We are more vulnerable than we ever thought, but we are stronger than we ever imagined.
Sheryl Sandberg
Virginia Tech Commencement 2017, 2017
Video starts at 21:34 — the moment this quote was spoken
The Story Behind This Quote
Sandberg delivered this line near the climax of her speech, after urging the graduates to build resilience in themselves, in their organizations, and in their communities. The quote held special weight at Virginia Tech, a university that had experienced the deadliest mass shooting in American history just ten years earlier, in April 2007. The dual acknowledgment — of vulnerability and of strength — was the emotional core of everything Sandberg had learned since losing Dave. You cannot protect yourself from tragedy. Life will break your heart in ways you never imagined possible. But the same is true of your capacity to endure, to recover, and to find meaning on the other side. The graduates of Virginia Tech, who had grown up in the shadow of that terrible day and had watched their community rebuild, understood this truth in their bones.