Victims Quotes

“How do you come after me, when it is all of us? One of the greatest dangers of victimhood is the singling out; all of your attributes and anecdotes assigned blame. In court they’ll try to make you believe you are unlike the others, you are different, an exception. You are dirtier, more stupid, more promiscuous. But it’s a trick. The assault is never personal, the blaming is.”
― Chanel Miller, Know My Name

“I also want to say that there is no hierarchy of suffering. There's nothing that makes my pain worse or better than yours, no graph on which we can plot the relative importance of one sorrow versus another. People say to me, "Things in my life are pretty hard right now, but I have no right to complain -- it's not Auschwitz." This kind of comparison can lead us to minimize or diminish our own suffering. Being a survivor, being a "thriver" requires absolute acceptance of what was and what is. If we discount our pain, or punish ourselves for feeling lost or isolated or scared about the challenges in our lives, however insignificant these challenges may seem to someone else, then we're still choosing to be victims. We're not seeing our choices. We're judging ourselves.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice: Embrace the Possible

“We were always looking for reasons a woman might be murdered, other than our common gender. We want to blame the victim for what happened to her, when we know the problem is almost always men.”
― JoeAnn Hart, Stamford '76: A True Story of Murder, Corruption, Race, and Feminism in the 1970s

“Our effort was mocked by some police supervisors: has the computer caught Ted yet?”
― Robert D. Keppel, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer

“The young are the silent carriers of COVID-19 and the older generation are the victims.”
― Steven Magee

“I want to make one thing perfectly clear. When I talk about victims and survivors, I am not blaming victims -- so many of whom never had a chance.”
― Edith Eger, The Choice: Embrace the Possible

“The so-called “innocents” are still wearing the skins of sheep to cover their evil intentions. Thus, we must avoid flatterers at any cost, so as not to become their victims.”
― Mwanandeke Kindembo, Treatise Upon The Misconceptions of Narcissism

“Demanding fairness and describing a problem doesn't make you a "victim." Silencing, denial, mockery, intimidation, and callousness might, though.”
― Soraya Chemaly, Rage Becomes Her: The Power of Women's Anger

“Victims of police brutality is not new.
It happened to me and can happen to you.
I hope you learn a lesson or two
From this incident I've been through.”
― Heide Velarde, A Fadeaway Dream of Justice to Redeem

“So what came first, do you reckon, the horrible thoughts forcing you to carry out rituals like a junkie, or the need to make people laugh? Or maybe they’re two sides of the same coin. The vivid imagination causing thoughts which make you want to cry is the same imagination that can find humour in situations other people would call ‘mundane’…”
“It’s occurred to me, yes.”
“Oh, it’s more than occurred to you, Nicky boy. You’re an intelligent man who has an affliction which affects your mind, so you’ve definitely thought about it. A lot, I bet. I’d like to tell you something Nicky, but I want to make sure I’ve got your full attention. Do I?”
“Yes,” I replied in spite of myself.
He leaned even closer, as if we were either co-conspirators in some scheme or lovers about to kiss.
“We’re all victims. All of us. Victims of our own minds...”
― Angelo Marcos, Victim Mentality

“All too often, the victims of smuggling and trafficking are encouraged to engage in the use of illegal substances.”
― Asa Don Brown

“IN MEMORIAM: FLIGHT 752

I try to envisage the passengers
seated in neat rows.
Everyone knows the real risk
is at take-off and landing,
but after an hour delay,
their plane was soaring. Relieved,
they whispered prayers, dreaming
of families and friends at arrival gates
clutching coffee cups and bouquets.
I like to think it was calm,
the plane blanketed by night’s caress.
Cellphones put away,
the cabin lights dimmed,
babies cooing in cots,
and refreshments on their way.
176 hearts beating in one narrow womb.
Closer to the heavens,
I know their journey was short—
earth angels for a while
who were returning home.”
― Kamand Kojouri

“People who are being abused, who accept the abuse and see nothing wrong about it. End up abusing others.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“Do you dream of your victims?” he asked.
“Yes,” the murderer told him. “But only when I’m awake.”
Anzola had never heard a more perfect definition of guilt, and didn’t ask him anything else on the subject.”
― Juan Gabriel Vásquez, La forma de las ruinas

“Kaci żyją między ocalałymi. Albo w ocalałych. W jednym ciele i kat, i ofiara. Widują się codziennie. Na ulicy, na bazarze, w pracy, w lustrze.”
― Wojciech Tochman, Pianie kogutów, płacz psów

