Quotes about wound
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Ozzy Osbourne photo
John of the Cross photo
Barack Obama photo
Henry Dunant photo
Chester W. Nimitz photo

“We shall never forget that it was our submarines that held the lines against the enemy while our fleets replaced losses and repaired wounds.”

Chester W. Nimitz (1885–1966) United States Navy fleet admiral

As quoted in Historic Ship Exhibits in the United States (1969), by United States Naval History Division, United States Navy, p. 24

Ovid photo

“We're slow to believe what wounds us.”
Tarde quae credita laedunt credimus.

Ovid book Heroides

II, 9-10; translation by A. S. Kline
Heroides (The Heroines)

Martin Luther photo
Ayumi Hamasaki photo
Malcolm X photo
Henri Barbusse photo
Barack Obama photo

“On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2011, Remarks on death of Osama bin Laden (May 2011)
Context: On September 11, 2001, in our time of grief, the American people came together. We offered our neighbors a hand, and we offered the wounded our blood. We reaffirmed our ties to each other, and our love of community and country. On that day, no matter where we came from, what God we prayed to, or what race or ethnicity we were, we were united as one American family.
We were also united in our resolve to protect our nation and to bring those who committed this vicious attack to justice. We quickly learned that the 9/11 attacks were carried out by al Qaeda — an organization headed by Osama bin Laden, which had openly declared war on the United States and was committed to killing innocents in our country and around the globe. And so we went to war against al Qaeda to protect our citizens, our friends, and our allies.

John of the Cross photo

“In solitude she lived,
And in solitude built her nest;
And in solitude, alone
Hath the Beloved guided her,
In solitude also wounded with love. ~ 35”

John of the Cross (1542–1591) Spanish mystic and Roman Catholic saint

Spiritual Canticle of The Soul and The Bridegroom

Theodoret photo

“It is related that when Julian had received the wound, he filled his hand with blood, flung it into the air and cried, "Thou hast won, O Galilean."”

Theodoret (393–458) Syrian bishop

Ecclesiastical History, Book III, Ch. 20 (c. 429); this is usually accepted as the origin of the spurious tradition of the last words of Julian being "Thou hast won, O Galilean." No mention of such a declaration occurs in the accounts of any earlier writers, even those most hostile to Julian.
Context: Julian’s folly was yet more clearly manifested by his death. He crossed the river that separates the Roman Empire from the Persian, brought over his army, and then forthwith burnt his boats, so making his men fight not in willing but in forced obedience. The best generals are wont to fill their troops with enthusiasm, and, if they see them growing discouraged, to cheer them and raise their hopes; but Julian by burning the bridge of retreat cut off all good hope. A further proof of his incompetence was his failure to fulfil the duty of foraging in all directions and providing his troops with supplies. Julian had neither ordered supplies to be brought from Rome, nor did he make any bountiful provision by ravaging the enemy’s country. He left the inhabited world behind him, and persisted in marching through the wilderness. His soldiers had not enough to eat and drink; they were without guides; they were marching astray in a desert land. Thus they saw the folly of their most wise emperor. In the midst of their murmuring and grumbling they suddenly found him who had struggled in mad rage against his Maker wounded to death. Ares who raises the war-din had never come to help him as he promised; Loxias had given lying divination; he who glads him in the thunderbolts had hurled no bolt on the man who dealt the fatal blow; the boasting of his threats was dashed to the ground. The name of the man who dealt that righteous stroke no one knows to this day. Some say that he was wounded by an invisible being, others by one of the Nomads who were called Ishmaelites; others by a trooper who could not endure the pains of famine in the wilderness. But whether it were man or angel who plied the steel, without doubt the doer of the deed was the minister of the will of God. It is related that when Julian had received the wound, he filled his hand with blood, flung it into the air and cried, "Thou hast won, O Galilean." Thus he gave utterance at once to a confession of the victory and to a blasphemy. So infatuated was he.

Thucydides photo
Maxim Gorky photo

“There — you say — truth! Truth doesn't always heal a wounded soul.”

