INFJ quotes

*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.

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!!!!!!"

 

Is this the Optimist Creed you're referring to?

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?

 

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.

 

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.

 

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.

I like this.

 

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

 

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