INFJ quotes

[jn56uytrx]

*moderators, please feel free to move if this is better merged with another thread*

In the spirit of the INFJ song thread, I thought I would create a place to put quotes that strike you as particularly INFJish in some way.

I'll start with this quote from Midnight's Children. I was inspired to start this thread when I read it this morning.

As a people, we are obsessed with correspondences. Similarities between this and that, between apparently unconnected things, make us clap our hands delightedly when we find them out. It is a sort of national longing for form--or perhaps simply an expression of our deep belief that forms lie hidden within reality; that meaning reveals itself only in flashes. Hence our vulnerability to omens...

The narrator was speaking of the people of India, but when I read it, my inner voice was quietly clapping it's hands delightedly and silent screaming a resonant "Ni!!!!!!"

 

[just me]

I have often wondered since finding out about this if the Optimist Creed was a semblance of extraverted feeling, and wonder if exhorting is another way of showing this quality or strength.

 

[jn56uytrx]

I have often wondered since finding out about this if the Optimist Creed was a semblance of extraverted feeling, and wonder if exhorting is another way of showing this quality or strength.

Is this the Optimist Creed you're referring to?

Promise Yourself -
To be so strong that nothing can disturb your peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness and prosperity to every person you meet.
To make all your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make your optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful countenance at all times and give every living creature you meet a smile.
To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit
the presence of trouble.

How do you feel about this? What reaction do you have to it?

I admit my reaction was somewhat negative. It has the mood of telling me what I should be--rejecting some of the range of experience and while exulting others. I reluctantly admit I see certain value in some of where it directs, but I was too put off by the tone to have an overall positive reaction. I prefer offering guiding information and giving people much room to choose whether or not they find it of value to what felt to me almost a sort of shaming tone if the directed course was not chosen. But then very few people ever describe me as optimistic either.

On the Fe speculation, I don't know if I'll be objective enough to offer any constructive thoughts. I tried really hard to get past the sense of being told how to be, and thought perhaps if someone naturally was like what was described in the Creed then maybe you'd be seeing a natural manifestation of Fe, but I don't think the exhortation to be this vs. that demonstrated in this Creed is Fe. Perhaps certain combinations of Fe with other functions would express this way, but I don't think this sort of exhortation is a particularly INFJ expression of personality. I could be too clouded by my own experience to judge fairly though.

What do you think?

 

[just me]

First, a bit of history. Take me back to age 14 or so, parents divorced after a bad situation that had been going on for years too long, and a new "Dad" in a Stepfather enters the picture. He is a member of the Optimist Club. He has many friends and I am allowed to visit a meeting or two and aid in raising funds. They quoted that before each meeting.
Take someone from a bad time in their life into a new good time of life and those things, surrounded by a group of good men, found importance to me at my young age. Why? It was because of the spirit of it, not the actual words.
It was positive. There were those I embraced.
"To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as you are about your own." That I related to easily.
"To give so much time to the improvement of yourself that you have no time to criticize others." I really needed that at my age. I embraced "do not criticize others" moreso than any other part of this.
I must also admit I said I was wondering, admitting still learning about functions and the likes. I saw this as maintaining a group value by these men's actions in the community for kids. Group values are something a little vague for someone that does not fit in well with groups, so I was asking; now with a little history instead of just a group of words.
I do agree with your insight. cont'd
I believe two new commandments to be of much higher regard to me and value to mankind than the original ten. Telling people to love instead of what not to do to them is a much better way of sharing wisdom to me.

Isn't it amazing how time and life can change things? The quote didn't mean anywhere near the experience. I should have differenciated between the two.

 

[jn56uytrx]

First, a bit of history. Take me back to age 14 or so, parents divorced after a bad situation that had been going on for years too long, and a new "Dad" in a Stepfather enters the picture. He is a member of the Optimist Club. He has many friends and I am allowed to visit a meeting or two and aid in raising funds. They quoted that before each meeting.
Take someone from a bad time in their life into a new good time of life and those things, surrounded by a group of good men, found importance to me at my young age. Why? It was because of the spirit of it, not the actual words.

I'm still learning about Fe too. One thing I considered as I read the back story of your experience was that your positive sense of the Creed being in large part because of a positive social environment seems to me like it could be an expression of Fe judgment.

As I consider the impact of my own social environment on how I judge experience, my back story of the Optimism Creed might be illuminating. I had an uncle and aunt I experienced as fake and superficial while below the surface rotting with greed, materialism, and run-away ego. They presented as far more concerned about appearing perfect than being anything real I would value. My uncle, as I recall, was part of the Optimist's Club.

In hearing your story, I can imagine how the Creed could be experienced in a social environment I might truly value.

