Quotes About Vulnerability

O]ur 'inferiors,' who love us...take pleasure in wounding us in our self-esteem.

Reality is the cleverest of our enemies. It directs its attacks at those points in our heart where we were not expecting them, and where we had prepared no defense. Had Albertine been lying to her aunt then, when she said every day that she was going to the Buttes-Chaumont, or to me when she said that she had never been there?

The truth is the most cunning of enemies. It launches its attacks upon the points of our heart at which we were not expecting them, and have prepared no defence.

Other people as a rule mean so little to us that, when we have invested one of them with the power to cause us so much suffering or happiness, that person seems at once to belong to a different universe, is surrounded with poetry, makes of one's life a sort of stirring arena in which he or she will be more or less close to one.

Custom came to take me in her arms, carried me all the way up to my bed, and laid me down there like a little child.

the rule among the human race—a rule that naturally admits of exceptions—is that the reputedly hard are the weak whom nobody wanted, and that the strong, caring little whether they are wanted or not, have alone that gentleness which the vulgar herd mistakes for weakness.

What arrogance made us think we were far enough to be safe?

Second, because of their ignorance, some refused to believe a child who tried to tell them about the abuse. Indeed, in some circumstances, the abused child was beaten by a parent for having the nerve to suggest their beloved clergy would do something so heinous, so abuse piled on top of abuse.

Even our phone calls were like crawling naked across a field of broken glass.

one here can tell me anything." Eric put his hands in his pockets, then looked away. "What? What?

We serve others as much by our weaknesses as by our strengths. The only difficult is that it takes humility and courage to be able to live by it.

God has a funny way of reminding us we're human. [About his impromptu water break during his delivery of the GOP rebuttal to President Barack Obama's State of the Union on February 12, 2013]

You know that big government doesn't hurt big corporations. They've got the best lawyers and accountants in the world. You know who gets destroyed by big government? It's the little guys.

No Christian leader – no leader of any kind – is immune from the dangers of misuse of power and position.

Authentic Christian leaders boast in weakness, not strength.

The more we fear, the more we need them. And the more we need them, the more powerful they get.

A relationship like a short circuit, their mutual frailties feeding each other.

It's kind of a circle. When people are scared, it's easy for them to decide anything different is evil. To forget that everyone is basically the same, that we all love our families and want regular lives. And what makes it worse is that some people use that. They make others scared on purpose, because they know if they do, everyone will start acting stupid." "But why would they want that?" "It's a way to control people. A way to get what they want.

To bear your weaponry so blatantly before you, to move through the world as a nightmare. The spider regarded him, and he regarded the spider.

she was so small, you couldn't help but imagine what she looked like naked." -- Brilliance, 2013

she was so small, you couldn't help but imagine what she looked like naked.

He took out the sidearm. Thumbed the magazine release. A full load, hollow-points. Body armor would stop them, but if they hit flesh, they'd shred on impact, tiny razors spinning inside fragile tissue. Two spare magazines, though why he would need that many rounds he couldn't imagine.

Nothing is so strongly fortified that it cannot be taken by money.

May I never grow so strong that my heart cannot be moved. May I never grow so weak that I fear to speak the truth.