72 Quotes for Identifying Narcissistic People

If you’re struggling in a relationship with a narcissistic person, use these narcissism quotes to validate your feelings, feel heard, and know that you’re not alone or in the wrong.

NOTE: Living with and/or being in a relationship with a narcissist can be draining on your mental health and wellbeing. If you need some positivity in your current situation, make sure to read through these mental health quotes to help with everything from grief to self-care to anxiety.

Quotes About Narcissism

“A narcissist can be your husband, wife, mother, father, sister, brother, boyfriend, girlfriend, neighbor, boss, church member, or anyone you come in contact with. There are endless possibilities of ‘who’ they can be. The important thing to remember is the actions, behaviors are all very similar.” – Tracy Malone

“You might as well bang your head into a brick wall if you expect the narcissist to be reasonable, empathetic or human in any way. If you sense or witness any of these traits, there is an ulterior motive. When the narcissist is being nice, it’s because they have something to gain.” – Tina Swithin

“Relationships with narcissists are held in place by hope of a ‘someday better,’ with little evidence to support it will ever arrive.” – Dr. Ramani Durvasula

You may also like: These quotes on the importance (and benefits) of self-care: https://brightdrops.com/self-care-quotes

“The extreme sociopathic narcissist is the center of his own universe.” – Kasy Spears

“No game designer ever went wrong by overestimating the narcissism of their players.” – Will Wright

“No matter how socially skilled an extreme narcissist is, he has a major attachment dysfunction. The extreme narcissist is frozen in childhood.” – Samuel Lopez de Victoria

Related: Fake Friends Quotes

“I love narcissists-even more than they love themselves. You don’t have to buoy them up. They are their own razzle-dazzle show and you are the blessed, favored with a front-row seat.” – Patricia Marx

“The narcissist enjoys being looked at and not looking back.” – Mason Cooley

“When I look at narcissism through the vulnerability lens, I see the shame-based fear of being ordinary. I see the fear of never feeling extraordinary enough to be noticed, to be lovable, to belong, or to cultivate a sense of purpose.” – Brené Brown

“Call it egotistical or narcissist, but I think that’s what we all look for in books – the right stories that help us make sense of the world that we, on a very personal level, live in every day.” – John Corey Whaley

“Every narcissist is a hero and a legend in his own mind. ― Oscar Auliq” – Ice

“I’m a recovering narcissist. I didn’t know I was a narcissist, actually. I thought narcissism meant you love yourself, and then someone told me there’s a flip side to it. So it’s actually drearier than self-love; it’s unrequited self-love.” – Emily Levine

“The ultimate obscenity is not caring, not doing something about what you feel, not feeling! Just drawing back and drawing in, becoming narcissistic.” – Rod Serling

“You can teach a narcissist to show up on time, but you can’t train them to listen once they get there.” – Dr. Ramani Durvasula

“A false image is, of course, a work of art, an idol. And a lie. A narcissist identifies with this image, not his true inner self. So, all he cares about is his image, not what kind of person he really is. Indeed, the latter has no real existence in his world.” – Kathleen Krajco

“Hate is the complement of fear and narcissists like being feared. It imbues them with an intoxicating sensation of omnipotence.” – Sam Vaknin

“Indeed, narcissists will steal credit from others when something good happens and blame others when things go badly.” – Constantine Sedikides

“Love doesn’t die a natural death. Love has to be killed, either by neglect or narcissism.” – Frank Salvato

“I have always been suspicious of romantic love. It looks too much like a narcissism shared by two.” – Rita Mae Brown

“He was like the cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.” – George Eliot

“Though they are quick to put others down, unhealthy narcissists view themselves in absolutely positive terms.” – Daniel Goleman

“It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.” – Voltaire

“Narcissists alone are blatant in their self-inflation and braggadocio—leavened with a necessary dose of self-deception.” – Daniel Goleman

“People, no matter the economic class, find ways to feed their narcissism.” – Lynne Tillman

“Blogs are nothing more than a personal meandering diary for public consumption – a narcissist’s dream. So you can imagine when bloggers take themselves – and their blogs – seriously, it’s super annoying.” – Carole Radziwill

“Narcissistic love is riding on the rollercoaster of disaster filled with a heart full of tears.” – Sheree Griffin

“Seeking admiration is like a drug for narcissists. In the long run it becomes difficult because others won’t applaud them, so they always have to search for new acquaintances from whom they get the next fix.” – Mitja D. Back

“It is especially painful when narcissists suffer memory loss because they are losing parts of the person they love most.” – David Brooks

“Narcissists only want you to show the parts of your character that benefit them.” – Maggie Petraki

“Being a narcissist isn’t easy when the question is not of loving your own image, but of recreating the self through deliberate acts of alienation.” – Orlan

“Relationships with narcissists are held in place by the hope of a ‘someday better,’ with little evidence to support it will ever arrive.” – Ramani Durvasula

“With a narcissist, you cannot have a voice or an opinion; you must meet their demands and tolerate and accept their disrespect towards you because they say they love you.” – Ella Jayne West

“You’re human. You’ll screw up. Denying that is crazy. Forgiving yourself has all the benefits of self-esteem without making you a narcissist that’s out of touch with reality.” – David D. Burns

“A narcissist is someone who has a grandiose sense of self-importance, harbors obsessive fantasies of unbounded glory, feels rage or intense shame when criticized, expects special favors, and lacks empathy.” – Daniel Goleman

