Quotes About Vulnerability

And if there is one thing we can be sure of, it's that extreme weather events like Superstorm Sandy, Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines, and the British floods—disasters that, combined, pummeled coastlines beyond recognition, ravaged millions of homes, and killed many thousands—are going to keep coming.

Although climate change will ultimately be an existential threat to all of humanity, in the short term we know that it does discriminate, hitting the poor first and worst

The shock doctrine is about overriding these deeply human impulses to help, seeking instead to capitalize on the vulnerability of others in order to maximize wealth and advantage for a select few. There are few things more sinister than that.

I don't think I can do it alone, I said. I had a feeling the Summoning wasn't really meant to be cast alone: as if truth didn't mean anything without someone to share it with.

It's always mattered a lot to me to keep a wall up round my dignity, even though dignity matters fuck-all when the monsters under your bed are real.

I didn't want her to need to do things like that. I didn't want her to need a sword.

I'm sorry, I said, feeling stupid in the way I'm sorry always feel stupid when you mean it.

He began to weep and make protests, but I didn't have the strength to

I managed to behave like a human being and hug her back, my throat tight.

I just sobbed myself out until I had too much of a headache to go on crying, and after that I was cold and stiff

Better to make no bargain than a bad one, and be thought of forever as an easy mark.

could only buy it by giving in sooner, giving in all the time; like Scheherazade, humbly asking my murderous husband to go on sparing me night after night. And

What would it be like to be a turtle inside a shell hit by hailstones?

Apparently people commonly died when their loved ones were out of the room. Bathroom break. Quick trip down to the cafeteria for a grilled cheese. It was easier to die if you didn't have family members to worry about at that exact moment. Easier for the one who was dying, maybe.

Because Ali did not want to see the deep pools of his kind teacher's eyes and fall into them. He didn't know how to swim.

Grief is an ambush. You're walking along feeling fine, look down, see a leaf, and begin to weep. —Jack

Any of them could have a disaster before the school year is over. You could have a disaster an hour from now. Bending over. Something could hit you. People carry guns in glove compartments and lunch boxes. Cars spin out of control in minor drizzle. The more you know, really, the more you have to worry and fret about. It's a miracle anyone can sleep at all.

Most urgently, women's identity must be premised upon our beauty so that we will remain vulnerable to outside approval, carrying the vital sensitive organ of self-esteem exposed to the air.

When novelist Margaret Atwood asked women what they feared most from men, they said: 'We're afraid they'll kill us.' When men were asked the same question about women, they said: 'we're afraid they'll laugh at us.

Quando a romancista Margaret Atwood perguntou a mulheres o que elas mais temiam dos homens, elas responderam que tinham medo que eles as matassem. Quando fez a mesma pergunta aos homens com relação às mulheres, eles responderam que tinham medo que elas rissem deles.

And I wondered why there were no studies of communities that did not "lock down" — communities in which people chose their own levels of risk while providing support to those who wished to "isolate" or who wanted to protect their own, more vulnerable immune systems while others made different choices. I wondered why no one wanted to know what was becoming of them.

One of my favorite quotations is this, from the late poet Audre Lorde: "My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you." It is truer now more than ever. This is a dangerous moment indeed.

Love is essential for happiness, but the person who loves so deeply that his or her happiness is placed entirely in the hands of another, resembles the little lamb who crept into the den of the nice, gentle little wolf and begged to be permitted to lie down and go to sleep, or the canary

The single clenched fist lifted and ready, Or the open asking hand held out and waiting. Choose: For we meet by one or the other.