Quotes About Vulnerability

There was corruption at every turn, and those who stood for honesty and integrity were more and more vulnerable, more and more isolated amongst the hordes of people who simply had no moral sense. And

Hampus looked up again. Ulf saw that tears had appeared in his eyes. He wanted to reach forward and wipe them away, but that was not for a detective to do.

It was always the strongest men who were the first to cry, thought Mma Ramotswe. Some people said it was the other way round, but they were wrong, she told herself; they were simply wrong. (To the Land of Long Lost Friends)

And when I say "the least of us", or even "the weaker brethren", I do not mean other people, you know: I mean myself.

There was no point in telling somebody not to cry, she had always thought; indeed there were times when you should do exactly the opposite, when you should urge people to cry, to start the healing that sometimes only tears can bring. But if there was a place for tears of relief, there might even be a place for tears of pride[.]

Why, thought Ulf, should a grown man seek to defraud a gullible fish? Here is a tasty morsel—no! A concealed hook! Foolish, foolish fish...

I'm sure that Pat likes you," said Big Lou. "And perhaps she would like you even more if she knew how you felt about her. Have you ever told her that?" "Of course not," said Matthew. Big Lou should have known better than to ask that question. This was Edinburgh, after all. One did not go about the place declaring oneself like some lovesick Californian.

Love and loss—two things that went together, it seemed, with a poignant inevitability; we loved, knowing that we would lose, but loved nonetheless because...She stopped. Yes, because we did not choose to love; we loved because we had to. Love was something that happened to us; it was never planned, even if we knew that some day, at some moment, it might alight upon us and—we hoped—change everything.

It was safer, he thought, to keep it to himself; because there are many ways of loving.

These men were like leeches; they sucked away at the goodness of a woman's heart until it was dry and all her love had been used" (pg.46)

They might have pictures of skulls on the backs of their leather jackets, but in their case these were really pictures of their last X-ray rather than threats.

That was the problem with human failings – they were often more visible to others than to those whom they afflicted.

She had always understood that love could have an intense physical effect; could fill a space somewhere in the chest, could turn knees weak, could raise the pulse; could intoxicate, just as could a strong martini or a glass of champagne. Could, she thought, and would…but only if you allowed it, only if you opened whatever portals of the heart needed to be opened. And some people, of course, found it difficult to do that.

How rapid was his look and bashful, Tender and bold, while off and on With an obedient tear it shone.

we are willing to lose ourselves in another as we exchange fates with one whom we love but on whom our heart is nevertheless impaled.

She treated Vanessa and me as if we were visiting budgerigars that needed to be fed and then put somewhere dark for the night.

The schools wear the blank faces of war buildings, their windows blown blind by rocks or guns or mortars. Their plaster is an acne of bullet marks. The huts and small houses crouch open and vulnerable; their doors are flimsy pieces of plyboard or sacks hanging and lank. Children and chickens and dogs scratch in the red, raw soil and stare at us as we drive through their open, eroding lives.

Strong people didn't like witnesses to their weak moments.

Medicine asked something extraordinary of nurses: to forge intimate connections with another person for hours, weeks, or months, to care thoroughly and holistically—and then to let that individual suddenly go, often never to be heard from again.

On what slender threads do life and fortune hang… !

Armed to the teeth? He had not even a knitting-needle.

What tender threads do life and death hang

Never be afraid to cry. Sometimes, nothing can cleanse the heart more than a few wet tears.

Page 363: …an ethnic party system is highly vulnerable to being transformed into an authoritarian but no less ethnically partial regime. Page 437: … the single party paves the way for minority rule, while providing a multiethnic cover for those groups and subgroups that are well positioned to exclude the rest