#helpless

Being by the nature of my upbringing, all my energies having been directed to one channel of activity, crippled from other activities and made helpless even to live. ↗

— Isaac Rosenberg

#activity #been #being #channel #crippled

And I ask myself what it is about me that makes this wonderful, beautiful woman return. Is it because I'm pathetic, helpless in my current state, completely dependent on her? Or is it my sense of humour, my willingness to tease her, to joke my way into painful, secret places? Do I help her understand herself? Do I make her happy? Do I do something for her that her husband and son can't do? Has she fallen in love with me? As the days pass and I continue to heal, my body knitting itself back together, I begin to allow myself to think that she has. ↗

— Mohsin Hamid

#dependence #happiness #helplessness #love #pathetic

We are born weak, we need strength; helpless, we need aid; foolish, we need reason. All that we lack at birth, all that we need when we come to man's estate, is the gift of education. ↗

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

#birth #born #come #education #estate

As for you, my beloved friend, I loyally believe in your uniqueness; but whenever I try to tell to you wherein it consists, I helplessly describe only a type. ↗

— Josiah Royce

#beloved #consists #describe #friend #helplessly

Jews are not part of a European ruling class imposed on helpless natives, but are caught up in a tragedy in which two peoples are struggling for the same piece of land. ↗

— Jack Schwartz

#class #european #helpless #imposed #jews

A Woman is naturally more helpless than the other Sex; and a Man of Honour and Sense should have this in his View in all Manner of Commerce with her. ↗

— Richard Steele

#helpless #her #his #honour #man

Where misunderstanding serves others as an advantage, one is helpless to make oneself understood. ↗

— Lionel Trilling

#helpless #make #misunderstanding #oneself #others

It's going to be a hard time; we can count on that. But with all the misery, what opportunities to show mercy and brotherly love in our land, which has sinned so greatly against love. And patience! For now is the time when the victors, in the blind triumph of their victory, are likely to make mistakes. But that's not our concern, for we shall only be the sufferers, not the agents of suffering. What a power for peace will lie in our own powerlessness if we can only glimpse in it the sign of grace! ↗

— Margot Benary-Isbert

#peace #suffering #war #love

If I look at the mass I will never act. ↗

— Mother Teresa

#apathy #genocide #helplessness #inspirational #power

Never does one feel oneself so utterly helpless as in trying to speak comfort for great bereavement. I will not try it. Time is the only comforter for the loss of a mother. ↗

— Jane Welsh Carlyle

#comfort #comforter #does #feel #great