Quotes About Helplessness

For the first time I could remember, I felt weak, woozy and stupid— like a human-being. Like a very small and helpless human-being.

Who else did they have to turn to? Not their parents. Nor the neighborhood. Inside their house they were prisoners; outside, lepers. And so they hid from the world, waiting for someone—for us—to save them.

You can't always control your circumstances, but you can choose to be happy. When you're unhappy it's not the result of circumstances but the result of thought, which is why feeling unhappy often coincides with feelings of helplessness. To be happy is associated with the knowledge that how you think and feel will always be your choice, which will put you in charge of your life.

Suppose you fell over with this fish. Is there anything you could do? Sure. Pray. It'd be like falling out of an airplane without a parachute and hoping you'll land in a haystack. The only thing that'd save you would be God, and since He pushed you overboard in the first place, I wouldn't give a nickel for your chances.

Watson told her that the sorry help at Chatham Bend these days couldn't pour piss out of a boot that had the instructions written on the heel.

What they do not comprehend is man's helplessness. I am weak, small, of no consequence to the universe. It does not notice me; I live on unseen. But why is that bad? Isn't it that way? Whom the gods notice they destroy. Be small… and you will escape the jealousy of the great.

That's what it means to die, to not be able to stop looking at whatever's in front of you. Some darn thing placed directly there, with nothing you can do about it...

I'm sorry, she thought. But she said nothing. I can't save you or anybody else from being dark.

Todo mundo sabe disso, todo mundo que já olhou sem poder fazer nada para uma pessoa doente ou moribunda, ou um animal doente ou moribundo, sentiu uma pena terrível, uma pena avassaladora, e percebeu que essa pena, por maior que pudesse ser, é totalmente inútil.

and I experienced the bitter helplessness of a taunted old man dying to be whole again.

If disaster, so be it, they said to themselves. There was nothing to be done except what could be done. The rest -- like the salt water around them, which swallowed the snow without effort, remaining what it was implacably -- was out of their hands, beyond.

Helplessness is the real secret and the impelling power of prayer . . . For it is only when we are helpless that we open our hearts to Jesus and let Him help us in our distress, according to His grace and mercy. —O. H. Hallesby

The world is quieter now. It is never quiet, but it can get quieter. What strange creatures we are, to find silence peaceful, when permanent silence is the thing we most dread. Nighttime is not that. Nighttime still rustles, still creaks and whispers and trembles in its throat. It is not darkness we fear, but our own helplessness within it. How merciful to have been granted the other senses.

I truly don't understand any of this,' I confessed. She stayed standing, facing me. 'I wish I could help you there,' she told me. 'But I can't.

Witnessing a mother's slow physical decline can be the equivalent of of experiencing long-term trauma. The daughter's feelings of helplessness, anger, and fear persist. And persist. And persist. She may alternate between wanting to protect her mother and resenting her, an advance-and-retreat dance of identification and rejection than can span years.

All thoughts of revenge are born of the pain of helplessness. 'I suffer' becomes 'You will suffer'. And let us not lie: Vengeance is invigorating. It focuses and enlivens us, and it quashes grief because it turns the emotion outward. In grief we go to pieces. In revenge we come together as a single pointed weapon aimed at a target. However destructive in the long run, it serves a useful purpose for a time.

Herleid tot zijn eenvoudigste vorm komt mijn besluit hierop neer, dat u de gebeurtenis weg hebt willen dringen uit uw bewustzijn. Waarschijnlijk heeft de overigens ongegronde wroeging om het feit, dat u de man niet helpen kon, u parten gespeeld en zich tot een schuldgevoel gefixeerd. Men vergeet echter niet, wat men wil vergeten.

Jenabai knew how much it must have cost Mastan to admit his helplessness in resolving the issue. He was always conscious of his public image—perhaps because he was defensive about his lack of education—and hated to appear anything but wise.

I should like to think that had I been around at the time I would have been a convinced anti-Nazi engaged in the underground resistance fight. However, I know really that I would have been as confused and felt as helpless as most of the people I am writing about

The horses came thundering toward Margaret. "Get down!" Daniel tackled her to the dusty ground. The breath puffed out of her. She struggled to free herself, but his strong body kept her pinned beneath him. She could smell the clean scent of soap underneath the scent of his skin. Never in her life had she felt so helpless and dependent. And protected. The word whispered through her brain with a gentle allure.

Most cannot lead—the idea terrifies them. Yet for those like you and me, there is no greater joy than knowing there is no help coming. The decision is ours alone.

The only kind of questions he could answer were those that took "yes" or "no" for an answer — by shaking his head up and down or from side to side — and that limited them to about one out of every ten that they wanted to put to him. I saw red when I saw how helpless he was.

I had that trapped feeling, like some sort of a poor insect that you've put inside a downturned glass, and it tries to climb up the sides, and it can't, and it can't, and it can't.

Some nonproductive cultures are starving for a vision or central focus; others are wasting the energy of their people by regularly changing and manipulating the direction of their focus. Most contemporary companies are suffering from an assault on their basic expectations. Like the desk clerk, we have collectively learned not to trust and have developed a kind of shared helplessness.