I've always considered myself a good person. I've never done anything to purposely hurt anyone. Furthermore, I was in shock that this happened to me, and because it did, I turned into this vengeful person. Furthermore, I've never truly hated anyone, but I was glad when I saw him lying there on the floor.

— Maya Banks

I wondered about her chicken-and-egg relationship with Dad. Which came first? Her helplessness or his controlling?

— Justina Chen

Mind control is built on lies and manipulation of attachment needs. Valerie Season, (Forward)

— Alison Miller

No matter what, the day didn't feel like Christmas to her. She remembered years ago, when she had been just a little kid, and the word had been enough to make her happy. Nothing stirred in her now. Her childhood felt like it had been in another life. As she sat alone in her room with tears drying to her face, she resolved that no matter what the calendar said, it wasn't Christmas. If it was, she'd feel happy, not depressed.

— Kayla Krantz

Objectification is a critical reason why an abuser tends to get worse over time. As his conscience adapts to one level of cruelty—or violence—he builds to the next. By depersonalizing his partner, the abuser protects himself from the natural human emotions of guilt and empathy, so that he can sleep at night with a clear conscience. He distances himself so far from her humanity that her feelings no longer count, or simply cease to exist. These walls tend to grow over time, so that after a few years in a relationship my clients can reach a point where they feel no more guilt over degrading or threatening their partners than you, or I would feel after angrily kicking a stone in the driveway.

— Lundy Bancroft

One of the obstacles to recognizing chronic mistreatment in relationships is that most abusive men simply don’t seem like abusers. They have many good qualities, including times of kindness, warmth, and humor, especially in the early period of a relationship. An abuser’s friends may think the world of him. He may have a successful work life and have no problems with drugs or alcohol. He may simply not fit anyone’s image of a cruel or intimidating person. So when a woman feels her relationship spinning out of control, it is unlikely to occur to her that her partner is an abuser.

— Lundy Bancroft

People only picked the pretty, sweet-smelling flowers. The ones with thorns were left alone.

— Nenia Campbell

Prim... Rue... aren't they the very reason I have to try to fight? Because what has been done to them is so wrong, so beyond justification, so evil that there is no choice? Because no one had the right to treat them as they have been treated? Yes. This is the thing to remember when fear threatens to swallow me up.

— Suzanne Collins

Shouldn't there be more distaste in our mouths for the abusers than for those who continue to love the abusers?

— Colleen Hoover

Sometimes we need to feel bad to know what it's like to feel good...

— Nitra Gipson