Helpless Quotes - Page 14

• Both men and women are conceived as merely capable of response to a situation that their society has already defined for them as sexual, and so the Arapesh feel that it is necessary to chaperon betrothed couples who are too young... with their definition of sex as a response to an external situation rather than as spontaneous desire, both men and women are regarded as helpless in the face of seduction. Parents warn their sons even more than they warn their daughters against permitting themselves to get into situations in which someone can make love to them.

  Margaret Mead

  Daughter, Sex, Couple

  "Sex and Temperament in Three Primitive Societies". Book by Margaret Mead, 1935.

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• It is not reasonable that he who does not shoot should hit the mark, nor that he who does not stand fast at his post should win the day, or that the helpless man should succeed or the coward prosper.

  Plutarch

  Winning, Men, Coward

  Plutarch (2012). “Parallel Lives - Complete”, p.354, Simon and Schuster

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• Deceiving world, that with alluring toysHast made my life the subject of thy scorn,And scornest now to lend thy fading joys,T'outlength my life, whom friends have left forlorn;How well are they that die ere they be born,And never see thy sleights, which few men shunTill unawares they helpless are undone!

  Robert Greene

  Men, Joy, Fading

  Robert Greene (1977). “The poetry of Robert Greene”

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• Naked girls with the heads of Marx and Malraux prone and helpless in the glare of the headlights, tried to give them a little joie de vivre but maybe it didn't take, their constant bickering and smallness, it's like a stroke of lightning, the world reminds you of its power, tracheotomies right and left, I am spinning, my pretty child, don't scratch, pick up your feet, the long nights, spent most of my time listening, this is a test of the system, this is only a test.

  Donald Barthelme

  Girl, Children, Night

  Donald Barthelme (1981). “Sixty stories”, Putnam Adult

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• Though you are weak and frail, though you are poor and helpless, God does not despise you; but would glorify your being with His own, and raise you to fellowship with Himself.

  George C. Lorimer

  Doe, Fellowship, Poor

  "Dictionary of Burning Words of Brilliant Writers" by Josiah Hotchkiss Gilbert, (p. 247), 1895.

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• You could reason with someone who was halfway educated and appeal to his intelligence, but I felt helpless in the face of utter stupidity.

  Robert Cormier

  Stupidity, Faces, Reason

  Robert Cormier (2013). “Fade”, p.35, Delacorte Books for Young Readers

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• A tolerant person should not be harrased. The subject or the ruled ones generally is loyal to the ruler. The people tak to revolt when they are helpless. The duty of the ruler is that his humble people mey not tak to revolt being suppressed by his bad polity. Considering the forbearance of the subject, do not ill behave with them so that they may feel oppressed.

  Chanakya

  Humble, People, Political

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• It was not the beautiful or pleasant feelings that gave me new insight, but the ones against which I fought most strongly: feelings that made me experience myself as shabby, petty, mean, helpless, humiliated, demanding, resentful or confused, and above all, sad and lonely. It was precisely through these experiences, which I had shunned for so long, that I became certain that I now understood something about my life, stemming from the core of my being, something that I could not have learned from any book.

  Alice Miller

  Beautiful, Lonely, Confused

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• In all your course, walk with God and follow Christ as a little, poor, helpless child, taking hold of Christ's hand, keeping your eye on the mark of the wounds on his hands and side, whence came the blood that cleanses you from sin and hiding your nakedness under the skirt of the white shining robe of his righteousness.

  Jonathan Edwards

  Children, Eye, Blood

  Jonathan Edwards, David Brainerd (1830). “treatise concerning religious affections. Justification by faith alone. Pressing into the kingdom of God. Ruth's resolution. Justice of God in the damnation of sinners. The excellency of Jesus Christ”, p.152

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• Despotic governments do not recognize the precious human component of the state, seeing its citizens only as a faceless, mindless -- and helpless -- mass to be manipulated at will. It is as though people were incidental to a nation rather than its very life-blood.

  Aung San Suu Kyi

  Government, Blood, Tyrants

  Aung San Suu Kyi (1991). “Freedom from fear: and other writings”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• for man, woman, and child the tender, irregular, sensitive, living foot, which does not even stand with all its little surface on the ground, and which makes no base to satisfy an architectural eye, is, as it were, the unexpected thing. ... nothing makes a more helpless and unsymmetrical sign than does a naked foot.

