A narcissistic personality is one of the many personality disorders someone can have. Narcissists demand attention and feel no empathy toward others. In fact, my mother has self-diagnosed my brother’s wife with the disorder. Of course, my mom is not a mental health professional so who knows.

If you know someone who might be a narcissist and are fed up with the behavior, here are more than 175 quotes about this disorder. I also included clever comebacks you can use whenever narcissistic people try to ruin your day. You’ll be prepared to stand up for yourself.

Narcissist Quotes

175+ Narcissist Quotes and Clever Comebacks You Can Use.

Narcissist Quotes.

  • “Narcissism is, indeed, the new world order.” – Dr. Ramani Durvasula
  • “Don’t confuse between self-love and narcissism. Self-love is making yourself your number one priority but narcissism is start enforcing that priority over others. First one is health; second one is not. First one is for your mental healthiness and well-being while the second one is to mess up with other peoples’ peace of mind to serve your own needs.” – Gracia Hunter
  • “I was trapped in an awful spiral of insecure narcissism.” – Amy Poehier
  • “But the line between moral behavior and narcissistic self-righteousness is thin and difficult to discern.” – Dean Koontz
  • “Many victims of narcissist abuse are hypersensitive. They don’t want to be told by others that they wrong when they fight with their narcissist. They see it as standing up for themselves, when in reality it is perpetuating what the narcissist wants – drama and a reaction.” – Shannon L. Alder
  • “In the narcissist’s world being accepted or cared for (not to mention loved) is a foreign language. It is meaningless or even repellent. One might recite the most delicate haiku in Japanese and it would still remain utterly meaningless to a non-speaker of Japanese. This does not diminish the value of the haiku or of the Japanese language, needless to say. But it means nothing to the non-speaker. Narcissists damage and hurt but they do so offhandedly and naturally, as an afterthought … They are aware of what they are doing to others – but they do not care.” – Sam Vaknin
  • “Individuality should not translate to narcissism. Realizing the strength of individuality is an accomplishment while being narcissistic is a failure.” – Amitav Chowdhury

“The main priority of everyone surrounding a highly narcissistic person is to ensure that they are looking after themselves, maintaining their own physical and mental health and wellbeing, before looking after the narcissist.” – Theresa Jackson

  • “Adults raised in narcissistic homes cling to the fantasy that they can somehow manipulate or control their parent/family of origin system to get the recognition and approval they require (that is, to get their needs met.) They had this fantasy as children, and they maintain it as adults. The reality, though, is that they had little control over their parent system as children and have little control over it now.” – Stephanie Donaldson-Pressman
  • “Self love for ever creeps out, like a snake, to sting anything which happens … to stumble upon it.” – George Gordon Noel Byron
  • “A culture of narcissism is not a place where love can flourish. The emergence of “me” culture is a direct response to our nation’s failure to truly actualize the vision of democracy. While emotional needs are difficult, and often impossible to satisfy, material desires are easier to fulfill.” – Bell Hooks
  • “Anybody who wishes to go beyond the free-will of another person is already practicing narcissistic characteristics.” – Mwanandeke Kindembo
  • “But that’s the thing about narcissists. They can try to fool you, with all their heart, but in the end, they’re just fooling themselves.” – Ellie Fox
  • “Being a control freak is a weakness, not a strength. If you can’t allow others to shine, you’re exhibiting signs of narcissism and showing a lack of self-confidence. It is isolation through ego.” – Stewart Stafford

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

  • “The only crime is pride.” – Sophocles
  • “Ego is borne of the need to ‘prove’ oneself instead of making the choice to be ‘be’ oneself.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
  • “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
  • “The lion is most handsome when looking for food.” – Rumi
  • “For the most part people are not curious except about themselves.” – John Steinbeck
  • “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
  • “Americans are experiencing an epidemic in narcissistic behavior in 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
  • “The sadistic narcissist perceives himself as Godlike, ruthless and devoid of scruples, capricious and unfathomable, emotion-less and non-sexual, omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent, a plaque, a devastation, an inescapable verdict.” – Sam Vaknin
  • “When narcissists behave in an exhibitionistic manner, they are seeking the same sort of admiration as toddlers, and for the same reason. They want attention. Some examples include inappropriate dress, talking too loudly, or gesturing in expansive and space-intruding ways.” – Mark Ettensohn
  • “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
  • “Narcissists alone are blatant in their self-inflation and braggadocio – leavened with a necessary dose of self-deception.” – Daniel Goleman