Maxim Gorky (1868–1936) Russian and Soviet writer

The character "Luka" in The Lower Depths (1902) English translation by Laurence Irving (1912)
Context: There — you say — truth! Truth doesn't always heal a wounded soul. For instance, I knew of a man who believed in a land of righteousness. He said: "Somewhere on this earth there must be a righteous land — and wonderful people live there — good people! They respect each other, help each other, and everything is peaceful and good!" And so that man — who was always searching for this land of righteousness — he was poor and lived miserably — and when things got to be so bad with him that it seemed there was nothing else for him to do except lie down and die — even then he never lost heart — but he'd just smile and say: "Never mind! I can stand it! A little while longer — and I'll have done with this life — and I'll go in search of the righteous land!" — it was his one happiness — the thought of that land. And then to this place — in Siberia, by the way — there came a convict — a learned man with books and maps — yes, a learned man who knew all sorts of things — and the other man said to him: "Do me a favor — show me where is the land of righteousness and how I can get there." At once the learned man opened his books, spread out his maps, and looked and looked and he said — no — he couldn't find this land anywhere... everything was correct — all the lands on earth were marked — but not this land of righteousness. The man wouldn't believe it.... "It must exist," he said, "look carefully. Otherwise," he says, "your books and maps are of no use if there's no land of righteousness." The learned man was offended. "My plans," he said, "are correct. But there exists no land of righteousness anywhere." Well, then the other man got angry. He'd lived and lived and suffered and suffered, and had believed all the time in the existence of this land — and now, according to the plans, it didn't exist at all. He felt robbed! And he said to the learned man: "Ah — you scum of the earth! You're not a learned man at all — but just a damned cheat!" — and he gave him a good wallop in the eye — then another one... [After a moment's silence. ] And then he went home and hanged himself.

Barack Obama photo

“Removing the flag from this state’s capitol would not be an act of political correctness; it would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought -- the cause of slavery -- was wrong -- the imposition of Jim Crow after the Civil War, the resistance to civil rights for all people was wrong. It would be one step in an honest accounting of America’s history; a modest but meaningful balm for so many unhealed wounds. It would be an expression of the amazing changes that have transformed this state and this country for the better, because of the work of so many people of goodwill, people of all races striving to form a more perfect union. By taking down that flag, we express God’s grace.”

Barack Obama (1961) 44th President of the United States of America

2015, Eulogy for the Honorable Reverend Clementa Pinckney (June 2015)
Context: For too long, we were blind to the pain that the Confederate flag stirred in too many of our citizens. It’s true, a flag did not cause these murders. But as people from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats, now acknowledge -- including Governor Haley, whose recent eloquence on the subject is worthy of praise as we all have to acknowledge, the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride. For many, black and white, that flag was a reminder of systemic oppression and racial subjugation. We see that now. Removing the flag from this state’s capitol would not be an act of political correctness; it would not be an insult to the valor of Confederate soldiers. It would simply be an acknowledgment that the cause for which they fought -- the cause of slavery -- was wrong -- the imposition of Jim Crow after the Civil War, the resistance to civil rights for all people was wrong. It would be one step in an honest accounting of America’s history; a modest but meaningful balm for so many unhealed wounds. It would be an expression of the amazing changes that have transformed this state and this country for the better, because of the work of so many people of goodwill, people of all races striving to form a more perfect union. By taking down that flag, we express God’s grace.

Teal Swan photo
Frédéric Bastiat photo

“It is a rather singular argument to maintain that, because an abuse which has been permitted a temporary existence, cannot be corrected without wounding the interests of those who have profited by it, it ought, therefore, to claim perpetual duration.”

Frédéric Bastiat (1801–1850) French classical liberal theorist, political economist, and member of the French assembly

Economic Sophisms, 1st series (1845), ch. 20 Human Labour, National Labour
Economic Sophisms (1845–1848)

Barack Obama photo
Ram Prasad Bismil photo
Teal Swan photo
Clive Barker photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Isobelle Carmody photo
Jodi Picoult photo

“You know, the mind is a remarkable thing. Just because you can't see the wound doesn't mean it isn't hurting. It scars all the time, but it heals.”

Variant: The mind is a remarcable thing. Just because you can’t see the wound doesn’t mean it isn’t hurting
Source: The Pact

Salman Rushdie photo

“Nobody can judge an internal injury by the size of the superficial wound.”

Variant: You can't judge an internal injury by the size of the hole.
Source: The Satanic Verses

Andreas Eschbach photo
Oprah Winfrey photo

“I would like to thank the people who've brought me those dark moments, when I felt most wounded, betrayed. You have been my greatest teachers.”

