Millions of people fall victim to domestic violence and its negative effects year in and year out. While women are substantially more likely to be targeted and affected by incidents of domestic violence, there are also reported cases of domestic abuse against men and children.
In addition to several preventive measures geared toward ending the menace of domestic abuse, many quotes by experts and victims have been put forward. These quotes show that no one is immune to domestic violence and they help people spot the signs and the help they may need in events of domestic violence. One of the quotes that stands out was written by Kingsley Opuwari Manuel and it reads;
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abuse is the weakest expression of strength. It is also a weakness to destroy what you ought to protect, build, and make better.
100 Domestic Violence Quotes That Can Help Victims Through Turbulent Times
1. “Sexual assault and domestic violence are difficult things to talk about. Talk about them anyway.”
– Mariska Hargitay
2. “All marriages are sacred, but not all are safe”
– Rob Jackson
3. “Nobody believes that domestic violence kills and nobody believes it is detrimental to children. This world has got to wake up. To me, if there is domestic violence, if the children see it or hear it, that to me is detrimental. Batterers should not have rights to children.”
– Denise Brown
4. “Domestic violence is a carefully laid physical, financial, and psychological trap.”
– Leslie Morgan Steiner
5. “I want to tell people that family violence happens to anybody, no matter how nice your house is, no matter how intelligent you are.”
– Rosie Batty
6. “Domestic violence is often ignored as it usually happens behind closed doors and it can seem easier not to get involved. Yet, domestic violence continues to affect 1 in 4 women at some point in their lifetime, regardless of their background, career, race or age, and it is vital that we do something now to protect those directly affected by abuse in the home.”
– John Nettles
7. “No amount of me trying to explain myself was doing any good. I didn’t even know what was going on inside of me, so how could I have explained it to them?”
– Sierra D. Waters, Debbie
8. “Leaving an abusive partner is a very difficult thing to do. It frequently feels like you are failing, or destroying your family, or not trying to work things out, or not giving your partner a second chance.”
– Blaine Nelson
9. “Domestic violence can be so easy for people to ignore, as it often happens without any witnesses and it is sometimes easier not to get involved. Yet, by publicly speaking out against domestic violence, together we can challenge attitudes towards violence in the home and show that domestic violence is a crime and not merely unacceptable.”
– Honor Blackman
10. “The best protection against rape, stalking, and domestic violence is to raise men who both understand that women are different, and would never dare take advantage of this difference.”
– Wendy Shalit
11. “Domestic violence causes far more pain than the visible marks of bruises and scars. It is devastating to be abused by someone that you love and think loves you in return. It is estimated that approximately 3 million incidents of domestic violence are reported each year in the United States.”
– Dianne Feinstein
12. “Domestic violence and sexual assault go hand in hand.”
– Georgia Taylor
13. “When you’re in a broken family and your role model is a violent male, boys grow up believing that’s the way they’re supposed to act. And girls think that’s an accepted way men will treat them.”
– Jim Costa
14. “Domestic violence is the front line of the war against women.”
– Pearl Cleage
15. “We all like to think that if we were the victims of domestic abuse we’d up and leave – but it’s not always as easy or straightforward as that. Women stay with abusive partners for all kinds of reasons – they love them, they fear them, they have children with them, they believe they can change them or they simply have no where else to go.”
– Kate Thornton
16. “Domestic violence is an epidemic, and yet we don’t address it. Until it happens to celebrities.”
– Nelsan Ellis
17. “Pregnant women are more likely to die from homicide by domestic violence than any other cause of death.”
– Lois Capps
18. “Men have an important role to play in sending out the message that real men do not hurt or abuse their partners.”
– Ian Somerhalder
19. “I did not know that the first step in any domestic violence relationship is to seduce and charm the victim. I also did not know that the second step is to isolate the victim. The next step in the domestic violence pattern is to introduce the threat of violence and see how she reacts. We victims know something you [non-victims] usually don’t. It’s incredibly dangerous to leave an abuser, because the final step in the domestic violence pattern is to ‘kill her’. Over 70% of domestic violence murders happens after the victim has ended the relationship.”
