80+ Power Of Vulnerability Quotes That Capture This Important Emotion

We’ve all, at some point, felt vulnerable. Maybe it’s at the start of a new job or relationship — or maybe you’re ready to take a huge chance on something you never thought possible. Vulnerability quotes are a great way to make us feel like we’re not alone. Like every other feeling in the world, vulnerability is a huge part of being human. Being vulnerable with someone else is often how our strongest bonds form.

Even people you might not think to be vulnerable often can be. They may hide it well or have simply gained a lot of strength during a particularly pressing time in their life where they needed the courage to stay afloat. But sharing our vulnerabilities with others reveals our humanity. Admitting we don’t know it all is quite humbling, but essential to navigate through life successfully. And when someone’s vulnerable to us — by revealing their true feelings or asking for critique — it can strengthen relationships and open up opportunities.

Vulnerability quotes are a reminder that, sometimes, security is a false concept. Life can be so unpredictable that we don’t know what the next turn will bring. But that sense of fragility is how we form a genuine connection with others. Even if it feels like you’re the least powerful person in the room, acknowledging weakness is the first step in gaining strength — that’s the power of vulnerability. Here are some of the best vulnerability quotes to reflect on.

Power of Vulnerability Quotes

1. “We’re never so vulnerable than when we trust someone — but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy.” — Frank Crane
2. “His gray suit makes him seem extra vulnerable, in the way of children placed in unaccustomed clothes for ceremonies they don’t understand.” — John Updike
3. “There’s nothing more beautiful than authenticity. There’s nothing stronger than vulnerability. There’s no better time than now.” — Vironika Tugaleva
4. “My one area of vulnerability was I didn’t know how to have a healthy relationship with a man.” — Carole King
5. “Some people should not be allowed to see beyond your surface. Seeing your vulnerability is a privilege, not meant for everyone.” — Yasmin Mogahed
6. “Allowing yourself to be vulnerable makes you weak but also opens you to the nuances of beauty.” — John Geddes
7. “But I will wear my heart upon my sleeve. For daws to peck at: I am not what I am.” — Shakespeare
8. “The strongest love is the love that can demonstrate its fragility.” — Paulo Coelho
9. “The best people possess a feeling for beauty, the courage to take risks, the discipline to tell the truth, the capacity for sacrifice. Ironically, their virtues make them vulnerable; they are often wounded, sometimes destroyed.” — Ernest Hemingway
10. “I found that the more truthful and vulnerable I was, the more empowering it was for me.” — Alanis Morissette
11. “Vulnerability is scary but pure. In it, you can find bravery.” — Raquel Franco
12. “I really appreciate what it takes to create a book. I understand the loneliness that it involves and the excitement and vulnerability: I especially identify with that.” — Bill Clegg
13. “In spite of everything I shall rise again: I will take up my pencil, which I have forsaken in my great discouragement, and I will go on with my drawing.” — Vincent Van Gogh
14. “What makes you vulnerable makes you beautiful.” — Brene Brown
15. “When you love someone, truly love them, you lay your heart open to them. You give them a part of yourself that you give to no one else, and you let them inside a part of you that only they can hurt. You literally hand them the razor with a map of where to cut deepest and most painfully on your heart and soul. And when they do strike, it’s crippling-like having your heart carved out.” — Sherrilyn Kenyon
16. “When we feel safe enough to expose our shadows, that’s when we become free.” — Gabby Bernstein
17. “We can only experience the true beauty of vulnerability when we’re courageous enough to crack open the fractures in our mask and allow the light to shine in.” — Alicya Perreault
18. “The first to apologize is the bravest. The first to forgive is the strongest.” — Zig Ziglar
19. “People can be at their most vulnerable, but still tenacious at the same time.” — Toni Bernhard
20. “When we were children, we used to think that when we were grown-up we would no longer be vulnerable. But to grow up is to accept vulnerability… To be alive is to be vulnerable.” — Madeleine L’Engle
21. “Maybe that was love. Being so vulnerable and allowing someone else in so far they could hurt you, but they also give you everything.” — Christine Feehan
22. “You can’t fully live your life without experiencing the joy, the beauty, and the fear, the sadness.” — Jeremiah Say
23. “One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.” — Shannon L. Alder
24. “We are all vulnerable in love. We are more emotionally naked with those we love and sometimes, inevitably, we hurt each other with careless words or actions.” — Sue Johnson
25. “It’s very hard to have ideas. It’s very hard to put yourself out there. It’s very hard to be vulnerable, but those people who do that are the dreamers, the thinkers, and the creators. They are the magic people of the world.” — Amy Poehler
26. “True safety was not in having armor. It was in vulnerability.” — Jewel
27. “We are vulnerable, not fragile, but our desire to go through life without feeling pain makes us feel fragile.” — Luigina Sgarro
28. “Vulnerability really means to be strong and secure enough within yourself that you are able to walk outside without your armor on. You are able to show up in life as just you. That is genuine strength and courage. Armor may look tough, but all it does is mask insecurity and fear.” — Alaric Hutchinson
29. “Open your hands if you want to be held.” — Rumi
30. “Let your heart crumble into an infinite amount of tiny, precious seeds. Then plant love everywhere you go.” — Anita Krizzan
31. “Heroes are higher than their vulnerability. That is why they are heroes.” — Amit Kalantri
32. “That is how friendships begin: one person reveals a moment of strangeness, and the other person decides just to listen and not exploit it.” — Meg Wolitzer
33. “Vulnerability is important in life, I feel. That’s what allows you to experience intense emotions, whether it’s joy or pain or sadness.” — Kalki Koechlin
