Quotes About Vulnerability

Nothing makes us more vulnerable than loneliness except greed.

I'm saddest when I sing.

The canker worm is at work within The fairest of her flowers.

One more unfortunate,Weary of breath,Rashly importunate,Gone to her death!Take her up tenderly,Lift her with care;Fashioned so slenderly,Young, and so fair!

And there is even a happinessThat makes the heart afraid.

However, you'll all find, if you haven't found it out already, that a time comes in every human friendship when you must go down into the depths of yourself, and lay bare what is there to your friend, and wait in fear for his answer.

To write a novel is always to go naked, whatever you're writing about. You always reveal yourself.

The finest people, as people go, cannot help but betray a fair portion of fear and insecurity, even full-blown panic.

What does it mean to be alive except to court disaster and suffering at every moment?

Life had overshot its target, blowing itself apart. A species had been armed too heavily—by spirit made almighty without, but equally a menace to its own well-being. Its weapon was like a sword without hilt or plate, a two-edged blade cleaving everything; but he who is to wield it must grasp the blade and turn one edge toward himself.

Children have made me nervous ever since I stopped being one of them.

Grief is the price we pay for being close to one another. If we want to avoid our grief, we simply avoid each other.

It hurts so bad that I cannot save him, protect him, keep him out of harm's way, shield him from pain. What good are fathers if not for these things?

I always fall for the truly cold, cold people, cold men because I decide their reserve and awkwardness is really bottled-up warmth that they're waiting for me to release, an act for which they'll repay me with extravagant love.

I know I am talking nonsense, but I'd rather go rambling on, and partly expressing something I find it difficult to express, than to keep on transmitting faultless platitudes.

With agoraphobia you feel safe only when you are in certain environments. Your anxiety increases every time your 'safe place' is unavailable, blocked, or becomes more distant.

Oh! ever thus, from childhood's hour,I've seen my fondest hope decay;I never loved a tree or flower,But 'twas the first to fade away.I never nurs'd a dear gazelleTo glad me with its soft black eye,But when it came to know me well,And love me, it was sure to die.

And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers is always the first to be touch'd by the thorns.

Education is not the piling on of learning, information, data, facts, skills, or abilities--that's training or instruction--but is rather a making visible what is hidden as a seed... To be educated, a person doesn't have to know much or be informed, but he or she does have to have been exposed vulnerably to the transformative events of an engaged human life... One of the greatest problems of our time is that many are schooled but few are educated.

And the heart that is soonest awake to the flowers Is always the first to be touched by the thorns.

We need people in our lives with whom we can be as open as possible. To have real conversations with people may seem like such a simple, obvious suggestion, but it involves courage and risk.

Love doesn't demand perfection, but it does ask you to give yourself with less reserve than you'd prefer.

To be educated, a person doesn't have to know much or be informed, but he or she does have to have been exposed vulnerably to the transformative events of an engaged human life.

I love you' is what people say when they have run out of words and can't say anything else. It is like reaching out a hand in desperation.