“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

  • “Narcissism is eye trouble, voluntary blindness, an agreement to keep up appearances (hence the importance of “style”) and not to look beneath the surface.” – Sam Keen
  • “Being a narcissist isn’t easy when the question is not of loving your own image, but of recreating the self deliberate acts of alienation.” – Orlan
  • “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
  • “The main condition of the achievement of love is the overcoming of one’s narcissism.” – Eric Fromm
  • “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
  • “Since narcissists deep down feel themselves to be faultless, it is inevitable that when they are in conflict with the world they will invariably perceive the conflict as the world’s fault.” – M. Scott Peck
Narcissist can make you crazy.

Dealing with a narcissist on a daily basis can make you crazy.

Narcissist Quotes for Him

  • “A man who love others based solely on how they make him feel, or what they do for him, is really not loving others at all – but only loving himself.” – Criss Jami
  • “Underneath the so-called narcissistic personality is definitely shame and the paralyzing fear of being ordinary.” – Brene Brown
  • “Narcissists install a mental filter in our heads a little bit at a time … ‘Will he get upset if I do/say/think this? Will he approve/disapprove? Will he feel hurt by this?’ Until we can uninstall the narcissist-filter, our actions are controlled by narcissists to some degree.” – Sam Vaknin
  • “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
  • “I wonder if the course of narcissism through the ages would have been any different had Narcissus first peered into a cesspool. He probably did.” – Frank O’hara

“ Dear narcissus boy / I know you’ve never really apologized for anything / I know you’ve never really taken responsibility / I know you’ve never really listened to a woman / Dear me-show boy / I know you’re not really into conflict resolution / Or seeing both sides of the equation / Or having an uninterrupted conversation.” – Alanis Morissette

  • “Narcissus weeps to find that his image does not return his love.” – Mason Cooley
  • “There is simply no winning with a narcissist. He will treat you so horribly that you will become withdrawn and depressed and then he will turn around and say, ‘You’re no fun anymore, you’re always so depressed. I need to be with someone positive.’” – Susan Williams
  • “That which he projects ahead of him as his ideal is merely his substitute for the lost narcissism of his childhood – the time when he was his own ideal.” – Sigmund Freud
  • “And we need to know what it is to be human if we are to avoid being narcissists.” – Alexander Lowen
  • “Half the harm that is done in this world is due to people who want to feel important … They justify it because they are absorbed in the endless struggle to think well of themselves.” – T. S. Elliot
  • “Please repair your narcissism before you start loving your neighbor as yourself.” – Charles F. Glassman
  • “The ‘I’ is the ego that we must avoid at any cost if we truly wish to be different from narcissists. Instead of using ‘I’ repeatedly, it would be wise to replace if with ‘we’.” – Mwanandeke Kindembo
  • “I wish that people would stop destroying other people just because they were once destroyed.” – Karen Salmansohn
  • “To be your own god is to be the biggest participant in creating your own hell.” – Craig D. Lounsbrough
  • “Nice people don’t necessarily fall in love with nice people.” – Jonathan Franzen

“The narcissist test: Step 1 – Take a moment to think about yourself. Step 2 – If you made it to Step 2, you are not a narcissist.” – Unknown

  • “Narcissism has more in common with self-hatred than with self-admiration.” – Christopher Lasch
  • “Shyness has a strange element of narcissism, a belief that how we look, how we perform, is truly important to other people.” – Andre Dubus
  • “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
  • “I think narcissists are endlessly watchable. The way they view the world and the way they interact within the world. They have no concept of their behavior or how it might be affecting other people. So comedically, it’s a very fun type of character to play. They are bulls in a china shop, twenty-four seven.” – Michael Showalter
  • “Narcissists are afflicted with a bottomless appetite … for recognition, attention, glory, rewards. And it’s a zero-sum thing. Every moment a narcissist spends listening to another party guest tell a story is a moment in which the stage has been surrendered.” – Jeffrey Kluger
  • “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
  • “No other being is lesser human than the one who thinks of others as such.” – Abhijit Naskar
  • “Kindness from a narcissist is called an illusion.” – Alice Little
  • “Speaking to narcissists and imagining having a normal interaction is called a delusion.” – Alice LIttle
  • “He that falls in love with himself will have no rivals.” – Benjamin Franklin
Narcissists often have an inflated sense of self-importance.

