Quotes About Vulnerability

I think it was the ChapStick that did it; he tasted like ChapStick and Jack Daniels. That reminder of human vulnerability got to me in a way that polished experience wouldn't have. Not that he had lied about the experience.

I don't want to get hurt again. That's true. A week ago we weren't on speaking terms. Now you think you love me. And I don't want to hurt you either. I'm not looking for a steady boyfriend right now.

If you even try to die, I'll kill you myself," Tucker had said in a choky voice

The thing is," Elliot said neutrally, "people lose their temper and strike out, and human beings are pretty fragile when you get down to it.

I haven't left the house without a packet of Kleenex in my back pocket for as long as I can remember. Whenever I start thinking I'm incredibly cool, the packet of Kleenex in my back pocket brings me right back down to earth.

some of the brightest kids prove to be the most vulnerable to becoming helpless, because they feel the need to live up to and maintain a perfectionist image that is easily and inevitably shattered.

Upon discovering what Fred had done, his mother grabbed him and stripped his clothes off. She stuck his butt out the window and yelled at the top of her voice, "Everyone in the neighborhood come quickly and see Freddie's bare ass!" That would be the first of many times during Fred Levin's life that he would bare his backside for the world to see.

A whole and grown-­up person would go and simply tell him. I'm in love with you. A whole and grown-­up person would ask him. Can you please love me back?

I'd let him put his hand under my shirt, over the bra, where he kneaded with delighted disbelief at my booby. It had been super exciting, not really because it felt that great to have my booby treated like a yeast roll, but because we had both been so thrilled that I had let him touch it.

God gives us tears so other know when we need help." from the book Gods in Alabama

Then he did the thing I couldn't manage. The kid leaned in and hugged me. A real hug, committed. I stiffened up—I couldn't help it—but he was clearly a dog person, so I didn't pull away.

We were so careful with each other. We had to be. We touched softly in deference to all the ways that we were wounded, working around each other's bruises and ruined places.

He had lost his child; he knew how fast things could spin out of control. He knew a person could lose anything in half a heartbeat.

They sat quietly, both thinking of Marty Gray, and of all the bad things that can happen to young girls who are shy and good and obedient. The secret keepers. The easily led.

The world was dangerous and broken. But people had to feel safe anyway, to get on with the business of living.

God gave us crying so other folks could see when we needed help, and help us.

He was treating me like something breakable, which is different from how you treat something you yourself have broken.

All of us, every innocent babe born on this planet, gets broken eventually.

While many say that finding compassion for those who hurt them is one of the hardest things they've ever done, others discover that it's freeing in ways they hadn't imagined. It binds them to a common humanity where we are all in some measure flawed, torn, and hurt. And dying for understanding.

So for the sake of your identity," she said, "you avoided using your real name, which effectively allowed someone else to use your real name and steal your identity.

I learned early on that expressing yourself comes at a cost. Sometimes, it's a hefty price. People don't always want to hear the truth about what you feel.

I grasped her gunwale and held on as she turned bottom up, for I suddenly remembered that I could not swim.

I suddenly remembered that I could not swim.

Tears are words the mouth can't say nor can the heart bare.