Brene Brown Quotes On Vulnerability, Courage, Love, Shame, Connection

Casandra Brené Brown Ph.D., LMSW is a professor, lecturer, author, and podcast host. Since 2016, Brown has held the Brené Brown Endowed Chair at the University of Houston’s Graduate College of Social Work. She is also a visiting professor in management at McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas at Austin. These Brene Brown quotes on daring greatly, connection, empathy, love, shame, leadership will motivate you.

Best Brene Brown Quotes

1. “Authenticity is the daily practice of letting go of who we think we’re supposed to be and embracing who we are.” ~ Brené Brown
2. “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy—the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” ~ Brené Brown, Brene Brown quotes on vulnerability
3. “Belonging is the innate human desire to be part of something larger than us. Because this yearning is so primal, we often try to acquire it by fitting in and by seeking approval, which is not only hollow substitutes for belonging but often barriers to it. Because true belonging only happens when we present our authentic, imperfect selves to the world, our sense of belonging can never be greater than our level of self-acceptance.” ~ Brené Brown

4. “Don’t try to win over the haters; you are not a jackass whisperer.” ~ Brené Brown

5. “Joy is not constant. It comes to us in moments – often ordinary moments. Sometimes we miss out on the bursts of joy because we’re too busy chasing down the extraordinary moments. Other times we’re so afraid of the dark we don’t dare let ourselves enjoy the light. A joyful life is not a floodlight of joy. That would eventually become unbearable. I believe a joyful life is made up of joyful moments gracefully strung together by trust, gratitude, and inspiration” ~ Brené Brown
6. “Daring greatly means the courage to be vulnerable. It means to show up and be seen. To ask for what you need. To talk about how you’re feeling. To have the hard conversations.” ~ Brené Brown, Brene Brown quotes on courage
7. “Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” ~ Brené Brown
8. “When we deny our stories, They define us. When we own our stories, we get to write the ending.” ~ Brené Brown

9. “We can have the courage or we can have comfort, but we cannot have both.” ~ Brené Brown

10. “I’ve come to this belief that, if you show me a woman who can sit with a man in real vulnerability, in deep fear, and be with him in it, I will show you a woman who, A, has done her work and, B, does not derive her power from that man. And if you show me a man who can sit with a woman in deep struggle and vulnerability and not try to fix it, but just hear her and be with her and hold space for it, I’ll show you a guy who’s done his work and a man who doesn’t derive his power from controlling and fixing everything.” ~ Brené Brown
11. “Imperfections are not inadequacies; they are reminders that we’re all in this together.” ~ Brené Brown
12. “We don’t have to be perfect, just engaged, and committed to aligning values with actions.” ~ Brené Brown
13. “I define connection as the energy that exists between people when they feel seen, heard, and valued; when they can give and receive without judgment; and when they derive sustenance and strength from the relationship.” ~ Brené Brown

14. “We’re all so busy chasing the extraordinary that we forget to stop and be grateful for the ordinary.” ~ Brené Brown

15. “Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage. Truth and courage aren’t always comfortable, but they’re never weak.” ~ Brené Brown
16. “Vulnerability is the birthplace of innovation, creativity, and change.” ~ Brené Brown
17. “I can’t be paralyzed anymore by the critics. My new mantra is, if you’re not in the arena getting your ass kicked on occasion, then I’m not interested in your feedback. You don’t get to sit in the cheat seat and criticize my appearance or my work with mean-spiritedness if you’re also not in the arena.” ~ Brené Brown
18. “Believing that you’re enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic.” ~ Brené Brown
19. “Daring to set boundaries is about having the courage to love ourselves, even when we risk disappointing others.” ~ Brené Brown
20. “We live in a world where most people still subscribe to the belief that shame is a good tool for keeping people in line. Not only is this wrong, but it’s dangerous. Shame is highly correlated with addiction, violence, aggression, depression, eating disorders, and bullying.” ~ Brene Brown

21. “Talk to yourself like you would to someone you love.” ~ Brené Brown

22. “There is no innovation and creativity without failure. Period.” ~ Brené Brown
23. “Every single person has a story that will break your heart. And if you’re paying attention, many people… have a story that will bring you to your knees. Nobody rides for free.” ~ Brené Brown
24. “Belonging starts with self-acceptance. Your level of belonging, in fact, can never be greater than your level of self-acceptance, because believing that you’re enough is what gives you the courage to be authentic, vulnerable and imperfect. When we don’t have that, we shape-shift and turn into chameleons; we hustle for the worthiness we already possess.” ~ Brené Brown
25. “At the end of my life, I want to be able to say I contributed more than I criticized.” ~ Brené Brown

26. “I believe in the healing power of laughter. I believe laughter forces us to breathe.” ~ Brené Brown

27. “Our stories are not meant for everyone. Hearing them is a privilege, and we should always ask ourselves this before we share: “Who has earned the right to hear my story?” If we have one or two people in our lives who can sit with us and hold space for our shame stories, and love us for our strengths and struggles, we are incredibly lucky. If we have a friend, or small group of friends, or family who embraces our imperfections, vulnerabilities, and power and fills us with a sense of belonging, we are incredibly lucky.” ~ Brené Brown
28. “We cannot selectively numb emotions, when we numb the painful emotions, we also numb the positive emotions.” ~ Brené Brown
29. “Shame hates it when we reach out and tell our story. It hates having words wrapped around it – it can’t survive being shared. Shame loves secrecy… When we bury our story, the shame metastasizes.” ~ Brené Brown
30. “One of the most painfully inauthentic ways we show up in our lives sometimes is saying “yes” when we mean “no,” and saying “no” when we mean “hell yes.” ~ Brené Brown
31. “Faith is a place of mystery, where we find the courage to believe in what we cannot see and the strength to let go of our fear of uncertainty.” ~ Brene Brown

