“Vulnerability is a concept fraught with paradox. To start with, the concept is in common use but its meaning is imprecise and contested. Confusing, complex, vague, ambiguous are but a few of the labels scholars across disciplines have used to refer to it. (Bio)ethics and law, in particular, are disciplines which have spawned an extensive literature on vulnerability.”

Lourdes Peroni - Alexandra Timmer, Vulnerable groups: The promise of an emerging concept in European Human Rights Convention law

“Vulnerability is our susceptibility to be wounded. This fragility is part of our nature and cannot be escaped. The best the brain can do is to shut down conscious awareness of it when pain becomes so vast or unbearable that it threatens our ability to function. The automatic repression of painful emotion is a helpful child's prime defence mechanism and can enable the child to endure trauma otherwise be catastrophic. The unfortunate consequence is a wholesale dulling of emotional awareness.”

Gabor Mate, In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters with Addiction

“On and on the rain will say

How fragile we are“

Sting, “Fragile”