And enough for me that when my hand touched your shoulder, you leaned on me; and when you felt me slip away, you called my name.
Orson Scott CardRead
Only stupid men trying to seem smart need to be with dumb women. Only weak men trying to look strong are attracted to compliant women.
Interpretation
This quote suggests that insecure men seek out women who are less intelligent or compliant to feel better about themselves.
Orson Scott Card points out the dynamics of insecurity in relationships, implying that men who feel inadequate often pursue partners who reinforce their own sense of superiority or strength. This reflects a deeper commentary on the nature of attraction and how it's influenced by personal insecurities rather than genuine compatibility or respect.
In practice
During a relationship seminar, discussing the importance of mutual respect.
And enough for me that when my hand touched your shoulder, you leaned on me; and when you felt me slip away, you called my name.
The world is always a democracy in times of flux, and the man with the best voice will win.
Never mind that the story had turned out to be lies and foolishness—there was always folks stupid enough to say, Where there's smoke there's fire, when the saying should have been, Where there's scandalous lies there's always malicious believers and spreaders-around, regardless of evidence.
The lives of all people flow through time, and, regardless of how brutal one moment may be, how filled with grief or pain or fear, time flows through all lives equally.
You take a step, then another. That's the journey. But to take a step with your eyes open is not a journey at all, it's a remaking of your own mind.
I've had your tears with mine, and you've had mine with yours. I think that's more intimate even than a kiss.
Marriage is for women the commonest mode of livelihood, and the total amount of undesired sex endured by women is probably greater in marriage than in prostitution.
Kids feel like they have to puff up or shrink. These reclusive qualities begin to develop because you feel that who you are is going to either be accepted or rejected by your family and friends.
The human heart dares not stay away too long from that which hurt it most. There is a return journey to anguish that few of us are released from making.
I seem to have to make my characters family before I can access their hearts in any way that matters.
There's almost nothing that hasn't been said about me. But there's an awful lot that I haven't said. I don't talk about private things.
There is nothing heavier than compassion. Not even one's own pain weighs so heavy as the pain one feels for someone, pain intensified by the imagination and prolonged by a hundred echos.
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