#powerlessness

It does not take a great supernatural heroine or magical hero to save the world. We all save it every day, and we all destroy it -- in our own small ways -- by every choice we make and every tiniest action resulting from that choice. The next time you feel useless and impotent, remember what you are in fact doing in this very moment. And then observe your tiny, seemingly meaningless acts and choices coalesce and cascade together into a powerful positive whole. The world -- if it could -- will thank you for it. And if it does not... well, a true heroine or hero does not require it. ↗

— Vera Nazarian

#act #action #actions #acts #choice

Delphine witnessed awful things occurring to other humans. Worse than that, she was powerless to alter their fate. It would be that way all her life--disasters, falling like chairs all around her, falling so close they disarranged her hair, but not touching her. ↗

— Louise Erdrich

#powerlessness #witnessing #life

The almost insoluble task is to let neither the power of others, nor our own powerlessness, stupefy us. ↗

— Theodor Adorno

#insoluble #neither #nor #others #our

A voice is a human gift; it should be cherished and used, to utter fully human speech as possible. Powerlessness and silence go together. ↗

— Margaret Atwood

#fully #gift #go #human #possible

In his state of complete powerlessness the individual perceives the time he has left to live as a brief reprieve. ↗

— Theodor Adorno

#complete #his #individual #left #live

Collectively, we must do more than simply watch, with resignation and a feeling of powerlessness, reports on the evening news about the latest terrorist atrocity. ↗

— Michael Jeffery

#atrocity #collectively #evening #evening news #feeling

If absolute power corrupts absolutely, does absolute powerlessness make you pure? ↗

— Harry Shearer

#absolute power #absolute power corrupts #absolutely #corrupts #does

I do forget sometimes how much it means for certain men—for certain people—to be able to provide their loved ones with material comforts and protection at all times. I forget how dangerously reduced some men can feel when that basic ability has been stripped from them. I forget how much that matters to men, what it represents. ↗

— Elizabeth Gilbert

#powerlessness #providers #love

For if there is one thing I have learned over the years about men, it is that feelings of powerlessness do not usually bring forth their finest qualities. ↗

— Elizabeth Gilbert

#powerlessness #marriage