Quotes About Vulnerability

Los hombres no lloran, le repetía su padre. ¿Y por qué los hombres no podían llorar? Alguna vez debía romper las reglas impuestas y con decisión se lanzó sobre su cama y sollozó sobre su almohada de borra.

It is easy to understand why trust becomes a major issue for adults abused as children when you remember that trust is learned in childhood. As children, we were totally dependent upon our parents. We trusted that they would feed us, change our diapers, keep us safe and warm. When this trust is unknown or broken, it is difficult to restore.

Neglect is when a parent does not feed a child or provide the basic necessities such as clothing or shelter, or medical attention if needed. Leaving a child alone when the child is not yet ready to care for him/herself is neglectful since it leaves a child in a potentially dangerous situation.

As abused children grow up, they may view themselves as bad, and everybody else as good, or, at least better. On the other hand, some abused children can see themselves as good, and others bad. They can become afraid of others and avoid them for fear of getting hurt. In its extreme form, these people can expect only pain and suffering from others, and see everyone as a potential attacker.

Children who grow up being put down, held back, beaten, taken advantage of, ignored, and misused or maltreated, find it hard to trust, and expect little from others except pain. They protect themselves by staying isolated and may frequently feel that as long as they don't have to relate to anyone else, they will manage. Loneliness may become a way of life for these children. An abused child often plays alone, makes friends only with a pet, or creates a rich fantasy life.

How unfair, he thought; I can close my mouth whenever I like, as tight as I like, and what has a mouth to say? It is there for taking in nourishment, yet it is well defended, but ears - ears are a prey to every onslaught.

Savor powerlessness, after power, in every phase that matches it precisely; replace every old triumph with the new defeat; strengthen yourself on your weakness; win yourself back when so very lost.

Fear thrives strongest; there is no telling how little we would be without having suffered fear. An intrinsic characteristic of humanity is the tendency to give in to fear. No fear is lost, but its hiding places are a riddle. Perhaps, of all things, fear is the one that changes least.

I remember a young Hungarian Jew, his shoulders stooped like an old man's, who confessed to some infraction so as to be beaten in his uncle's stead. I am young, he said, and stronger than he. He was young but no less weak. He did not survive the beating

To talk to a stranger is like talking to the stars: it doesn't commit you.

For us it meant true equality: nakedness. We trembled in the cold. A

Could men and women who consider it normal to assist the weak, to heal the sick, to protect small children, and to respect the wisdom of their elders understand what happened there? Would they be able to comprehend how, within that cursed universe, the masters tortured the weak and massacred the children, the sick, and the old?

I wept because-because of something inside me that felt the need for tears.

For us, this was the true equality: Nakedness. Shivering with the cold.

To love means to open ourselves to suffering. Shall we shut our doors to love, then and 'be safe'?" That's the only alternative, really. But locking ourselves up and never facing another person won't fix what's really going on in our souls.

We often tend to ignore how much of a child is still in all of us.

Todas las teorías y toda la ciencia del mundo no pueden ayudar a nadie tanto como un ser humano que no teme abrir su corazón a otro.

Pasados unos meses observé que muchos médicos evitaban rutinariamente referirse a cualquier cosa que tuviera que ver con la muerte. A los enfermos moribundos se los trataba tan mal como a mis pacientes psiquiátricos del hospital estatal. Se los rechazaba y maltrataba. Nadie era sincero con ellos. Si un enfermo de cáncer preguntaba ¿Me voy a morir?, el médico le contestaba ¡Oh, no! no diga tonterías.

I call it sniffing someone out. If they smell real, I give them a signal to come close.

It is such a terrifying thing to see a man cry.

People who don't feel cared for are not always comfortable being cared for.

I think, actually, that none of us understands anyone else very well, because we're all too shy to show what matters the most. If you ask me, it's a major design flaw. We ought to be able to say, Here, look what I am. I think it would be quite a relief.

You know, sometimes marriage is iron. Sometimes it's tissue paper. And I think the times it's tissue paper are when you need to keep things to yourself. Or you can end up making a mistake that you'll regret forever.

The truth is, we usually only show our unhappiness to another woman. I suppose this is one of our problems. And yet it is also one of our strengths.