Vulnerability

Vulnerability refers to the susceptibility to attack or injury; the state or condition of being weak or poorly defended.

Quotes

• She is concerned for the orphan and concerned for the widow.
  She does not forget the man who helps others,
  she is a mother for the orphan;
  Nance, a carer for the widow,
  who always finds advice for the debt-slave;
  the lady who gives protection for refugees.
  She seeks out a place for the weak.
  She swells his collecting basket for him;
  she makes his collecting vessel profitable for him.
  For the righteous maiden who has taken her path,
  Nance chooses a young man of means.
  Nance raises a secure house like a roof over the widow who could not remarry.
  • Anonymous, A hymn to Nanshe, late 3rd millennium BCE, at The Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature.

• Our vulnerability [to ressentiment], is unavoidable (and probably incurable) in a kind of society in which relative equality of political and other rights and formally acknowledged social equality go hand in hand with enormous differences in genuine power, possessions and education; a society in which everyone “has the right” to consider himself equal to everybody else, while in fact being unequal to them.
  • Zygmunt Bauman, The Art of Life (2008), [paraphrasing the view of Max Scheler], p. 25.

• The essence of combat is to strike at the vulnerabilities of one's opponent. There is no "fair" or "unfair".
  • Saitō Hajime in Samurai X: Trust & Betrayal (1999), written by Masashi Sogo.

• καταμάθετε δὲ τοὺς ἑτεροδοξοῦντας εἰς τὴν χάριν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τὴν εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐλθοῦσαν, πῶς ἐναντίοι εἰσὶν τῇ γνώμῃ τοῦ θεοῦ. περὶ ἀγάπης οὐ μέλει αὐτοῖς, οὐ περὶ χήρας, οὐ περὶ ὀρφανοῦ, οὐ περὶ θλιβομένου, οὐ περὶ δεδεμένου ἢ λελυμένου,οὐ περὶ πεινῶντος ἢ διψῶντος.
  • Take note of those who spout false opinions about the gracious gift of Jesus Christ that has come to us, and see how they are opposed to the mind of God. They have no interest in love, in the widow, the orphan, the oppressed, the one who is in chains or the one set free, the one who is hungry or the one who thirsts.
    • Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle of Ignatius to the Smyrnaeans (c. 110 A.D.) 6:6-7, as translated by B. D. Ehrman, The Apostolic Fathers, Loeb Classical Library (2003), p. 303. Full text online.

• שָׂרַ֣יִךְ סֹורְרִ֗ים וְחַבְרֵי֙ גַּנָּבִ֔ים כֻּלֹּו֙ אֹהֵ֣ב שֹׁ֔חַד וְרֹדֵ֖ף שַׁלְמֹנִ֑ים יָתֹום֙ לֹ֣א יִשְׁפֹּ֔טוּ וְרִ֥יב אַלְמָנָ֖ה לֹֽא־יָבֹ֥וא אֲלֵיהֶֽם׃ פ
  • Isaiah 1:23, Leningrad Codex.
  • Your rulers are rebels,
    partners with thieves;
    they all love bribes and chase after gifts.
    They do not defend the cause of the fatherless;
    the widow’s case does not come before them.
    • New International Version
  • Your rulers are rebels and friends of thieves.
    They demand bribes and accept money for doing wrong.
    They take money to cheat people, and they don’t speak up for widows and orphans.
    They will not even listen to their cries for help.
    • Easy-to-Read Version
  • Your leaders are turncoats
    who keep company with crooks.
    They sell themselves to the highest bidder
    and grab anything not nailed down.
    They never stand up for the homeless,
    never stick up for the defenseless.
    • The Message

• To me the most beautiful thing is vulnerability.
  • Alec Soth Art Is the Highest Form of Hope & Other Quotes by Artists by Phaidon (2016)