“C’era sempre un sentimento di pena che accompagnava Teresa quando doveva fare un sopralluogo nella casa di una vittima o di una persona scomparsa. Qualcosa delle persone che non c’erano più restava sospesa tra le pareti, sul tavolo dove non avrebbero più mangiato, sul letto che non avrebbe più accolto il loro corpo stanco, sugli oggetti quotidiani, Teresa capiva sempre con un brivido quando una persona scomparsa aveva cessato di respirare: era come se tornasse nella sua casa sotto forma di quel sentore sospeso, carico di nostalgia per ciò che non poteva più sfiorare. Non aveva mai sbagliato.
Fu così anche per Emmanuel Turan: capì subito che non c’era più.”
― Ilaria Tuti, Ninfa dormiente

“Is there any good left in the world? And if there is, can you still find it in the places that matter? Why is it that the only places I see it now, is in the graves of the victims, and the tears of those who mourn them?”
― Christina Engela, Pearls Before Swine

“Look, see: the universe does nothing. Victim or monster, there is no one to help.  God is dead. We should have tried to do our best without him.”
― Cliff James, Life As A Kite

“When Mary Osmer later told us her story, her eyes glistened with guilt. To her, the stranger seemed friendly, sincere, very polite, and easy to talk to. He had a nice smile and didn’t get upset when she told him she wouldn’t go with him.”
― Robert D. Keppel, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer

“These three women picked up subtle signals that Bundy was sending off. When questioned, they said that he seemed too intent on what he was after and was uncomfortably nervous. Furthermore, they said he had spoken rapidly as if he were reading a script and he acted as if he had had a hidden agenda. Of the five different women who were approached by the stranger that day but didn’t go with him, two would later become severely psychologically traumatized when the truth about “Ted” came out, at the thought that they could have become a murder victim.”
― Robert D. Keppel, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer

“Our inexperience was telling, and it favored the killer.”
― Robert D. Keppel, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer

“The extent of this killer’s crimes was growing as more of the pieces of the puzzle came together.
As the handlers rushed toward me with their eager search dogs sniffing the ground ahead of them, it suddenly dawned on me that I didn’t want them anywhere near this cranium. Dogs don’t care where they put their paws. Crucial evidence could be destroyed or altered if the dogs ran through this site. A basic tenet of Criminal Investigation 101 was racing through my head: protect the scene. But it was too late. Almost on cue, and certainly by accident, a dog’s paw struck the ground and a human jawbone erupted through the leafy surface. I yelled for everyone to stay back, but within a few seconds another dog walked across the leaves and dislodged another human jawbone. Then another dog stepped on another mandible. In stunned amazement, we all realized that a detailed search of the mountainside was required. At the very least, we had just discovered the remains of two people.”
― Robert D. Keppel, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer

“We needed an over-confident Ted, not a defensive Ted, because overconfidence breeds mistakes, and that’s just what we needed our Ted to make in order catch him.”
― Robert D. Keppel, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer

“The press creates its own magnified version of an event. The more intense the feeding frenzy for exclusives, the more the story changes from reporter to reporter until what the public gets is a distorted version of the truth. It’s as if the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle were at work everytime a large story unfolds in the media, so that the presence of the media itself creates, changes, and redefines the story. You always have to be wary of what the media reports because the media itself has created parts of the story.”
― Robert D. Keppel, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer

“If it can be said that serial killers, through the control they exert and the terror they spread, make victims of the entire communities—families and loved ones, the police who track them, and the general public who must live in fear—then in his own way, Dave was
a victim of the Green River killer, just as I became one of Ted Bundy’s victims.”
― Robert D. Keppel, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer

“Years ago I read about a psychiatrist who said, ‘If you could only photograph everybody
who came out of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you would have a mug book of all the active violent offenders against women in that particular area.”
― Robert D. Keppel, The Riverman: Ted Bundy and I Hunt for the Green River Killer

“I'm proud to be part of a team that cares deeply about victims of human trafficking. Through technology like VR Eval and thanks to the generosity of donors and valued supporters, we believe we can help save lives. That is a good feeling. (Carlos Wallace speaking as a Board Member of More Too Life)”
― Carlos Wallace

“Most criminals, murders, killers and rapists walk free today, because the victims and other people who support the victims lied or fabricated and faked evidence. They wanted the criminal, rapist, murder behind bars so much that they tempered with evidence. What they say and present end up not adding up and the judge or law has to let the criminals walk , because they have nothing to hold them against on.”
― De philosopher DJ Kyos

“I need to sue. I need to make money for this firm. For that I need a victim... You need to blame somebody. this is America.”
― Edwin Poole

“The accused were considered guilty unless proven innocent.”
― Nancy Rubin Stuart, Isabella of Castile: The First Renaissance Queen