– Leslie Morgan Steiner
20. “If you give me any problem in America I can trace it down to domestic violence. It is the cradle of most of the problems, economic, psychological, educational.”
– Salma Hayek
21. “According to the CDC, more than one in three women and one in four men in the United States have been victims of domestic violence. It is a widespread public health problem, and every year 1,600 women and 700 men are killed by their intimate partners. One of the biggest risk factors that domestic violence will become fatal is the presence of a gun.”
– Melissa Harris-Perry
22. “The time when domestic violence is the most lethal is when the person is trying to leave the situation.”
– Julie Johnston
23. “Men must teach each other that real men do not violate or oppress women – and that a woman’s place is not just in the home or the field, but in schools and offices and boardrooms.”
– Ban Ki-moon
24. “The more that we choose not to talk about domestic violence, the more we shy away from the issue, the more we lose.”
– Russell Wilson
25. “A real man wouldn’t lay a finger on a woman. He treats his partner with respect, love and support. Men are physically stronger and have no place abusing that power. Everyone has problems, and arguments happen, but that’s when a real man uses his intelligence to talk it out.”
– Matt Lanter
26. “Although I haven’t experienced violence in a relationship, I know that two women every week in England and Wales are killed by their partner or ex-partner, and that unless we act now, many more women will die because of domestic violence. We must speak out now against all forms of domestic violence, not only physical abuse but also the emotional, sexual and financial abuse which means that many women are afraid to be at home with their partner.”
– Jemma Kidd
27. “It’s not enough for women to speak out on the issue – for the message to be strong and consistent, women’s voices must be backed up by men’s.”
– John Conyers
28. “In rural areas of America, there is a growing increase in poverty, homelessness and hunger. You cannot separate these factors from domestic violence ?- a mother with three kids and no financial security is going to stiffen her lip and take the abuse, because not only does she have nowhere else to go, she has three children depending on her for survival.”
– Blanche Lincoln
29. “In violence, we forget who we are”
– Mary McCarthy
30. “Men are afraid that women will laugh at them. Women are afraid that men will kill them.”
– Margaret Atwood
31. “One of the most basic things we can do is let the men in our lives know it’s not okay to mistreat a woman.”
– Tim McGraw
32. “Young men need to show women the respect they deserve and recognize sexual assault and to do their part to stop it.”
33. “Any man that hits a woman is not a real man, he’s a coward. With my wife Jodi, I think it’s my job to protect her and stop anything bad happening in her life. Abusing your partner is the opposite of that. I want her to wake up and feel safe.”
– Kian Egan
34. “It’s never too late to do the right thing.”
– Nicholas Sparks
35. “From every wound there is a scar, and every scar tells a story. A story that says, “I survived.””
– Craig Scott
36. “But think about how evil that is for one man to think that he’s actually more valuable than a woman, because as a human being your worth is immeasurable.”
– Terry Crews
37. “When I heard that one in four women is affected by domestic violence in their lifetime, I was horrified. A real man is happy to support the women in his life and appreciate them. My mother and my sisters are so important to me. Violence just doesn’t make any sense.”
– Reggie Yates
38. “Women should know that love doesn’t abuse you. It shouldn’t hurt you. Love cannot be redefined into ‘He only hit me once, I’ll let it slide.’ Love is happiness, not being neglectful, caring, being respectful, providing, having standards, kindness, standing up for the right things.”
– Jahmene Douglas
39. “I spend my time on Crimewatch appealing for criminals on the run. Domestic violence is one of the few crimes I can think of where the victim is often forced to go on the run.”
– Fiona Bruce
40. “Many survivors insist they’re not courageous: ‘If I were courageous I would have stopped the abuse.’ ‘If I were courageous, I wouldn’t be scared’…Most of us have it mixed up. You don’t start with courage and then face fear. You become courageous because you face your fear.”
– Laura Davies
41. “… you don’t have to wait for someone to treat you bad repeatedly. All it takes is once, and if they get away with it that once, if they know they can treat you like that, then it sets the pattern for the future.”
