Quotes About Vulnerability

I stared at the statue, feeling the fractured place in my heart.

I'll put it in a story." I don't know if that's what he wanted to ask me, but it's something everybody wants—for someone to see the hurt done to them and set it down like it matters.

The pear trees were bare, their limbs spread open like the viscera of a parasol. Stretching into the darkness beyond, the single houses, double houses, and villas were lined up in cramped, neat rows which ran toward the tip of the peninsula. p94

He said she left me, that she left both of us and ran away." A wall of glass broke in my chest, a wall I didn't even know was there.

She didn't say, Come on now, stop your crying, everything's going to be okay, which is the automatic thing people say when they want you to shut up. She said, "It hurts, I know it does. Let it out. Just let it out.

She'd been boiled down to a good, strong broth. Her hair was loose, dangling along the sides

Look at you child, look what he's done to you, she said. My knees had been tortured like this enough times in my life that I'd stopped thinking of it as out of the ordinary; it was just something you had to put up with from time to time, like the common cold. But suddenly the look on Rosaleen's face cut through all that. Look what he's done to you.

Meekness. It isn't meekness I need, it's anger." I'd not forgotten this. I knelt beside my friend.

Sunk in the mud, it took all my strength to flip it over. I lifted out the oar and inspected the bottom for holes and rotted wood. Seeing none, I gathered up my skirt, climbed in, and paddled to the middle of the pond, an untouchable place, far from everything. I tried to think what I would say to him, worried my voice would slink off again and leave me. I remained there a long while, lapping on the surface. Vapor curled on the water, dragonflies pricked the air, and I thought it all beautiful.

He heard the quake that lived at my center, and he didn't seek to silence it.

I spoke the truth to my husband, but not all the truth.

Do not stare at me in the shit pile, leaving me discarded You will find me in the kingdoms . . . Do not be afraid of my power Why do you despise my fear and curse my pride? I am she who exists in all fears and in trembling boldness

The most wounded thing in us always finds a way

I'm sorry I thrust so much on you at once. I'm not known for subtlety. My delicate side wore away many years ago.

What both of you do is important," says Ann, holding my gaze, and I see she is moved by my outpouring. This telling of secret things.

I let my fingers brush the inside of his elbow. Then I dampened the towel and wiped the dirt and blood from his hands, arms, chest, and face, from the coils of his ears and the creases in his neck, all the while falling and falling, slamming into myself, into the boundless pain.

I couldn't be angered by her deceit—it didn't come from treachery. We women harbor our intimacies in locked places in our bodies. They are ours to relinquish when we choose.

I felt like I was dissolving. A dandelion going to seed.

Crockery broke and fabric frayed. The delicate things I cared about perished, while the hard things like swords survived.

there. Of course, the DPRK purposely infantilized its citizens, making everyone helpless and powerless so that they depended on the state.

Rouse him, and learn the principle of his activity or inactivity. Force him to reveal himself, so as to find out his vulnerable spots.

There are five dangerous faults which may affect a general: (1) Recklessness, which leads to destruction; (2) cowardice, which leads to capture; (3) a hasty temper, which can be provoked by insults; (4) a delicacy of honor which is sensitive to shame; (5) over-solicitude for his men, which exposes him to worry and trouble.

If he sends reinforcements everywhere, he will everywhere be weak.

You can ensure the safety of your defense if you only hold positions that cannot be attacked.