They only thinks about themselves.

Narcissist Quotes for Her

  • “Yes, Eleanor loathed herself and yet required praise, which she then never believed.” – Hanif Kureishi
  • “Daughters of narcissistic mothers absorb the message “I am valued for what I do, rather than for who I am.” – Karyl McBride
  • “She could feel him, glaring at her with a psychotic look in his eyes, taking pleasure in her suffering, using it to fuel his next move.” – Arti Manani
  • “Intuition – once you have had a narcissist in your life, you must develop your intuition and learn to listen to it and act accordingly.” – Tracy Malone
  • “Never make someone a priority when all you are to them is an option.” – Unknown
  • “You will never see how toxic someone is until you breathe fresher air.” – Unknown

“Narcissists will destroy your life, erode your self-esteem, and do it with such stealth as to make you feel you are the one that’s letting them down.” – Unknown

  • “Stay away from people who can’t take responsibility for their actions and who make you feel bad for being angry at them when they do you wrong.” – Unknown
  • “Relationships with narcissists are held in place by hope of a ‘someday better’, with little evidence to support it will ever arrive.” – Ramani Durvasula
  • “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 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
  • “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
  • “A narcissist doesn’t break your heart; they break your spirit. That’s why it takes a long time to heal.” – Unknown
  • “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. The phrase “I never feel like I am enough” is the mantra of the person in the narcissistic relationship. That’s because to your narcissistic partner, you are not. No one is. Nothing is.” – Ramani Durvasula
  • “Hate is the complement of fear and narcissists like being feared. It imbues them with an intoxicating sensation of omnipotence.” – Sam Vaknin

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

  • “I am a recovering narcissist. I thought narcissism was about self-love till someone told me there is a flip side to it. It is actually drearier than self-love: it is unrequited self-love.” – Emily Levine
  • “If you want to go from being adored to devalued in a blink of an eye, simply insult the narcissist.” – Tigress Luv
  • “What are narcissists looking for, after all? Just someone at their level that they can feel superior to.” – Luigina Sgarro
  • “Withhold admiration from a narcissist and be disliked. Give it and be trated with indifference.” – Mason Cooley
  • “I am in love with you’, I responded. He laughed the most beguiling and gentle laugh. ‘Of course you are,’ he replied. ‘I understand perfectly because I’m in love with myself. The fact that I am not transfixed in front of the nearest mirror takes a great deal of self-control.’ It was my turn to laugh.” – Ann Rice
  • “I like to be admired from afar, and then complimented up close.” – Gena Showalter 

Narcissist Quotes at Work

  • “I have a very simple question to people who seem to suffer from excessive narcissism: Please name three other persons who are smarter and more capable than you, in the field you work in. In most cases they are utterly unable to answer that question honestly.” – Ingo Molnar
  • “I think writers are the most narcissistic people. Well, I musn’t say this, I like many of them, a great many of my friends are writers.” – Sylvia Plath
  • If someone treats you badly, don’t lower yourself to their level. Stay toxicity free! Simply do what you can to move on and away.” – Karen Salmanshon
  • When someone treats you like crap, just remember it’s because there is something wrong with them, not you. Normal people don’t go around destroying other people’s lives.” – NotSalmon
  • When a toxic person can no longer control you, they will try to control how others see you. This misinformation will seem unfair, but stay above it, trusting that other people will eventually see the truth just like you did.” – Jill Blakeway
  • Basically, narcissists are suffering from the sad reality that the world does not revolve around them.” – NotSalmon
  • The narcissist will throw in your face all that they have done for you but never say one word of all that you have done for them.” – Yourtango
  • Narcissistic bosses are bullies in the workplace. They target you if you do not kiss them and always agree with them. They hate people that work creatively and come up with new ideas because they cannot.” – Anonymous
  • “There may be no ‘I’ in ‘team’ but there are three in ‘narcissist’!” – Unknown
  • “A narcissist’s criticism is their autobiography.” – M. Wakefield
  • You will never get the truth out of a narcissist. The closest you will ever come is a story that either makes them the victim or the hero, but never the villain.” – Shannon L. Alder
You will never get the truth out of a Narcissist.

