Looking for quotes about petty people? We have rounded up the best collection of petty quotes, sayings, captions, and status (with images and pictures) to inspire you to grow up and think big.
Being petty means someone who gets caught up in small details. When you give too much of importance to something that is ‘trivial’, ‘unimportant’, or ‘insignificant’ it is a sign of being small-minded and petty.
Also See: Dream Big Quotes
Pettiness, the word that is, dates back to the 14th century and derives from petit or “small”, “minor” in Middle English/Old French.
Pettiness is often attributed to underlying insecurities hidden behind false confidence.
We’ve all encountered petty people. We’ve all lived with them, worked with them, dated them, and been friends with them.
Also See: Immaturity Quotes
Some people seem to be petty about everything, all the time. Some may be petty in one particular area of their life.
But pettiness keeps you away from thinking big. And being open-minded and open to ideas results in growth and progress.
If you like these petty person sayings, also check out being silly quotes and heartless quotes that you will love to read.
10 Petty Quotes On Being Small Minded
- “Fill your brain with giant dreams so it has no space for petty pursuits.” – Robin Sharma
- “I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- “Exemplary persons are steadfast in the face of adversity, while petty persons are engulfed by it.” – Confucius
- “My life is full of drama, and I don’t have time to worry about something as petty as what I look like.” – Adele
- “The art of giving orders is not to try to rectify the minor blunders and not to be swayed by petty doubts.” –Sun Tzu
- “Stop letting people who do so little for you control so much of your mind, feelings, and emotions.” – Will Smith
- “Petty things become unimportant when people are impassioned about a purpose higher than self.” – Stephen Covey
- “By removing that which is petty and self-seeking, we bring forth all that is glorious and mindful of the whole.” – Eknath Easwaran
- “Your energy, your spirit are important considerations. Feeling petty and frustrated can have reverberating consequences for your ability to think strategically and reach your goals.” – Robert Greene
- “Always give your best, never get discouraged, never be petty; always remember, others may hate you, but those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them, and then you destroy yourself.” – Richard Nixon
Quotes About Being Petty
Urban Dictionary defines petty as “making things, events, or actions normal people dismiss as trivial or insignificant into excuses to be upset, uncooperative, childish, or stubborn.”
- “Petty laws breed great crimes.” – Ouida
- “Self righteousness belongs to narrow-minded.” – Toba Beta
- “A mind set in its ways is wasted. Don’t do it.” – Eric Schmidt
- “A mind is like a parachute. It doesn’t work if it is not open.” – Frank Zappa
- “A petty person often misses out on what is pretty in life.” – Gift Gugu Mona
- “Don’t sweat the petty things and don’t pet the sweaty things.” – George Carlin
- “A narrow mind and a fat head invariably come on the same person.” – Zig Ziglar
- “One’s opinion should only be as strong as one’s knowledge on the matter.” – Eric Hirzel
- “Don’t let the pettiness of life prevent you from enjoying God’s plenty.” – Bernard Kelvin Clive
- “I don’t want to be a politician. I don’t like politics. It’s petty; it fights dirty.” – John Mellencamp
- “Small minds are concerned with the extraordinary, great minds with the ordinary.” – Blaise Pascal
- “The man of petty ambition if invited to dinner will be eager to be set next his host.” – Theophrastus
- “A superior person knows what is moral; a petty person only knows what is profitable.” – Chinese Proverb
- “So many it seems, have made it their life’s goal to bask in the ignorance of their certainty.” – John Chaplin
- “The irony is that while our world might plead for change, it does its best to suppress it.” – Hiba Fatima Ahmad
- “Who among us has the strength to oppose petty egoism, those petty good feelings, pity, and remorse?” – Ivan Turgenev
- “The world perishes not from bandits and fires, but from hatred, hostility, and all these petty squabbles.” – Anton Chekhov
- “Great wisdom is generous; petty wisdom is contentious. Great speech is impassioned, small speech cantankerous.” – Zhuangzi
- “Our thoughts are broadcasts of the soul, not secrets of the brain. Kind ones bring us happiness; petty ones, untold pain.” – Ritu Ghatourey
- “Tis the business of little minds to shrink; but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct, will pursue his principles unto death.” – Thomas Paine
Petty People Quotes For Fake Friends
Petty people can be annoying. They speak and discuss trivial issues that are unimportant. Be it your haters, your Ex boyfriend, Ex girlfriend, these sassy and savage petty quotes and captions are perfect for people who are small-minded.
