QuoteProject
The most hurtful thing is not what comes from our adversaries, it's what comes from our friends.
Gloria Steinem
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

The pain caused by betrayal from friends is often more profound than that from enemies.

Gloria Steinem emphasizes the deep emotional impact that comes from betrayal or hurtful actions by those we trust, highlighting that the wounds inflicted by friends carry a heavier weight than those from adversaries. This insight reflects the significance of trust and the emotional bonds that form in friendships, suggesting that the expectations we place on friends create a unique vulnerability.

Themes

BetrayalFriendshipTrustPainRelationships

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about the importance of trust in relationships.

More from Gloria Steinem

I have me brave women who are exploring the outer edge of human possibility, with no history to guide them, and with a courage to make themselves vulnerable that I find moving beyond words.
Gloria SteinemRead
If women are supposed to be less rational and more emotional at the beginning of our menstrual cycle when the female hormone is at its lowest level, then why isn't it logical to say that, in those few days, women behave the most like the way men behave all month long?
Gloria SteinemRead
Age brings a freedom. When you're young, you're much more subject to the idea of what feminine is or how you should look or how you should behave.
Gloria SteinemRead
All those chemicals that create empathy only work when you are in a room together.
Gloria SteinemRead
Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.
Gloria SteinemRead
Obviously, there is much similarity among the challenges of transgender people and all women - from health care to harassment to discrimination in the workplace.
Gloria SteinemRead

Similar quotes

Sometimes a woman's love of being loved gets the better of her conscience, and though she is agonized at the thought of treating a man cruelly, she encourages him to love her while she doesn't love him at all. Then, when she sees him suffering, her remorse sets in, and she does what she can to repair the wrong.
Thomas HardyRead
Stories about mental aberration and oddity only make sense in context. Just how do people live with someone who is peculiar, gifted, strange or alien? It's odd because there's a little part of me that wants to write about exotic, strange bizarre subjects. Instead, I've rather reluctantly realised that what I write about is families.
Mark HaddonRead
I have been treated better than I should have been---not by life in general nor by the machinery of things but by women.
Charles BukowskiRead
People ask me all the time, 'Why did I move home?' As well as I can articulate it, that's why. I moved home because I love the community that I come from.
Jesmyn WardRead
When somebody takes a child from their native culture, that is in itself an act of aggression.
Lemn SissayRead
Dear Non-American Black, when you make the choice to come to America, you become black. Stop arguing. Stop saying I'm Jamaican or I'm Ghanaian. America doesn't care.
Chimamanda Ngozi AdichieRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.

Quote by Gloria Steinem | QuoteProject