Brené Brown Quotes

Compassionate people are boundaried people.

Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can't ensure...

Live-tweeting your bikini wax is not vulnerability. Nor is posting a blow-by-blow of your divorce . ...

Guilt is just as powerful, but its influence is positive, while shame's is destructive. Shame erodes...

I've learned that men and women who are living wholehearted lives really allow themselves to soften ...

There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.

My husband's a pediatrician, so he and I talk about parenting all the time. You can't raise children...

The intention and outcome of vulnerability is trust, intimacy and connection. The outcome of oversha...

I spent a lot of years trying to outrun or outsmart vulnerability by making things certain and defin...

The truth is: Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be ...

Perfectionism is not the same thing as striving to be our best. Perfectionism is not about healthy a...

The uncertainty of parenting can bring up feelings in us that range from frustration to terror.

Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.

At the exact time that our society embraces shaming, blaming, judgment, and rejection, it also holds...

I don't have to chase extraordinary moments to find happiness - it's right in front of me if I'm pay...

Courage, the original definition of courage, when it first came into the English language — it’s fro...

Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappoint...

I now see how owning our story and loving ourselves through that process is the bravest thing that w...

It is easy to see how quickly expectations become layered, competitive and conflicting. This is how ...

Those who have a strong sense of love and belonging have the courage to be imperfect.

If we don’t allow ourselves to experience joy and love, we will definitely miss out on filling our r...

I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued;...

You cannot shame or belittle people into changing their behaviors.

Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity and change.

In fact, all of us are very susceptible to having our humiliating experiences turn to shame, especia...

Creativity is the way I share my soul with the world.

Maybe stories are just data with a soul.

If you're thinking, 'Great! I just need to be a superhero to fight perfectionism,' I understand. Cou...

What separates privilege from entitlement is gratitude.

If we are going to find our way out of shame and back to each other, vulnerability is the path and c...

Courage has a ripple effect. Every time we choose courage, we make everyone around us a little bette...

Our stories are not meant for everyone. Hearing them is a privilege, and we should always ask oursel...

When you shut down vulnerability, you shut down opportunity

Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embr...

One of the reasons we judge each other so harshly in this world of parenting is because... we percei...

It's in our biology to trust what we see with our eyes. This makes living in a carefully edited, ove...

Caring about the welfare of children and shaming parents are mutually exclusive endeavors.

We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive em...

[I] never talk about gratitude and joy separately, for this reason. In 12 years, I've never intervie...

Women most often experience shame as a web of layered, conflicting, and competing social-community e...

We can't pack down hurt, nor can we off-load it to someone else while maintaining our authenticity a...

If you own this story you get to write the ending.

If you trade your authenticity for safety, you may experience the following: anxiety, depression, ea...

Rather than risking feeling disappointed, they’re choosing to live disappointed.

People often silence themselves, or "agree to disagree" without fully exploring the actual nature of...

Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, ou...

He explained that unlike our other classes in the program, research was all about prediction and con...

It doesn't matter if the group is a church or a gang or a sewing circle or masculinity itself, askin...

The opposite of "never enough" isn't abundance or "more than you could ever imagine." The opposite o...

The real questions for parents should be: "Are you engaged? Are you paying attention?" If so, plan t...

Vulnerability is not knowing victory or defeat, it’s understanding the necessity of both; it’s engag...

Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.

Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren't always comfortable,...

Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do...

Nostalgia is also a dangerous form of comparison. Think about how often we compare ourselves and our...

I think we can all agree that feeling shame is an incredibly painful experience. What we often don't...

If we can share our story with someone who responds with empathy and understanding, shame can't surv...

Serpentining" means trying to control a situation, backing out of it, pretending it's not happening,...

Even to me the issue of "stay small, sweet, quiet, and modest" sounds like an outdated problem, but ...

When I look at narcissism through the vulnerability lens, I see the shame-based fear of being ordina...

Everyone wants to know why customer service has gone to hell in a handbasket. I want to know why cus...

...research tells us that we judge people in areas where we're vulnerable to shame, especially picki...

I only share when I have no unmet needs that I'm trying to fill. I firmly believe that being vulnera...

Who we are and how we engage with the world are much stronger predictors of how our children will do...

When shame becomes a management style, engagement dies. When failure is not an option we can forget ...

There is a quiet transformation happening that is moving us from 'turning on each other' to 'turning...

Worrying about scarcity is our culture's version of post-traumatic stress. It happens when we've bee...

I've found what makes children happy doesn't always prepare them to be courageous, engaged adults.

After doing this work or the past twelve years and watching scarcity ride roughshod over our familie...

You can't claim to care about the welfare of children if you're shaming other parents for the choice...

The willingness to show up changes us, It makes us a little braver each time.

Numb the dark and you numb the light.

There is no question that engagement requires sacrifice, but that's what we signed up for when we de...

I only accept and pay attention to feedback from people who are also in the arena. If you're occasio...

Shame derives its power from being unspeakable.

Knowing what I do now, I think about shame and worthiness in this way: 'It's the album, not the pict...

Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the...

What we know matters but who we are matters more.

Another great example of the power of vulnerability -- this time in a corporation -- is the leadersh...

The biggest potential for helping us overcome shame is this: We are “those people.” The truth is…we ...

Courage is a heart word. The root of the word courage is cor - the Latin word for heart. In one of i...

When we are experience shame we are often thrown into crisis mode...In this mode, the neocortex is b...

We cannot grow when we are in shame, and we can't use shame to change ourselves or others.

If you want to make a difference, the next time you see someone being cruel to another human being, ...

Compassion is not a virtue -- it is a commitment. It's not something we have or don't have -- it's s...

Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change.

To know shame is to be human. And to have the capacity for empathy is also to be human.

In the absence of data, we will always make up stories. In fact, the need to make up a story, especi...

We're wired for story. In a culture of scarcity and perfectionism, there's a surprisingly simple rea...

Heartbreak is an altogether different thing. Disappointment doesn't grow into heartbreak, nor does f...

Maybe looking away is about privilege. I need to think harder and longer about my choices and recogn...

Grief seems to create losses within us that reach beyond our awareness--we feel as if we're missing ...

Given the dark fears we feel when we experience loss, nothing is more generous and loving than the w...

The reckoning is how we walk into our story; the rumble is where we own it. The goal of the rumble i...

When you look away from a homeless person, you diminish their humanity and your own.

Our silence about grief serves no one. We can't heal if we can't grieve; we can't forgive if we can'...

When you judge yourself for needing help, you judge those you are helping. When you attach value to ...

To be forgiven is to be loved

Talk to ourselves in the same way we'd talk to someone we'd love. Yes, you made a mistake. You're hu...

The rising strong reckoning has two deceptively simple parts: (1) engaging with our feelings, and (2...

When you judge yourself for needing help, you judge those you are helping. When you attach value to ...