To live with the terrible truths about ourselves is the only way of not living them out. A need denied has infinitely more power than a need accepted.
Jo CoudertYou do not need to be loved, not at the cost of yourself. Of all the people you will know in the lifetime, you are the only one you will never leave or lose.
Jo CoudertThere is no way of steering successfully between a failed situation and a failed self except by stopping and taking our bearings.
Jo CoudertWe can win the struggle to avoid responsibility for our personal lives, but if we do, what we lose is our lives.
Jo CoudertThe person who conveys, 'I am nothing. Make me something,' may all his life have people trying to answer his hidden plea, but their answer will be in terms of, 'I am trying to make you something because you are nothing,' and, thus, the insult will be embedded in the response. It will be heard just as clearly as the attempt to help. And it will be hated.
Jo Coudert