#relatio

Marie, let’s suppose that two firemen go into a forest to put out a small fire. Afterwards, when they emerge and go over to a stream, the face of one is all smeared with black, while the other man’s face is completely clean. My question is this: which of the two will wash his face? That’s a silly question. The one with the dirty face of course.’ No, the one with the dirty face will look at the other man and assume that he looks like him. And, vice versa, the man with the clean face will see his colleague covered in grime and say to himself: I must be dirty too. I’d better have a wash.’ What are you trying to say?’ I’m saying that, during the time I spent in the hospital, I came to realize that I was always looking for myself in the women I loved. I looked at their lovely, clean faces and saw myself reflected in them. They, on the other hand, looked at me and saw the dirt on my face and, however intelligent or self-confident they were, they ended up seeing themselves reflected in me thinking that they were worse than they were. Please, don’t let that happen to you. ↗

— Paulo Coelho

#obsession #relations #intelligence

God's relationship with man does not work in a way in which man stumbles and then God has to drop what he is doing in order to lift him up; rather, man stumbles so that God can lift him up. Hence it is utterly impossible to truly diminish his glory. ↗

— Criss Jami

#failure #falling #glory-of-god #god #healing

Why was it that boys said girls were so hard to understand when she hadn't known a single guy who hadn't confused her to the point of screaming? ↗

— C.C. Hunter

#paranormal-romance #relationships #women #ya #ya

Whether our caretaker was our mom, dad, uncle, aunt, grandparent, foster parent, or sibling, our blueprint of what a relationship is supposed to look like is drafted by what we observed from our caretaker’s relationship. If our caretaker took their significant other back multiple times, made excuses for their actions, helped them battle demons, turned a blind eye to their infidelity, or moved from one relationship to the next, that is what we know. Their behavior becomes our very own model of what a relationship is supposed to look like and determines what we will expect from our own partners. ↗

— Kristen Crockett

#parents #partners #relationships #infidelity

I have three step brothers and one step sister. It’s like a staircase, and I am the slinky. ↗

— Jarod Kintz

#sibling-relationships #simile #simile

It's really a sad story, and I liked that. The songs on this album talk about relationships in every aspect. ↗

— Aaliyah

#album #aspect #every #i #liked

Sometimes we pay too much attention in Washington to public relations, as opposed to the substance. ↗

— Spencer Abraham

#much #opposed #pay #public #public relations

On a level of simple personal survival, understanding and forgiveness are crucial... whether in an intimate personal relationship or on a global level. ↗

— Edward Albert

#forgiveness #global #intimate #level #personal

A lot of people think international relations is like a game of chess. But it's not a game of chess, where people sit quietly, thinking out their strategy, taking their time between moves. It's more like a game of billiards, with a bunch of balls clustered together. ↗

— Madeleine Albright

#between #billiards #bunch #chess #game

Afghanistan is going to be here a long time, and what's critical is that Afghanistan's relationship with its neighbors are, to the maximum extent they can be, constructive and operationally useful. ↗

— John R. Allen

#constructive #critical #extent #going #here