“Narcissists withhold affection to punish you. Withhold attention to get revenge. And withhold an emotional empathetic response to make you feel insecure.” – Alice Little

“A narcissist’s excessive self-importance is a mask to hide their low self-worth.” – Ed Russo

“Relationship with a narcissist in a nutshell: You will go from being the perfect love of their life, to nothing you do is ever good enough. You will give your everything and they will take it all and give you less and less in return. You will end up depleted, emotionally, mentally, spiritually, and probably financially, and then get blamed for it.” – Bree Bonchay

“Narcissism has existed for a long time; social media is just a new outlet to express it. Anybody who is going to record themselves and put that on the Internet, hoping people will watch, there is a degree to which that exists, yeah. I don’t know if I would call myself a narcissist. I don’t necessarily identify with that label.” – Tyler Oakley

“For the most part people are not curious except about themselves.” – John Steinbeck

“Narcissism has more in common with self-hatred than with self-admiration.” – Christopher Lasch

“Children of narcissists learn that love is abuse. The narcissist teaches them that if someone displeases you, it is okay to harm them and call it love.” – M. Wakefield

“Narcissism is eye trouble, voluntary blindness, an agreement to keep up appearances (hence the importance of style” – Sam Keen

“Self love: Being content with the work-in-progress you are. Not seeking approval from others. Being yourself. Comparing yourself only to who you were in the past, not to others. Not thinking you are better than anyone else. Narcissism: None of the above.” – Zero Dean

“Withhold admiration from a narcissist and be disliked. Give it and be treated with indifference.” – Mason Cooley

“Whoever loves becomes humble. Those who love have, so to speak, pawned a part of their narcissism.” – Sigmund Freud

“There are athletes and celebrities that are out there and they Twitter and they constantly try to drum up press because they’re narcissists.” – Geoff Stults

“He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.” – Benjamin Franklin

“Nice people don’t necessarily fall in love with nice people.” – Jonathan Franzen

“As a result of their emotional shallowness, narcissists are essentially devoid of all empathy or compassion for other people. Lacking empathy, a narcissist is a very destructive and dangerous person to be around.” – Mateo Sol

“I’m totally a narcissist, so I was doing all this performance and having lots of weird ego time, and learning to set aside my love for the ego and find a deeper love for myself and through that seeing myself as one with all beings. And through loving myself, loving all people in the world, that was my cure for narcissism, the only cure.” – Larkin Grimm

“I like to think I’m not a narcissist, but truth be told, we all have those sides to our character.” – Lisa O’Hare

“Americans are experiencing an epidemic in narcissistic behavior in a culture that is intrinsically self-conscious and selfish, and citizens are encouraged to pursue happiness and instant gratification of their personal desires.” – Kilroy J. Oldster

“For me narcissism is not about money. For me, narcissism is something so romantic and something so human. Everybody is a narcissist. Some people admit it and some people don’t. As an artist, it’s important to be a narcissist. Look at Picasso, look at Warhol…. As an artist, you can get away with a lot of things that normal people cannot.” – Nir Hod

“Narcissists, however, are similar to a spider that has built a web for its prey to bring itself.” – Mwanandeke Kindembo

“A narcissist’s criticism is their autobiography.” – M. Wakefield

“My father was a textbook narcissist. If he didn’t like the narrative he’d start gaslighting you. He threatened the democracy of our family.” – Randy Rainbow

“Learning to spot narcissists and deal with their destructive behavior can save you the world of hurt that awaits anyone who mistakes the near enemy for a friend.” – Martha Beck

“Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading.” – W.H. Auden

“Maybe, the lesson we can all learn from the inner sadness of a narcissist is to see through our own fabrications, our own illusions so that we can be set free to be real once more.” – Shannon L. Alder

“When narcissists behave in an exhibitionistic manner, they are seeking the same sort of admiration as toddlers, and for the same reasons. They want attention. Some examples include inappropriate dress, talking too loudly, or gesturing in expansive and space-intruding ways.” – Mark Ettensohn

“Underneath the so-called narcissistic personality is definitely shame and the paralyzing fear of being ordinary.” – Brené Brown

“Narcissism falls along the axis of what psychologists call personality disorders…but by most measures, narcissism is one of the worst, if only because the narcissists themselves are so clueless.” – Jeffrey Kluger

“The narcissist becomes his own world and believes the whole world is him.” – Alexander Lowen

“The world is so rife with narcissists that none of them take enough notice of me.” – Eleanor Bron

“The narcissist devours people, consumes their output, and casts the empty, writhing shells aside.” – Sam Vaknin

“The main condition for the achievement of love is the overcoming of one’s narcissism.” – Erich Fromm

“It’s nearly impossible for individuals with narcissistic personality disorder to truly fall in love and build a trusting, equal partnership.” – Taylor Hench

“I’m definitely a narcissist, and TV is fabulous for narcissists.” – Paulina Porizkova

“The narcissist is like a bucket with a hole in the bottom: No matter how much you put in, you can never fill it up.” – Dr. Ramani Durvasula

“Daughters of narcissistic mothers absorb the message I am valued for what I do, rather than for who I am.” – Karyl McBride

“I think it’s very difficult, and it requires a tremendous amount of spiritual integrity and discipline, to not be a narcissist in a culture that encourages it every step of the way.” – Alan Ball