Oprah Winfrey (1954) American businesswoman, talk show host, actress, producer, and philanthropist

Source: The Best of Oprah's What I Know For Sure

Ian McEwan photo
Michael Card photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Sue Monk Kidd photo
Michael Ondaatje photo
Jean Cocteau photo

“I'm not willing just to be tolerated. That wounds my love of love and of liberty.”

Jean Cocteau (1889–1963) French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker

Source: The White Book

Alain de Botton photo
Jodi Picoult photo
Janet Fitch photo
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Sherrilyn Kenyon photo
Margaret Mitchell photo
Paulo Coelho photo
Diana Gabaldon photo
Amy Tan photo
Ayn Rand photo
Robin Hobb photo
Haruki Murakami photo
Emily Brontë photo
Stephen King photo

“Time heals all wounds.”

Misattributed
Source: Hearts in Atlantis

Shūsaku Endō photo
Theodore Roszak photo
George Gordon Byron photo

“A timid mind is apt to mistake every scratch for a mortal wound.”

George Gordon Byron (1788–1824) English poet and a leading figure in the Romantic movement
Woody Allen photo

“I will not eat oysters. I want my food dead. Not sick. Not wounded. Dead.”

Woody Allen (1935) American screenwriter, director, actor, comedian, author, playwright, and musician
Rick Riordan photo
Yukio Mishima photo
Charlaine Harris photo
Thich Nhat Hanh photo
Bell Hooks photo
Emma Forrest photo

“Time heals all wounds. And if it doesn't, you name them something other than wounds and agree to let them stay.”

Emma Forrest (1976) British journalist, novelist and screenwriter

Source: Your Voice in My Head

Laurell K. Hamilton photo
Nicholas Sparks photo

“I knew my dad was a good man, a kind man, and though he'd led a wounded life, he'd done the best he could in raising me.”

John Tyree, Chapter 16, p. 198
2000s, Dear John (2006)
Source: The Best of Me

Joel Osteen photo
Ray Bradbury photo
Jürgen Moltmann photo
Cassandra Clare photo
William T. Sherman photo

“It is only those who have neither fired a shot nor heard the shrieks and groans of the wounded who cry aloud for blood, more vengeance, more desolation. War is hell.”

William T. Sherman (1820–1891) American General, businessman, educator, and author.

Letter to James E. Yeatman of St. Louis, Vice-President of the Western Sanitary Commission (21 May 1865). As quoted on p. 358, and footnoted on p. 562, in Sherman: A Soldier's Passion For Order https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/080938762X (2007), John F. Marszalek, Southern Illinois University Press, Chapter 15 ('Fame Tarnished')
Variant text: I confess, without shame, that I am sick and tired of fighting — its glory is all moonshine; even success the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies, with the anguish and lamentations of distant families, appealing to me for sons, husbands, and fathers […] it is only those who have never heard a shot, never heard the shriek and groans of the wounded and lacerated […] that cry aloud for more blood, more vengeance, more desolation. […] I declare before God, as a man and a soldier, I will not strike a foe who stands unarmed and submissive before me, but would rather say—‘Go, and sin no more.’
As quoted in Sherman: Merchant of Terror, Advocate of Peace https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/1455611891 (1992), Charles Edmund Vetter, Pelican Publishing, p. 289
See the Discussion Page for more extensive sourcing information.
1860s, 1865, Letter to James E. Yeatman (May 1865)
Context: I confess without shame that I am tired & sick of war. Its glory is all moonshine. Even success, the most brilliant is over dead and mangled bodies […] It is only those who have not heard a shot, nor heard the shrills & groans of the wounded & lacerated (friend or foe) that cry aloud for more blood & more vengeance, more desolation & so help me God as a man & soldier I will not strike a foe who stands unarmed & submissive before me but will say ‘Go sin no more.

F. Scott Fitzgerald photo
Helen Keller photo
Haruki Murakami photo
John Dryden photo
John Milton photo
Billy Joel photo
Alexandre Dumas photo
Suzanne Collins photo
Anne Lamott photo
Suzanne Collins photo
John Steinbeck photo
Bell Hooks photo
Anthony Burgess photo
Jeannette Walls photo
Marianne Williamson photo
Kóbó Abe photo
Eoin Colfer photo

“And I will not be beaten by that jackass."

"Jackass?" said Foaly, wounded. "My favorite uncle is a jackass.”

Eoin Colfer (1965) Irish author of children's books

Source: The Atlantis Complex

Deb Caletti photo
Trudi Canavan photo