32. “The willingness to show up changes us, It makes us a little braver each time.” ~ Brené Brown

33. “We’re a nation hungry for more joy: Because we’re starving from a lack of gratitude.” ~ Brené Brown
34. “Love is not something we give or get; it is something that we nurture and grow, a connection that can only be cultivated between two people when it exists within each one of them- we can only love others as much as we love ourselves. Shame, blame, disrespect, betrayal, and the withholding of affection damage the roots from which love grows. Love can only survive these injuries if they are acknowledged, healed, and rare.” ~ Brené Brown, Brene Brown quotes on love
35. “When we can let go of what other people think and own our story, we gain access to our worthiness—the feeling that we are enough just as we are and that we are worthy of love and belonging. When we spend a lifetime trying to distance ourselves from the parts of our lives that don’t fit with who we think we’re supposed to be, we stand outside of our story and hustle for our worthiness by constantly performing, perfecting, pleasing, and proving. Our sense of worthiness—that critically important piece that gives us access to love and belonging—lives inside of our story.” ~ Brené Brown
36. “Healthy striving is self-focused: “How can I improve?” Perfectionism is other-focused: “What will they think?” ~ Brené Brown
37. “You can’t get to courage without walking through vulnerability.” ~ Brené Brown

38. “Courage starts with showing up and letting ourselves be seen.” ~ Brené Brown

39. “Raising children who are hopeful and who have the courage to be vulnerable means stepping back and letting them experience disappointment, deal with conflict, learn how to assert themselves, and have the opportunity to fail. If we’re always following our children into the arena, hushing the critics, and assuring their victory, they’ll never learn that they have the ability to dare greatly on their own.” ~ Brené Brown
40. “Perfectionism is a self-destructive and addictive belief system that fuels this primary thought: If I look perfect, and do everything perfectly, I can avoid or minimize the painful feelings of shame, judgment, and blame.” ~ Brené Brown
41. “A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don’t function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick.” ~ Brené Brown
42. “A good life happens when you stop and are grateful for the ordinary moments that so many of us just steamroll over to try to find those extraordinary moments.” ~ Brené Brown
43. “If we want to make meaning, we need to make art. Cook, write, draw, doodle, paint, scrapbook, take pictures, collage, knit, rebuild an engine, sculpt, dance, decorate, act, sing – it doesn’t matter. As long as we’re creating, we’re cultivating meaning.” ~ Brené Brown
44. “To love someone fiercely, to believe in something with your whole heart, to celebrate a fleeting moment in time, to fully engage in a life that doesn’t come with guarantees – these are risks that involve vulnerability and often pain. But, I’m learning that recognizing and leaning into the discomfort of vulnerability teaches us how to live with joy, gratitude, and grace.” ~ Brene Brown

45. “If we own the story then we can write the ending.” ~ Brené Brown

46. “The dark does not destroy the light; it defines it. It’s our fear of the dark that casts our joy into the shadows.” ~ Brené Brown
47. “People may call what happens at midlife ‘a crisis,’ but it’s not. It’s an unraveling – a time when you feel a desperate pull to live the life you want to live, not the one you’re ‘supposed’ to live. The unraveling is a time when you are challenged by the universe to let go of who you think you are supposed to be and to embrace who you are.” ~ Brené Brown
48. “To become fully human means learning to turn my gratitude for being alive into some concrete common good. It means growing gentler toward human weakness. It means practicing forgiveness of my and everyone else’s hourly failures to live up to divine standards. It means learning to forget myself on a regular basis in order to attend to the other selves in my vicinity. It means living so that “I’m only human” does not become an excuse for anything. It means receiving the human condition as a blessing and not a curse, in all its achingly frail and redemptive reality.” ~ Brené Brown
49. “What we know matters but who we are matters more.” ~ Brené Brown

50. “You are imperfect, you are wired for struggle, but you are worthy of love and belonging.” ~ Brené Brown

51. “Yes, I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid, but that doesn’t change the truth that I am also brave and worthy of love and belonging.” ~ Brene Brown Quotes
52. “Shame is the most powerful, master emotion. It’s the fear that we’re not good enough.” ~ Brené Brown, Brene Brown quotes on shame
53. “If you put shame in a petri dish, it needs three ingredients to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you put the same amount of shame in the petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can’t survive.” ~ Brené Brown
54. “Spirituality is recognizing and celebrating that we are all inextricably connected to each other by a power greater than all of us and that our connection to that power and to one another is grounded in love and compassion. Practicing spirituality brings a sense of perspective, meaning, and purpose to our lives.” ~ Brené Brown, Brene Brown quotes on connection
55. “We judge people in areas where we’re vulnerable to shame, especially picking folks who are doing worse than we’re doing. If I feel good about my parenting, I have no interest in judging other people’s choices. If I feel good about my body, I don’t go around making fun of other people’s weight or appearance. We’re hard on each other because we’re using each other as a launching pad out of our own perceived deficiency.” ~ Brené Brown

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