1,745 Quotes About Abuse

Most people have no imagination. If they could imagine the sufferings of others, they would not make them suffer so.

Wherever there is abuse there is also corruption. Politics, philosophy, theology, science, industry, any field with the potential to affect the well-being of others can be destroyed by abuse and saved by good will.

I see-sawed between feeling like a ten-year-old, unloved and abandoned, and a bone-tired person of a hundred.

And yet, despite the daily violence, Tehmina had marveled at the intimate way in which this tiny family huddled together around a small stove for their evening meals, had witnessed Parvati laughing as she lovingly combed her daughter's long hair, had registered the panicked look in Krishna's eyes when Parvati had taken ill with typhoid fever. Reality was complicated; Themina knew that. India had taught her that lesson, over and over again.

This is my first real memory of James. In every memory before that, he’s just a flash of color, a warm body with a blurred face, a comforting voice begging me not to die. When he planted himself between our father and me that day, an eight-year-old with small fists clenched at his sides, I think I fell in love with my brother.

James is why I never left. I should have left.

Two babies in little more than a year and a half. Knockout Jimmy was forced to give up boxing and take a job in the paper mill. It broke him, and in turn, he broke us all.

James “Knockout Jimmy” O’Brien, Granite Fall’s very own boxing legend—a title he held until a young groupie poked holes in the condom she made him wear “for protection.”My brother was born nine months later, fists already swinging.

Before the abuser initiates contact with a prospective long-term intimate partner he has already developed some very strong beliefs and attitudes. In his own mind he knows what he needs from an intimate relationship and he is convinced that he is entitled to have these needs met. He is also convinced that these needs outweigh any cost to his prospective partner.