34. “This kind of beauty softens you and expands you, which is good, but of course it makes you vulnerable to all sorts of horrible things, like, oh, feelings. And being in your body.” — Anne Lamott
35. “The older I become the more I dream of a world where I don’t need so much armor.” — J.M. Storm
36. “What happens when people open their hearts? They get better.” — Haruki Murakami
37. “There is a difference between vulnerability and telling people everything about yourself. Vulnerability is a feeling. Telling everyone about yourself is just facts and details.” — Simon Sinek
38. “We’re never so vulnerable than when we trust someone, but paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy.” — Walter Anderson
39. “Vulnerability is the essence of connection and connection is the essence of existence.” — Leo Christopher
40. “You can change the world again, instead of protecting yourself from it.” — Julien Smith
41. “There is no weakness in being able to love fully. It takes courage, tenacity, and an emotional intelligence that most people are incapable of.” — Alafia Stewart
42. “Sometimes, the only way to evolve is to open ourselves fully.” — Kamal Ravikant
43. “By throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your heard even, you experience them fully and completely.” — Mitch Albom
44. “Where you ache to be recognized, allow yourself to be seen.” — Toko-pa Turner
45. “And so we exchange privacy for intimacy. We gamble with it, hoping that by exposing ourselves, someone will find a way in. This is why the human animal will always be vulnerable: because it wants to be.” — Max Barry
46. “Honestly is vulnerability. Sadly, not everyone can handle someone’s honesty. However, lying allows people to be comfortable.” — Shannon L. Alder
47. “Vulnerability always comes with risk, but its rewards are deep.” — Aisha Mirza
48. “If we’re wrapping ourselves up to conceal any vulnerability, whatever happens to us has to go through all those extra layers. Sometimes love doesn’t even reach where we truly live.” — Alexandra Katehakis
49. “There is no intensity of love or feeling that does not involve the risk of crippling hurt. It is a duty to take this risk, to love and feel without defense or reserve.” — William S. Burroughs
50. “If you learn from your mistake, it’s called repairing. If you don’t, it’s called repeating.” — Annie Tanasugarn
51. “To be affirming and encouraging of others requires vulnerability on your part.” — Shandel Slaten
52. “Sometimes what makes us insecure and vulnerable becomes the fuel we need to be overachievers. The antidote for a snakebite is made from the poison, and the thing that made you go backward is the same force that will push you forward.” — T. D. Jakes
53. “Sometimes we must yield control to others and accept our vulnerability so we can be healed.” — Kathy Magliato
54. “You are beautiful and magical and perfect, especially because of your flaws. Those cracks are what let the light in, baby.” — Dawn Gluskin
55. “One should approach life as one approaches a lover: naked.” — Marty Rubin
56. “Continue to share your heart with people even if it’s been broken.” — Amy Poehler
57. “Being vulnerable is the only way to allow your heart to feel true pleasure.” — Bob Marley
58. “I am vulnerable; that’s why I fight.” — Ronda Rousey
59. “It took vulnerability to forge strength, the way true courage required fear.” — Martina Boone
60. “I wanted so badly to be vulnerable over a burger, beer, and bags of free books we find on some stranger’s porch. You wanted badly to be touched some thousand miles away and never found the time to write me back.” — Darnell Lamont Walker
61. “To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.” — C.S. Lewis
62. “Allow yourself to feel whatever you are feeling. Notice any labels you attach to crying or feeling vulnerable. Let go of the labels. Just feel what you are feeling, all the while cultivating moment-to-moment awareness.” — Jon Kabat-Zinn
63. “Embrace your vulnerability and celebrate your flaws; it will let you appreciate the world around you and make you more compassionate.” — Masaba Gupta
64. “Our consciousness wants to connect through struggle and even pain. So, in a funny sort of way, vulnerability is attractive.” — Zoe Buckman
65. “To share your weakness is to make yourself vulnerable; to make yourself vulnerable is to show your strength.” — Crissi Jami
66. “Being open and vulnerable doesn’t mean you are weak.” — Jayesh Varma
67. “Courage is vulnerability. Vulnerability is courage. Like shadow and light, neither one can exist without the other.” — Wai Lan Yuen
68. “We are at our most powerful the moment we no longer need to be powerful.” — Eric Michael Leventhal
69. “When we have emotions of fear and pity toward the hero of a tragedy, we explore aspects of our own vulnerability in a safe and pleasing setting.” — Martha Nussbaum
70. “Hatred makes you weak where else love makes you vulnerable.” — Lisa Cander
71. “Our children make us so vulnerable. Our parents too, I suppose.” — Sara Sheridan
72. “It’s OK to not be fine.” — Frasier Crane, Frasier
73. “Vulnerability lets in light.” — A.D. Posey
74. “I tend to find characters who lack vulnerability dull.” — Trenton Lee Stewart
75. “He opened his heart to me. He wasn’t afraid to show me his weakness. It was a remarkable thing, in that time, for a man to do that. That’s the key thing about a strong marriage. It gives you a safe place to be yourself, entirely, even the weak parts.” — Shilpi Somaya Gowda, The Golden Son
76. “Everybody is equally weak on the inside, just that some present their ruins as new castles and become kings.” — Simona Panova
77. “Be careful with whom you associate, especially when you feel emotionally vulnerable because negative people can steal the dream right out of your heart.” — Joel Osteen
78. “To take the risk of loving, we must become vulnerable enough to test the radical proposition that knowledge of another and self-revelation will ultimately increase rather than decrease love.” — Sam Keen, To Love And Be Loved
79. “Why is female vulnerability still only acceptable when it’s neuroticized and personal, when it feeds back on itself? Why do people still not get it when we handle vulnerability like philosophy, at some remove?” — Chris Kraus
80. “Vulnerability is the strongest state to be in. How boring would it be if we were constantly dominant or constantly submissive?” — FKA Twigs
81. “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” — Brene Brown