– Jane Green
42. “Real confidence comes from knowing and accepting yourself- your strengths and your limitations -in contrast to depending on affirmation from others.”
– Judith M Bardwick
43. “From every wound there is a scar, and every scar tells a story. A story that says, “I survived.””
– Craig Scott
44. “Women trapped in violent relationships need to know that there’s no shame in talking out and walking out on their abusive partners.”
– Kate Thornton
45. “Every woman who thinks she is the only victim of violence has to know that there are many more.”
– Salma Hayek
46. “Growing up, I was constantly reminded to not to air our family’s dirty laundry. Part of why domestic violence is allowed to continue is because there is often an unwritten rule in many families of abuse: Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Keeping quiet does no good. I found that sharing my story liberated me from my past. There is power in storytelling and, in that, healing. Owning my truth also empowered me. I will no longer be manipulated or controlled by guilt or shame.”
– Kambri Crews
47. “The best protection any woman can have… is courage.”
– Elizabeth Cady Stanton
48. “When you’re trapped in an abusive home environment you can feel completely hopeless and lost. Remember that situations can change with time, and that it won’t be this way forever.”
– Reggie Yates
49. “I was heart broken, scared, I had a lot of anxiety, I was worried, I felt weak, and I had no idea how I was ever going to come up with the strength. But I just closed my eyes, and took a blind leap. I knew I had to get out of there.”
– Bob Casey, Jr.
50. “I am living in hell from one day to the next. But there is nothing I can do to escape. I don’t know where I would go if I did. I feel utterly powerless, and that feeling is my prision. I entered of my own free will, I locked the door, and I threw away the key.”
SEE ALSO: Quotes On Absent Fathers
51. “The guarantee of safety in a battering relationship can never be based upon a promise from the perpetrator, no matter how heartfelt. Rather, it must be based upon the self-protective capability of the victim. Until the victim has developed a detailed and realistic contingency plan and has demonstrated her ability to carry it out, she remains in danger of repeated abuse.”
– Judith Lewis Herma
52. “Don’t play his game. Play yours.”
– Rachel Caine
53. “It is important to note that research has shown that men who have abusive mothers do not tend to develop especially negative attitudes toward females, but men who have abusive fathers do; the disrespect that abusive men show their female partners and their daughters is often absorbed by their sons.
So while a small number of abusive men do hate women, the great majority exhibit a more subtle—though often quite pervasive—sense of superiority or contempt toward females, and some don’t show any obvious signs of problems with women at all until they are in a serious relationship.”
– Lundy Bancroft
54. “She could just pack up and leave, but she does not visualize what’s beyond ahead.”
– Núria Añó
55. “In situations of captivity the perpetrator becomes the most powerful person in the life of the victim, and the psychology of the victim is shaped by the actions and beliefs of the perpetrator.”
– Judith Lewis Herman
56. “If we are to fight discrimination and injustice against women we must start from the home for if a woman cannot be safe in her own house then she cannot be expected to feel safe anywhere.”
57. “People expect all stories of abuse to be loud and angry but they’re not. Sometimes they’re quiet and cruel and swept under the rug.”
58. “Never let a man put his hands on you without your permission.”
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59. “The human need to be visible is countered by the need to be invisible to avoid further abuse, and the need for intimacy and the dread of abuse, all pose insoluble dichotomies which promote further withdrawal from human contact, which reinforces the sense of dehumanization.”
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60. “Use the darkness of your past to propel you to a brighter future.”
61. “In a verbally abusive relationship, the partner learns to tolerate abuse without realizing it and to lose self-esteem without realizing it. She is blamed by the abuser and becomes the scapegoat. The partner is then the victim.”
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62. “Sometimes the shame is not the beatings, not the rape.
The shaming is in being asked to stand judgment.”
63. “Please don´t drown into his fears, his concrete fists don´t let him again, break the bridge of your nose with his cruel born hits. Then disappear into that mask of misery.”
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64. Violence needs to stop. All of us – men and women – need to speak up and teach our children that violence is never the solution. Together we can all make a difference. The best place to start is with yourself.
– Will Young