- “I don’t need to be in the mix. That’s how you lose flavor.” – Unknown
- “The less people know, the more stubbornly they know it.” – Rajneesh
- “Revenge is always the delight of a little weak and petty mind.” – Juvenal
- “We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.” – Aesop
- “Never let somebody’s drama determine the outcome of your day.” – Terry Mark
- “If they do it often, it isn’t a mistake; it’s just their behavior.” – Dr. Steve Maraboli
- “Refuse to fight small battles with petty people. Your life is bigger and better than that.” – Unknown
- “If the folks sometimes observe the vastness of the universe their narrowmindedness dies.” – Lord Robin
- “Because fear and jealousy both lead to pettiness, noble hearts are neither terrified nor jealous.” – Unknown
- “Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people.” – Eleanor Roosevelt
- “Class is considerate of others. It knows that good manners is nothing more than a series of petty sacrifices.” – Ann Landers
- “Narrow-mindedness will only get you as far as Nowhere, and once you’re there, you’re lost forever.” – Tahereh Mafi
- “The world will not be destroyed by those who do evil, but by those who watch them without doing anything.” – Albert Einstein
- “Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.” – George Bernard Shaw
- “People who prefer to believe the worst of others will breed war and religious persecutions while the world lasts.” – Dorothy L. Sayers
- “People who make up their minds about something never listen to advice – especially when it’s to the contrary.” – Steven Erikson
- “It’s easy to just be rude or just be nasty. I think it’s actually harder for people to say something positive; it’s interesting.” – Karrueche Tran
- “Wagging tongues from prejudiced, sophisticated facade of show-off people can never blemish any honest, genuine, golden heart.” – Angelica Hopes
- “I’m not petty. I’m dead ass disrespectful and I will straight up disrespect you if you wanna play that petty game. Your feelings will be hurt.” – Unknown
- “Your days are numbered. Use them to throw open the windows of your soul to the sun. If you do not, the sun will soon set, and you with it.” – Marcus Aurelius
Savage Petty Quotes For Her & Him
- “Let them be little.” – Unknown
- “Men are separated by so many petty things.” – Aaron Huey
- “Respond intelligently even to unintelligent treatment.” – Lao Tzu
- “An open mind is better than a clenched fist.” – Matshona Dhliwayo
- “More than jealousy or possessiveness pettiness kills love.” – Unknown
- “When you are actually powerful, you don’t need to be petty.” – Jon Stewart
- “A person who is nice to you, but rude to the waiter, is not a nice person.” – Dave Barry
- “Sweetie, if you’re going to be two faced, at least make one of them pretty.” – Anonymous
- “Where can I find a man who has forgotten words so I can have a word with him?” – Zhuangzi
- “Remember…Whoever is trying to bring you down is already below you.” – Ziad K. Abdelnour
- “Don’t lose your queen bee, chasing a butterfly and end up with a roach, let us spray.” – Unknown
- “Do not be threatened by rude people, because rudeness is a sign of insecurity.” – Gift Gugu Mona
- “The ego is what drives a self-serving individual who hates to admit they are wrong.” – Suzy Kassem
- “He’d rather wish for his neighbour’s cow to die than have his own cow brought back to life.” – Juliet Butler
- “The petty man wants to use God for himself; the ambitious man wants God to use him for God.” – Criss Jami
- “Do something you really like, and hopefully it pays the rent. As far as I’m concerned, that’s success.” – Tom Petty
- “Don’t let anyone drain you of your happiness today. Be drama free. Rise above the petty stuff.” – Trent Shelton
- “Whether the gentleman is capable or not, he is loved all the same; conversely the petty man is loathed all the same.” – Xun Kuang
- “Intelligence arouses fear and respect, the lack of it keeps one on the narrow minded road of disrespect, stupidity and inferiority complex.” – Michael Bassey Johnson
- “It is not true that suffering ennobles the character; happiness does that sometimes, but suffering, for the most part, makes men petty and vindictive.” – W. Somerset Maugham
Quotes On Pettiness & Dealing With Minor Things
- “Don’t worry about petty things.” – Richie Norton
- “Open your mind before your mouth.” – Aristophanes
- “An open mind is like an open window. It lets the fresh air in.” – Mike Hernacki
- “We are regressing from narrow-mindedness to nano-mindedness” – Amit Abraham
- “I fly because it releases my mind from the tyranny of petty things.” – Antoine de Saint-Exupéry
- “Giving an insignificant thing your attention is a form of self-disrespect.” – Mokokoma Mokhonoana
- “The art of giving orders is not to try to rectify the minor blunders and not to be swayed by petty doubts.” – Sun Tzu
- “Don’t be unwilling to take those little steps; in them are residing great journeys. Move on.” – Israelmore Ayivor
- “Kids think with their brains cracked wide open; becoming an adult, I’ve decided, is only a slow sewing shut.” – Jodi Picoult
- “You don’t have to knock anyone off their game to win yours. It doesn’t build you up to tear others down.” – Mandy Hale
- “We should not have a petty regard for God’s gifts, though we may and should despise our own imperfections.” – Saint Ignatius
- “I don’t need other people to have an open mind for me to be happy. I’m the only one who needs an open mind.” – Byron Katie
- “One will seldom go wrong if one attributes extreme actions to vanity, average ones to habit, and petty ones to fear.” – Friedrich Nietzsche
- “Life is too short for drama and petty things, so kiss slowly, laugh insanely, love truly, and forgive quickly.” -.Susan Chapman Melanson
- “Feeling petty and frustrated can have reverberating consequences for your ability to think strategically and reach your goals.” – Robert Greene
- “When politicians don black robes and seize powers they do not have, they should be called out for what they are – usurpers and petty tyrants.” – Pat Buchanan
- “People throughout time have grieved, have fallen in love, have fallen out of love. We are sometimes petty and sometimes heroic, and we have been that way forever.” – Monica Hesse
- “Everything is possible; we just need to be hopeful and think of the world from a human perspective. The world is so small compared to the universe, so we shouldn’t fight for petty things.” – Manal al-Sharif
- “When we are unhurried and unwise, we perceive that only great and worthy things have any permanent and absolute existence,— that petty fears and petty pleasures are but the shadow of the reality.” – Walden
- “Remember, always give your best. Never get discouraged. Never be petty. Always remember, others may hate you. But those who hate you don’t win unless you hate them. And then you destroy yourself.” – Richard M. Nixon
Being petty is a common behavior that many people engage in from time to time. It can involve holding onto grudges, seeking revenge, or engaging in small acts of spite or meanness.
While being petty may feel satisfying at the moment, it often leads to negative outcomes, such as damaged relationships or increased stress and anxiety.
Instead, it is important to be open to feedback, willing to learn and focused on building positive and supportive relationships with others.
The above quotes speak to the idea that being petty can be a result of self-deception and ignorance, and that true growth and change come from being open to feedback and willing to learn.
What are your favorite inspirational quotes from the list above? Don’t forget to check out our collection of famous work hard quotes and cold hearted quotes to inspire you to face the hardships and pain in life fearlessly.
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