Quotes About Vulnerability

Y por eso es imposible aprender a amar, tal como no se puede aprender a morir. Y nadie puede aprender el elusivo —el inexistente aunque intensamente deseado— arte de no caer en sus garras, de mantenerse fuera de su alcance. Cuando llegue el momento, el amor y la muerte caerán sobre nosotros, a pesar de que no tenemos ni un indicio de cuándo llegará ese momento.

Mas o que aprendemos antes de mais nada da companhia de outros é que o único auxílio que ela pode prestar é como sobreviver em nossa solidao irremível, e que a vida de todo mundo é cheia de riscos que devem ser enfrentados solitariamente.

Forms of modern life may differ in quite a few respects – but what unites them all is precisely their fragility, temporariness, vulnerability and inclination to constant change. To 'be modern' means to modernize – compulsively, obsessively; not so much just 'to be', let alone to keep its identity intact, but forever 'becoming', avoiding completion, staying underdefined.

Invertir sentimientos profundos en la relación y jurar fidelidad implica correr un enorme riesgo: eso lo convierte a usted en alguien dependiente de su pareja (aunque señalemos que la dependencia —que rápidamente ha cobrado un matiz peyorativo— es la base de la responsabilidad moral hacia el Otro, tanto para Lögstrup como para Levinas).

I am nothing more than a little boy inside That cries out for attention yet I always try to hide.

and it occurs to me how fragile our lives are, how at any moment the sky can open and drown us, the earth can open and swallow us. I think of all the intricate ways our bodies can betray us, the accidents and the atrocities, the missteps and the misunderstandings.

But the rules of the game don't simply dictate silence or obedience on the reader's part. What sustains the bond — the bondage, if you'll allow it — is its volatility. The dominant party is always vulnerable, the submissive party always capable of rebellion, resistance or outright refusal.

Arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken

Deliver me from your cold phlegmatic preachers, politicians, friends, lovers and husbands.

Prisoners, slaves, women and children, the sick, weak, disabled, animals, the earth itself – all were fair game for the cruel sport of those who had power. It was wrong, it was evil, but it was a fact of life.

I used to lie in a lover's arms getting a stiff neck, or needing to scratch my nose, or losing all sensation in my arm, unwilling to move lest the man find out I wasn't comfortable in his embrace...Would Snow White have rested all eight pounds of her head on any part of the prince? I doubt it, and I never did either. Sarah says that is why elderly women have such prominent cords in their necks.

Being cautious is new territory; my specialty was leaping, not looking. These days I pay attention. You can stumble uphill as easily as down. Ice comes in smooth and corrugated. Plastic bags are slippery underfoot. A big dog can knock you to your knees.

It strikes me that the physical details of the dying body are as intimate and predictable as those of the body making love.

A woman is the only thing I am afraid of that I know will not hurt me.

Women are the only people I am afraid of who I never thought would hurt me

They shouldn't leave things out. They just shouldn't. They have to paint it all, the whole thing, and they shouldn't be afraid of that. If they hold us tight enough, so tight we know they love us, it won't matter what they say. Their love will get us through it.

Wine grapes are as sensitive to assaults as authors.

Things were pretty cold-blooded back in Rockdale. That's when my arms were so pretty I could hold them up to the light and see the veins curling all clean and smooth like little blue branches.

Once I looked over at Welton and he was wiping his nose. I couldn't tell if he was crying or on nasal spray.

Man, that's the only kind of book I like – one that's so real you want to find out everything there is to know about the person who wrote it, like how tall he is and what kind of music he likes and whether or not he really went through all the stuff he was writing about.

But one half the children born, it is computed, die before the age of manhood.

The problem with breaking up with someone, if you are a little unsure — and so often, people are unsure — is that breaking up involves persuasion. You have to persuade your ex that it is better this way for everyone. And this is difficult if you have not entirely persuaded yourself. It is especially tricky to do this if you are also naked, and making two cups of coffee.

When I am sad and weary When I think all hope has gone When I walk along High Holborn I think of you with nothing on.

I wished I could show Sunny the inside of my mind. To peel back the flesh and bone and white matter and show only the raw truth of me.