  Alice Meynell

  Children, Eye, Men

  Alice Meynell (2013). “The Essential Alice Meynell Collection”, p.452, eBookIt.com

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• All people are born creative. And there's nobody who's helpless, nobody.

  Barbara Marx Hubbard

  People, Creative, Born

  Source: www.edgemagazine.net

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• O it is a happy thing to feel ourselves helpless and naught, for then the presence of God is felt to wrap us about so lovingly! Everlasting, infinite, almighty, these are the words that strengthen us with speaking them.

  William Mountford

  Humility, Infinite, Almighty

  William Mountford (1858). “Enthanasy; Or, Happy Talk Towards the End of Life ...”, p.267

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• Someday, somehow, I am going to do something useful, something for people. They are, most of them, so helpless, so hurt and so unhappy.

  Edith Cavell

  Hurt, People, Unhappy

  The Economist (p. 107), October 15, 2010.

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• A wretched soul, bruised with adversity, We bid be quiet when we hear it cry. But were we burd'ned with like weight of pain, As much or more we should ourselves complain: So thou, that hast no unkind mate to grieve thee, With urging helpless patience wouldst relieve me; But if thou live to see like right bereft, This fool-begged patience in thee will be left.

  William Shakespeare

  Pain, Adversity, Grieving

  William Shakespeare, Alfred Harbage (1977). “The complete works”

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• Man has bought brains, but all the millions in the world have failed to buy love. Man has subdued bodies, but all the power on earth has been unable to subdue love. Man has conquered whole nations, but all his armies could not conquer love. Man has chained and fettered the spirit, but he has been utterly helpless before love. Thus love has the magic power to make of a beggar a king.

  Emma Goldman

  Kings, Army, Men

  Emma Goldman (2015). “Anarchism and Other Essays”, p.179, Library of Alexandria

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• I've had the privilege of learning foreign languages. Instead of merely speaking a watered-down form of my mother tongue, like most people, I'm also helpless in two or three other languages.

  Peter Høeg

  Mother, Two, People

  Peter Høeg (2010). “Smilla's Sense of Snow: A Novel”, p.316, Macmillan

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• Do we dare to be ourselves?' This is the question that counts - and not, 'Must a man be helpless?' ...A man can do something for peace without having to jump into politics.

  Pablo Casals

  Men, Dare, Can Do Something

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• Painting is consequently an almost blind, desperate effort, like that of a person abandoned, helpless, in totally incomprehensible surroundings.

  Gerhard Richter

  Effort, Painting, Blind

  Gerhard Richter, Dietmar Elger, Hans-Ulrich Obrist (2009). “Gerhard Richter: text : writings, interviews and letters, 1961-2007”

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• If the Poe Lock were ever rendered unusable due to a terrorist attack or natural disaster, it would halt commerce on the Great Lakes and these industries would be helpless.

  Bart Stupak

  Lakes, Would Be, Locks

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• Why is it that, despite having achieved previously undreamed-of miracles of progress, we seem more helpless in facing life than our less privileged ancestors were? The answer seems clear: while humankind collectively has increased its material powers a thousandfold, it has not advanced very far in terms of improving the content of experience.

  Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

  Miracle, Progress, Answers

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• Throughout our world the cry of the poor so often goes unheard. The prophets harangued Israel and Judah unceasingly about the powerless and marginalized, the overlooked widows, orphans, and "sojourners in our midst," who are still with us today as single mothers, hungry children, and helpless immigrants, wraiths invisible in our prosperous societies.

  Thomas Cahill

  Mother, Children, Our World

  Thomas Cahill (2010). “The Gifts of the Jews: How a Tribe of Desert Nomads Changed the Way Everyone Thinks and Feels”, p.252, Anchor

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• Like a moth to a flame we become helpless to the beautiful ghosts that true love sheds.

  Ryan O'Neal

  Beautiful, Flames, Ghost

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• A people without children would face a hopeless future; a country without trees is almost as helpless.

  Theodore Roosevelt

  Country, Children, Future

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• When I have been travelling up and down on our boats, or about on my collecting tours, and reflected that every brutal, disgusting, mean, low-lived fellow I met, was allowed by our laws to become absolute despot of as many men, women and children, as he could cheat, steal, or gamble money enough to buy,-when I have seen such men in actual ownership of helpless children, of young girls and women,-I have been ready to curse my country, to curse the human race!

  Harriet Beecher Stowe

  Girl, Country, Children

  Harriet Beecher Stowe (1852). “Life Among the Lowly”, p.12

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