 

[jn56uytrx]

Interesting. I certainly sensed a bit of an INFP good/evil struggle in this quote, but there was something there that was resonant to me as well.

I don't know if it's Ni or not, but I tend to erect principles for myself to keep from veering in directions I've decided would not be of value. I feel a conflicted tension when exploring a perspective that is challenging to my chosen morality. I tend to be skeptical of most standard moral presentations and so am generally favorable to alternative visions. Yet I also tend move cautiously among foreign morality. I can accept just about any moral expression from a observational distance, but if I move into the personal space of a perspective that advances upon my protective framework, I will begin to experience fear about what may happen if I am wooed to disassemble my structure. I guess to borrow language from your quote and twist it just slightly, I spend much time torturing myself trying to discover what is right so as to conquer inclination toward what is wrong for fear I may inadvertently cut the knot that will bring ruin.

 

[just me]

How do we not rue the many unchosen paths in life? A blessed lack of imagination. There are enough real glories along any path to swamp our meager ability to picture alternatives. Terry Rossio

 

[just me]

A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him
Worse when they despise him
"Fail to honor people
They fail to honor you"
But of a good leader, who talks little
When his work is done, his aim is fulfilled
They will all say, "We did this ourselves"

Lao-Tzu

 

[jn56uytrx]

I didn't feel sure I'd expressed myself well, but based on your response, I think you read what I was trying to say very well.

Thank you for the quote on INJs, I think it relates a great deal and I had a lot of resonance with it.

A leader is best
When people barely know that he exists
Not so good when people obey and acclaim him
Worse when they despise him
"Fail to honor people
They fail to honor you"
But of a good leader, who talks little
When his work is done, his aim is fulfilled
They will all say, "We did this ourselves"

Lao-Tzu

I like this.

 

[just me]

I don't know if it's Ni or not, but I tend to erect principles for myself to keep from veering in directions I've decided would not be of value. I feel a conflicted tension when exploring a perspective that is challenging to my chosen morality. I tend to be skeptical of most standard moral presentations and so am generally favorable to alternative visions. Yet I also tend move cautiously among foreign morality. I can accept just about any moral expression from a observational distance, but if I move into the personal space of a perspective that advances upon my protective framework, I will begin to experience fear about what may happen if I am wooed to disassemble my structure. I guess to borrow language from your quote and twist it just slightly, I spend much time torturing myself trying to discover what is right so as to conquer inclination toward what is wrong for fear I may inadvertently cut the knot that will bring ruin.

This protective framework: your structure you hold so closely to; your chosen morality..........you choose, though cautiously, to be more favorable to foreign or alternative visions. I see your structure as eclectic
as one's choosing which type brick, which place to get the mortar from, where to get the windows, the doors should come from here, having chosen that which best suits your needs so your feelings will not be hurt.
Your very own quote would be typed as such. You are very protective of that which you have helped to build, yet open to new ideas. You have housed your spirit and soul in a comfort zone we all need. I have not found that in my life as of yet, for I am ever building or tearing down to rebuild my house. I have no fear of the unknown, yet the same eclectic means I have used to build guidelines for me to walk amongst. Very, very interesting to look at that through your eyes.....from your soul. I see a realization I had heretofore not looked at as closely. I thank you for the view.

 

[jn56uytrx]

This protective framework: your structure you hold so closely to; your chosen morality..........you choose, though cautiously, to be more favorable to foreign or alternative visions. I see your structure as eclectic
as one's choosing which type brick, which place to get the mortar from, where to get the windows, the doors should come from here, having chosen that which best suits your needs so your feelings will not be hurt.
Your very own quote would be typed as such. You are very protective of that which you have helped to build, yet open to new ideas. You have housed your spirit and soul in a comfort zone we all need. I have not found that in my life as of yet, for I am ever building or tearing down to rebuild my house. I have no fear of the unknown, yet the same eclectic means I have used to build guidelines for me to walk amongst. Very, very interesting to look at that through your eyes.....from your soul. I see a realization I had heretofore not looked at as closely. I thank you for the view.

I hope your new view is a landscape you are happy to look on.

 

[jn56uytrx]

Another one I stumbled across a bit ago that had resonance for me anyway.

"Sometimes, she found the mystery of other people almost unbearable to contemplate: rooms within rooms inside of each of them, an endless labyrinth of contradictory qualities, memories, desires, mirroring one another like an Escher drawing, baffling as a conundrum."

--The Private Lives of Pippa Lee

 

[blueberrie]

I think I found this originally on a page about INFJs but I thought it was so great I stuck it on my wall:
"You are not here merely to prepare to make a living. You are here in order to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world, and you impoverish yourself if you forget the errand." - Woodrow Wilson
It helps me get through my studies.