“The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside our control.”

—  Bell Hooks, book All About Love: New Visions

Source: All About Love: New Visions

Last update Nov. 2, 2021. History

Help us to complete the source, original and additional information

Do you have more details about the quote "The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside ou…" by Bell Hooks?
Bell Hooks photo
Bell Hooks112
American author, feminist, and social activist 1952

Related quotes

Leo Buscaglia photo

“To love is to risk not being loved in return. To hope is to risk pain. To try is to risk failure, but risks must be taken, because the greatest hazard in life is to risk nothing.”

Leo Buscaglia (1924–1998) Motivational speaker, writer

Living, Loving, and Learning (1982)

Alan Hirsch photo

“If we could be freed from our aversion to loss, our whole outlook on risk would change.”

Alan Hirsch (1959) South African missionary

Source: The Faith of Leap (2011), p. 136

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie photo

“We do not just risk repeating history if we sweep it under the carpet, we also risk being myopic about our present.”

Chi­ma­man­da Ngo­zi Adi­chie (1977) Nigerian writer

Joyce Brothers photo

“Accept that all of us can be hurt, that all of us can — and surely will at times — fail. Other vulnerabilities, like being embarrassed or risking love, can be terrifying, too. I think we should follow a simple rule: if we can take the worst, take the risk.”

Joyce Brothers (1927–2013) Joyce Brothers

As quoted in Wisdom for the Soul: Five Millennia of Prescriptions for Spiritual Healing (2006) by Larry Chang, p. 415

Aung San Suu Kyi photo

“The peace of our world is indivisible. As long as negative forces are getting the better of positive forces anywhere, we are all at risk.”

Aung San Suu Kyi (1945) State Counsellor of Myanmar and Leader of the National League for Democracy

Nobel Peace Prize Acceptance Speech (2012)
Context: The peace of our world is indivisible. As long as negative forces are getting the better of positive forces anywhere, we are all at risk. It may be questioned whether all negative forces could ever be removed. The simple answer is: “No!” It is in human nature to contain both the positive and the negative. However, it is also within human capability to work to reinforce the positive and to minimize or neutralize the negative. Absolute peace in our world is an unattainable goal. But it is one towards which we must continue to journey, our eyes fixed on it as a traveller in a desert fixes his eyes on the one guiding star that will lead him to salvation. Even if we do not achieve perfect peace on earth, because perfect peace is not of this earth, common endeavours to gain peace will unite individuals and nations in trust and friendship and help to make our human community safer and kinder.

Ben Carson photo

“But no matter what safety steps we take or what security precautions we adopt, our risk of death is not approximately – but exactly – 100 percent. There is no margin of error on the statistic.”

Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon

Source: Take The Risk (2008), p. 40

Jeanette Winterson photo

“No safety without risk, and what you risk reveals what you value.”

Jeanette Winterson (1959) English writer

Sexing the Cherry (1989)
Variant: What you risk reveals what you value. (p.91)
Source: Written on the Body

Henry M. Jackson photo

“We all want to put the brakes on the arms race…we all want to achieve arms control…but to those who say we must take risks for peace by cutting the meat from our military muscle, I say you are unwittingly risking war.”

Henry M. Jackson (1912–1983) American politician

" Henry “Scoop” Jackson for President 1972 Campaign Brochure http://www.4president.org/brochures/scoopjackson1972brochure.htm", 4President.org. Retrieved 07-02-2006.

Frederick Buechner photo

“If we are to believe he is really alive with all that that implies, then we have to believe without proof. And of course that is the only way it could be. If it could be somehow proved, then we would have no choice but to believe. We would lose our freedom not to believe. And in the very moment that we lost that freedom, we would cease to be human beings. Our love of God would have been forced upon us, and love that is forced is of course not love at all. Love must be freely given. Love must live in the freedom not to love; it must take risks. Love must be prepared to suffer even as Jesus on the Cross suffered, and part of that suffering is doubt.”

Frederick Buechner (1926) Poet, novelist, short story writer, theologian

The Magnificent Defeat (1966)

Related topics