You will never get the truth out of a Narcissist.

Funny Narcissist Quotes

  • “Narcissists, however, are similar to a spider that has built a web for its prey to bring itself.” – Mwanandeke Kindembo
  • “No one has probably helped me more with my narcissism than my dog.” –Tucker Max
  • “For someone as amazing as you, attention is like food, and you’re always hungry.” – Seth McDonough
  • “It is not love that should be depicted as blind, but self-love.” – Voltaire
  • “Out of all the addictions in the world, Attention is slowly but surely becoming one of the most dangerous.” – Saahil Prem
  • “The question ‘How are you (doing)?’ is the most common way of indirectly saying ‘Ask me how I am (doing)’.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana
  • “There’s a reason narcissists don’t learn from mistakes and that’s because they never get past the first step which is admitting that they have made one.” – Jeffrey Kluger
  • “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
  • “Narcissists are emotional porcupines, watch out for the quills.” – Tracy A. Malone
  • “Some people think that the world revolves around them but not even the Sun is the center of the Universe.” – Halle Teart
  • “Every narcissist is a hero and a legend on his own mind.” – Oscar Auliq-Ice
  • “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
  • “What a sick, narcissistic society must be we to reward relatability more than credibility?” – Adeel Ahmed Khan
  • “Here too, we can see that not being open to learning something new does not automatically make someone a narcissist. In fact, a narcissist is required to be knowledgeable in many fields; mostly psychology.” – Mwanandeke Kindembo
  • “I’m too ugly to be a narcissist.” – Mitch Albom
  • “An abuser’s psychological analysis isn’t the problem. Their sense of entitlement is.” – Caroline Abbott
  • “Beware of narcissistic people. They’ll tell everyone you’re crazy, only to cover up their trickery.” – Mitta Xinindlu
  • “Every generation narcissistically believes that they are the greatest generation.” – Brien Pittman
  • “Nobody can be kinder than the narcissist while you react to life on his terms.” – Josephine Bowen
  • “Narcissism is voluntary blindness, an agreement not to look beneath the surface.” – Sam Keen
  • “I loved myself and since I loved me, I loved him because I realized he was good for me. A type of self worth, a type of narcissistic love.” – Dominic Riccitello
  • “Narcissistic love is riding on the rollercoaster of disaster filled with a heart full of tears.” – Sheree Griffin
  • “The narcissist would love nothing more than to know that you are eating uncooked Top Ramen out of a dumpster for dinner tonight while wearing yesterday’s underwear.” – Tina Swithin

“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

  • “I don’t care what you think unless it is about me.” – Kurt Cobain
  • “Love doesn’t die a natural death. Love has to be killed, either by neglect or narcissism.” – Frank Salvato
  • “Half the pain in human life comes from gazing in mirrors.” – Marty Rubin
  • “The worst lies were the lies I told myself about the lies others told me.” – Alice Little
  • “It’s so nice when toxic people stop talking to you. It’s like the trash took itself out.” – Karen Salmansohn
  • “Let me tell you what I just heard. Talk, talk, talk, I. Talk, talk, talk, I. Well, what about me?” – Gena Showalter
  • “He was like to cock who thought the sun had risen to hear him crow.” – George Eliot
  • “I have always been suspicious of romantic love. It looks too much like a narcissism shared by two.” – Rita Mae Brown
  • “It is especially painful when narcissists suffer memory loss because they are losing parts of the person they love most.” – David Brooks
  • “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 world is so rife with narcissists that none of them take enough notice of me.” – Eleanor Bron
  • In true, narcissistic fashion, when my father was diagnosed as a narcissist, he called us all up individually to tell us, and he did it with true pride.” – Neal Brennan 

