“Oh, Celie, unbelief is a terrible thing. And so is the hurt we cause others unknowingly.”

“She said, "We are bound to hurt one another so much, again and again. We are so terribly different." "Yes," he said, "But the more different, the more lovely the loving."”

“Renunciation is not about pushing something away, it is about letting go. It's facing the fact that certain things cause us pain, and they cause other people pain. Renunciation is a commitment to let go of things that create suffering. It is the intention to stop hurting ourselves and others.”

“And so one can imagine that in amorous seduction the other is the locus of your secret — the other unknowingly holds that which you will never have the chance to know.”

“You not only are hunted by others, you unknowingly hunt yourself.”

“We must be extremely cautious in inviting others directly into our sub-consciousnesses in order to avoid falling under their spells unknowingly.”

“Our lives are marked and shaped by our regrets. Things we all want to take back and can’t. In a perfect world, we would never hurt the ones we love or cause hurt to befall them. But the world isn’t perfect and neither are we.”

“For once in my life
I won’t let sorrow hurt me,
Not like it’s hurt me before, oh
For once I have something I know won't desert me
‘Cause I’m not alone anymore.”

“I guess what it means is this: to be human is to be fragile. We are easily hurt, and not just physically. We are easily hurt emotionally, too. So, as you move through life, my son, try not to hurt others.”

“Only a short time ago, I learned that people laughed at me. Now I can see that unknowingly I joined them in laughing at myself. That hurts the most.”