Quotes: Setting boundaries
Setting boundaries means defining limits that safeguard your integrity and your time. The contributors assembled here — T. D. Jakes, Marilyn Monroe, Ernest Hemingway — approach the topic from complementary angles: insisting on personal standards, removing toxic influences, and warning against losing oneself in love.
The running question is straightforward yet urgent: how can you remain generous without sacrificing who you are? These voices examine the cost and the value of saying no, and probe for a balance between openness to others and preserving the self.
3 quotes on this theme, each with its source and insight
The quotes
“I have certain standards for myself so if something drops beneath that standard or if the opportunity doesn’t fit who I am authentically at my core — I don’t invest time where my brand isn’t respected or where what I have to offer isn’t appreciated.”
Source: T.D. Jakes Talks: Second Chances, Humble Beginnings & Knowing Your Worth, Los Angeles Sentinel, Sept 21, 2016 · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- The wording appears in a 2016 Los Angeles Sentinel interview report, supporting attribution to T. D. Jakes though the original transcript is not included here.
- What remains uncertain
- Credible but disputed: the quote is supported by a secondary report of a specific interview, yet no primary-source transcript was verified in this research.
This line makes a practical point: your time and reputation are choices to guard. It says refusal can be an act of discipline, not pride, and frames opportunities as something that must match your core identity before you invest.
“Cutting negative people from my life does not mean I hate them, it simply means I respect me.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
Disputed attributionWhat we know
- What is documented
- Available evidence does not locate this sentence in any of Monroe’s known interviews, writings, or recorded speeches.
- What remains uncertain
- The attribution is disputed: the wording resembles modern inspirational copy and appears widely online without a primary source.
The line casts setting boundaries as an act of dignity: removing harmful people isn’t hatred but self‑respect. It reads like a modern self‑help aphorism and is found mostly on later quote sites rather than in any verified Monroe source.
“The most painful thing is losing yourself in the process of loving someone too much, and forgetting that you are special too.”
Source: no specific work is documented · Check the source
MisattributedWhat we know
- What is documented
- Sources show the line is commonly claimed to be from Men Without Women but it does not appear there; no verified primary source has been documented.
- What remains uncertain
- Scholars and reference sites mark the quote as apocryphal or misattributed; it may trace to a 2011 blog post rather than Hemingway.
The line warns that loving someone too much can erase your sense of self and stresses the need to keep your own worth. It is widely attributed to Ernest Hemingway online, but that attribution is disputed and no primary-source match in his works has been found.