Comebacks You Can Use To Shut Down A Narcissist

  • I’m firm. I will not change what I have decided.
  • My decision is final.
  • You will never mislead me again.
  • Sounds like you’ve got everything figured out. Why don’t you leave?
  • Will you be leaving soon?
  • Don’t you have someone else’s day to ruin?
  • No one can make me change my mind.
  • You’re talking in circles. I’m getting off this carousel.
  • Did you just get back from a buffet? Because you seem full of yourself.
  • I am on the right path.
  • I’m sure that I am doing what’s right.
  • Do not ever lead me to the wrong way ever.
  • Don’t bring me into the mess you created. I’ll let you handle this moving forward.
  • I don’t need you.
  • I can stand on my own.
  • I have my mind and my feet. I can function by myself.
  • I disagree and you cannot anymore change my opinion.
  • Leave me alone. I can live alone.
  • My decisions are final and cannot be changed.
  • You are the one who made the mistake, not me.
  • Don’t blame me. I didn’t do anything wrong.
  • Your wrongdoings brought this to us.
  • Stop blaming me. I did nothing wrong.
  • Look at who’s talking. You are the one to be blamed.
  • Stop abusing me. I will call the cops.
  • Let them punish you for all of what you have done.
  • I’m not crazy. You are the one crazy.
  • No one can control my life, not even you. This conversation is over.
  • I hear you clear and loud. You don’t have to shout.
  • This discussion is going nowhere. I will not anymore argue with a narcissist.
  • Please be respectful when talking with me.
  • I can see your point and it seems to be interesting.
  • I will stop talking since I don’t like how you are speaking to me.
  • Let’s discuss this and not steer away from this topic.
  • I disagree but you have a right to your own opinion. Bye bye!
Every narcissist is a hero and a legend on his own mind.

He sees himself as a Hero.

How to Deal With A Narcissist at Work?

Narcissistic behavior in the workplace should always be documented. Performance appraisals must take into account documentation of narcissistic behaviors that have negative effects on the business and its employees. Proper disciplinary must to taken to prevent a toxic workplace.

  • An employee handbook must be in place and published. This is to prevent narcissists from pushing beyond what has been spelled out as appropriate conduct.
  • Clear boundaries must be set. Mental, emotional, and physical borders have to be put in place so that narcissists will know when a line has been crossed. Corresponding disciplinary actions have to be done when this occurs.
  • Show your assertiveness. Narcissists like those who are submissive. They only want to play with the emotions of co-workers who will give them the time of day. It is important that someone dealing with narcissists can stand up on his own and cannot be swayed by manipulative behavior.
  • Raise your concern regarding narcissistic behavior to your boss or to HR. Documenting episodes is important to have a basis and evidence for complaints. Save any emails you have as documentation.
  • Manage your expectations when dealing with a narcissist. It might be impossible to gain an apology from a narcissist. There could be no clear resolutions to conflicts, hence, be ready to just walk away even if problems remain unresolved. Be able to manage your ego and learn to detach yourself from the situation. You only have control over your own emotions and actions. Don’t stress out about their actions.

How does a narcissist argue?

  • Narcissists don’t like to hear “no” and don’t want to be displeased. As such, they would do all they can to get what they want by manipulating facts by lying,
  • Narcissists enjoy putting others down to feel good about themselves. Narcissists won’t listen to your side of the story.
  • Narcissists use terms that don’t always make sense. In their minds, they are correct. But in reality, their words are just rants or fallacies that may be more fiction than fact.
  • Narcissists like using aggression and unbridled emotion. They will bully you and intimidate you knowing that you will not stand out to fight against them.

Narcissists will deflect the truth, bringing the blame to others rather than on themselves. They will never take responsibility of their actions. They will manipulate the conversation in an effort to make the problem your responsibility. Don’t fall into the trap of trying to make sense of a narcissist at work or in your personal life. This is an exercise in futility.

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