1,745 Quotes About Abuse

This is the hardest part— That boy is not made of fists. That boy learned how to braid my hair. These things do not un-truth themselveswhen the first door slams.I did not stop loving himall the months I was holding my breath.

how do i welcome in kindnesswhen i have only practicedspreading my legs for the terrifyingwhat am i to do with youif my idea of love is violencebut you are sweetif your concept of passion is eye contactbut mine is ragehow can i call this intimacyif i crave sharp edgesbut your edges aren't even edgesthey are soft landingshow do i teach muselfto accept a healthy loveif all i've ever known is pain

I don't get involved in personal abuse. I'm not reducing myself to that level. If people don't like what I wear, don't like what I look like, or whatever, that's their problem, not mine.

Declan Kiberd: Irish writers were an early warning system about abuseArtists played a vital role in the State's formation and since independence have held it to account

They had senselessly begun to abuse each other’s love, tear it into shreds.

The experience of chronic abuse carries within it the gross mislabeling of things. Perpetrators are really "nice daddies." Victims are "evil and seductive" (at the age of three!). Nonprotecting parents are "tired and busy." The survivor makes a giant leap forward when [he or ]she can call abuse by its right name and grasp the concept that what was done was a manifestation of the heart of the perpetrator, not the heart of the victim.

People pleasing does make it easier to ignore the red flags of abusive relationships at the very early stages especially with covert manipulators. We can also become conditioned to continually “please” if we’re used to walking on eggshells around our abuser.

There is a slave trade still in this country—yes, the real and horrific sex and human trafficking trade run by organised criminal gangs, which is appalling and must be stopped. But there's the hidden slavery too of children exploited and used within their own families, within organised and ritual abuse.

When a woman is convinced that she can stop the violence in her marriage, her stubborn determination feeds her sense of failure each time she sees that she can’t regulate her husband’s demands and abuses. In a perverse type of review, she may then ask herself how she could have been so stupid as to overlook the early warnings. This further diminishes her self-esteem.