Quotes About Vulnerability

building an environment of reflectiveness starts with our own willingness to open ourselves, to be vulnerable, to be "exposed," as Saillant put it. This is unlikely to happen in any organizational environment that does not have a deep commitment to helping people grow, and to creating the trust and spirit of mutuality this requires.

Trouble was, they never let on to their sons how scared they was—so scared they forgot the color of a man because he could outshoot the man who scared 'em. And bein ashamed, they never talked about it or discussed it in the family.

The only whole heart is the broken heart. But it must be wholly broken

It is a risk to love. What if it doesn't work out? Ah, but what if it does.

Maybe the kids will always be stronger. It's us—the impostors masquerading as protectors—who are unimaginably weak. For

They locked her in the cage when she started to bleed.

Banks smiled. Don't worry, he said it's my balls on the chopping-block, not yours. I'll cover for you. My word on it. Susan smiled back. Well, that's the first time not having any balls has ever done me any good.

I've always held something back. The part of me I probably shouldn't have held back if I wanted any sort of meaningful relationship. The part that won't let you get close to anyone ever again because you know you're going to lose them, and you know how bad it feels. Because they're going to die.

Truly embracing the fragility and tensions of life...brings with it the possibility of true joy.

Worldwide, the poor leave a very small carbon footprint, but they will suffer the most from climate change.

In some parts of the world, what you are doing is already apparent. According to the World Health Organization, the warming of the planet caused an additional 140,000 deaths in 2004, as compared with the number of deaths there would have been had average global temperatures remained as they were during the period 1961 to 1990. This means that climate change is already causing, every week, as many deaths as occurred in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

Climate change is already causing, every week, as many deaths as occurred in the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001.

We were so raw that we could be seduced by civility.

I don't know how her life turned out, but I do know that nobody can protect anybody else from vileness. Or from pain. All you can do is not let it break you in half and keep on going until you get to the other side.

Either childhood is a lot more painful the second time around, or it's just less bearable. None of us are as strong or as brave as the children we used to be.

All cruelty comes from weakness, just as all human compassion can come only from strength.

Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.

One of her favorite sayings is "Only to the extent that we expose ourselves over and over to annihilation can that which is indestructible be found in us.

They wanted to have a good time, but they were like children playing in the street; they could see one after another of them being killed--run over, maimed, destroyed--but they continued to play anyhow.

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.

The most dangerous kind of person... is one who is afraid of his own shadow.

Why does a man cry? he wondered. Not like a woman; not for that. Not for sentiment. A man cries over the loss of something, something alive. A man can cry over a sick animal that he knows won't make it. The death of a child: a man can cry for that. But not because things are sad. A man, he thought, cries not for the future or the past but for the present.

I resemble that worm which crawls through dust, Lives in the dust, eats dust Until a passerby's foot crushes it.

Eierkopf. Egghead. Because the big double-domed empty heads break so easily . . . in the street brawls.