33 Brené Brown Vulnerability Quotes (+ Context)

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How important is vulnerability? Why is it vital for healthy relationships, effective leadership, and a fulfilled life?

Brené Brown studies, promotes, and lives vulnerability. In her bestselling books, if vulnerability isn’t the main theme, it still features prominently. We’ve put together a collection of quotes from her books that will help you know why it’s a quality worth understanding and practicing.

Continue reading for 33 Brené Brown vulnerability quotes that will give you a glimpse into her insights.

Brené Brown Vulnerability Quotes

We’ve collected some of the best Brené Brown vulnerability quotes from several of her books and organized them into subtopics. We’ll look at what vulnerability is, the importance of vulnerability, and how vulnerability is related to connection, courage, trust, joy, and leadership. We’ve added some context and explanation to help you grasp Brown’s concepts and start putting them into practice.

What Vulnerability Is (and Isn’t)

“I define vulnerability as uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure. With that definition in mind, let’s think about love. Waking up every day and loving someone who may or may not love us back, whose safety we can’t ensure, who may stay in our lives or may leave without a moment’s notice, who may be loyal to the day they die or betray us tomorrow—that’s vulnerability.”
Daring Greatly

“Rather than sitting on the sidelines and hurling judgment and advice, we must dare to show up and let ourselves be seen. This is vulnerability.”
Daring Greatly

“Vulnerability is not winning or losing. It’s having the courage to show up when you can’t control the outcome.”
Dare to Lead

“Vulnerability is not weakness; it’s our greatest measure of courage.”
Atlas of the Heart

“Vulnerability sounds like truth and feels like courage.”
Daring Greatly

In Dare to Lead, Brown defines vulnerability as exposure to the risk of failure or emotional harm. However, she argues, most people have three main misconceptions about vulnerability—which leads them to avoid it.

Being vulnerable means you’re weak. Brown contends that feeling vulnerable is a sign that you were courageous enough to approach—not avoid—exposure to risk and uncertainty.
You have to trust someone in order to be vulnerable with them. Brown argues that vulnerability and trust happen simultaneously, in a constant exchange of small moments; neither comes before the other.
Being vulnerable means you have to share everything. Brown clarifies that vulnerability can (and often should) be practiced with limits.

In her earlier book, The Power of Vulnerability, Brown explains that many people who are in a position where showing weakness can be harmful—like executives—mistakenly associate weakness with vulnerability. So, they believe they can’t be vulnerable. But, in Daring Greatly, Brown elaborates further on the difference between vulnerability and weakness, explaining that Merriam-Webster defines vulnerability as “open to attack or damage,” while weakness is “the inability to withstand attack or wounding.” In other words, being vulnerable means that you’re open to harm but not totally defenseless. Moreover, she presents studies that prove that acknowledging your vulnerability makes you stronger: If you don’t acknowledge your vulnerability, you’re not prepared to protect yourself.

The Importance of Vulnerability

“Vulnerability is the core, the heart, the center, of meaningful human experiences.”
Daring Greatly

“Vulnerability is the core of all emotions and feelings. To feel is to be vulnerable. … To foreclose on our emotional life out of a fear that the costs will be too high is to walk away from the very thing that gives purpose and meaning to living.”
Daring Greatly

“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.”
Daring Greatly

“To live with courage, purpose, and connection—to be the person whom we long to be—we must again be vulnerable. We must take off the armor, put down the weapons, show up, and let ourselves be seen.”
Daring Greatly

“There is no intimacy without vulnerability.”
Daring Greatly

“There is no courage without vulnerability. Courage requires the willingness to lean into uncertainty, risk, and emotional exposure.”
Atlas of the Heart

These Brené Brown vulnerability quotes illustrate her strong belief that vulnerability is the prerequisite for a truly meaningful life. She discusses several specific ways that it makes a difference.

Being vulnerable enough to clearly say what you mean will help you make honest, productive connections. People who struggle to be vulnerable may avoid talking about their true emotions; instead, they’ll name “easy” but inaccurate emotions so they can talk about their feelings without full emotional exposure.

Vulnerability also discourages defensive behaviors, which are behaviors that protect you from experiencing any negative emotions. Examples include perfectionism and criticism. But, these behaviors, Brown argues, usually stifle innovation and creativity.

Brown argues that vulnerability is important also because it helps you understand and overcome shame—the feeling that you’re a flawed person who’s not worthy of connection or belonging. This matters because shame drives toxic behaviors.

Vulnerability and Connection

“When someone shares their hopes and dreams with us, we are witnessing deep courage and vulnerability. Celebrating their successes is easy, but when disappointment happens, it’s an incredible opportunity for meaningful connection.”
Atlas of the Heart

“Communicating our expectations is brave and vulnerable. And it builds meaningful connection and often leads to having a partner or friend who we can reality-check with.”
Atlas of the Heart

“Belonging is a practice that requires us to be vulnerable, get uncomfortable, and learn how to be present with people without sacrificing who we are. When we sacrifice who we are, we not only feel separate from others, but we even feel disconnected from ourselves.”
Atlas of the Heart

“If we’re going to find our way out of shame and back to each other, vulnerability is the path and courage is the light.”
Daring Greatly

“If we want to be fully engaged, to be connected, we have to be vulnerable.”
Daring Greatly

These Brené Brown vulnerability quotes highlight the necessity of vulnerability in any meaningful relationship. Brown strongly connects vulnerability with love and trust. She defines love as a deep and fulfilling connection between people and says that love begins with deep trust and the freedom to be yourself: You open yourself up to another person, and that person opens up to you. You leave yourselves vulnerable to each other and honor that shared vulnerability with kindness, respect, and warmth. In other words, love is a deep form of shared belonging.

As mentioned above, vulnerability allows people to speak openly and honestly, which is vital for any true connection. Also, vulnerability is the antidote to shame, and shame can keep you from feeling worthy of connection in the first place.

Vulnerability and Courage

“You can’t get to courage without rumbling with vulnerability. Embrace the suck. … Courage and fear are not mutually exclusive. Most of us feel brave and afraid at the exact same time. We feel vulnerable.”
Dare to Lead

“The physics of vulnerability: If we are brave enough often enough, we will fall. Daring is not saying ‘I’m willing to risk failure.’ Daring is saying ‘I know I will eventually fail, and I’m still all in.’”
Dare to Lead

33 Brené Brown Vulnerability Quotes (+ Context)