others.”
“Partly, this is because they notice so many emotional cues that others miss, so they’re very ‘tuned in’ to feelings. But it’s also because HSPs process things so deeply. Imagine if you felt every emotion five times longer and five times louder; that’s kind of what it’s like to be an HSP.”
— Andre Sólo, How to Explain High Sensitivity to People Who Don’t ‘Get’ It
20. “I can’t stand chaos. I hate loud environments. Art makes me cry. No, I’m not crazy; I’m a textbook example of a highly sensitive person.”
— Anne Marie Crosthwaite, You’re Not Crazy, You’re a Highly Sensitive Person
21. “The real warriors in this world are the ones that see the details of another’s soul.”
“They see the transparency behind walls people put up. They stand on the battlefield of life and expose their heart’s transparency, so others can finish the day with hope. They are the sensitive souls that understand that before they could be a light they first had to feel the burn.”
― Shannon L. Alder
22. “It seems my heart is made of tissue paper; I wish the world would handle it more delicately.”
― Richelle E. Goodrich
23. “Being highly sensitive is both a gift and a responsibility.”
“Learning to thrive as a highly sensitive soul presents challenges. If you’re sensitive, you have likely accumulated years of training in trying to overcome the trait because you don’t ‘fit in’ with society. And yet being highly sensitive is a vital part of you. A first step toward thriving as a sensitive soul is to understand and accept your trait. Hear this now: There is absolutely nothing wrong with you. You are just different. As one of my clients says, being highly sensitive is both a gift and a responsibility.”
― HSP life coach Jenna Avery
24. “The highly sensitive person has an important mission…”
“The highly sensitive person has an important mission, which is to serve as a balance to the more aggressive behavior of some of the non-HSPs who advocate a less than nurturing policy toward humans, animals, and Mother Nature.”
― Ted Zeff, The Highly Sensitive Person’s Survival Guide: Essential Skills for Living Well in an Overstimulating World
25. “By noticing and processing so many details around them — not to mention their own internal thoughts — highly sensitive people are doing far more cognitive work than most others. Being overstimulated and frazzled is something anyone can identify with, but for HSPs, it happens much more easily.”
— Andre Sólo
26. “One of my favorite aspects of high sensitivity is finding wonder in the smallest of things.”
— Cati Vanden Breul, 8 Reasons Being Highly Sensitive Is Actually a Good Thing
27. “High sensitivity is not a disease or a disorder. It’s not something that needs to be overcome or fixed.”
— Jenn Granneman
You might like:
- 21 Signs That You’re a Highly Sensitive Person
- These 3 Uncommon Sets of Genes Make You a Highly Sensitive Person
- How I Learned to Stop Absorbing Other People’s Emotions
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