Audre Lorde Quotes - Page 2

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I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.

Audre Lorde

Inspirational, Believe, Acceptance

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.40, Crossing Press

162 Copy quote
I cannot afford to believe that freedom from intolerance is the right of only one particular group. And I cannot afford to choose between the fronts upon which I must battle these forces of discrimination, wherever they appear to destroy me. And when they appear to destroy me, it will not be long before they appear to destroy you.

Audre Lorde

Believe, Long, Battle

6 Copy quote
Sometimes we are blessed with being able to choose the time, and the arena, and the manner of our revolution, but more usually we must do battle where we are standing.

Audre Lorde

Blessed, Battle, Able

Audre Lorde (2017). “A Burst of Light: And Other Essays”, p.119, Courier Dover Publications

59 Copy quote
‎Once we recognize what it is we are feeling, once we recognize we can feel deeply, love deeply, can feel joy, then we will demand that all parts of our lives produce that kind of joy.

Audre Lorde

Love, Inspiring, Happiness

Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.92, Univ. Press of Mississippi

73 Copy quote
If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That's the beginning of social protest.

Audre Lorde

Pain, Air, Justice

Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.74, Univ. Press of Mississippi

146 Copy quote
My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences.

Audre Lorde

Real, Differences, Silence

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.41, Crossing Press

166 Copy quote
Some problems we share as women, some we do not. You [white women] fear your children will grow up to join the patriarchy and testify against you; we fear our children will be dragged from a car and shot down in the street, and you will turn your backs on the reasons they are dying.

Audre Lorde

Children, Growing Up, White

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.119, Crossing Press

173 Copy quote
The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.

Audre Lorde

Process, Riot, Learning Process

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.98, Crossing Press

32 Copy quote
...and that visibility which makes us most vulnerable is that which also is the source of our greatest strength.

Audre Lorde

Inspirational, Visibility, Vulnerable

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.42, Crossing Press

40 Copy quote
When you reach out and touch other human beings, it doesn't matter whether you call it therapy or teaching or poetry.

Audre Lorde

Teaching, Matter, Reach Out

Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.14, Univ. Press of Mississippi

31 Copy quote
Institutionalized rejection of differences is an absolute necessity in a profit economy which needs outsiders as surplus people. As members of such an economy, we have all been programmed to respond to the human differences between us with fear and loathing and to handle that difference in one of three ways: ignore it, and if that is not possible, copy it if we think it is dominant, or destroy it if we think it is subordinate.

Audre Lorde

Thinking, Differences, People

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.115, Crossing Press

80 Copy quote
To face the realities of our lives is not a reason for despair-despair is a tool of your enemies. Facing the realities of our lives gives us motivation for action. For you are not powerless... You know why the hard questions must be asked. It is not altruism, it is self-preservation-survival.

Audre Lorde

Motivation, Reality, Self

82 Copy quote
I am still learning - how to take joy in all the people I am, how to use all my selves in the service of what I believe, how to accept when I fail and rejoice when I succeed.

Audre Lorde

Perseverance, Believe, Self

28 Copy quote
We must wake up knowing we have work to do and go to bed knowing we've done it.

Audre Lorde

Knowing, Bed, Wake Up

Source: www.teachingbooks.net

39 Copy quote
My fullest concentration of energy is available to me only when I integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without the restriction of externally imposed definition.

Audre Lorde

Self, Who I Am, Energy

42 Copy quote
I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't.

Audre Lorde

Fear, Women, Writing

Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.90, Univ. Press of Mississippi

41 Copy quote
I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do.

Audre Lorde

Long, People, Want

Audre Lorde (2017). “A Burst of Light: and Other Essays”, p.71, Courier Dover Publications

29 Copy quote
Unless one lives and loves in the trenches, it is difficult to remember that the war against dehumanization is ceaseless.

Audre Lorde

Life And Love, War, Remember

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.119, Crossing Press

78 Copy quote
In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.

Audre Lorde

Differences, Growth, Progress

Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.86, Univ. Press of Mississippi

24 Copy quote
It is not the destiny of Black America to repeat white America's mistakes. But we will, if we mistake the trappings of success in a sick society for the signs of a meaningful life.

Audre Lorde

Meaningful, Mistake, Destiny

Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.77, Univ. Press of Mississippi

54 Copy quote
Whenever a conscious Black woman raises her voice on issues central to her existence, somebody is going to call her strident, because they don't want to hear about it, nor us. I refuse to be silenced and I refuse to be trivialized, even if I do not say what I have to say perfectly.

Audre Lorde

Voice, Issues, Black

Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.197, Univ. Press of Mississippi

60 Copy quote
Pain is important: how we evade it, how we succumb to it, how we deal with it, how we transcend it. ... pain will always either change or stop. Always. ... The confidence that it will change is what makes bearing it possible. So pain is fluid. It is only when you conceive of it as something static that it is unbearable.

Audre Lorde

Pain, Important, Unbearable

Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.16, Univ. Press of Mississippi

9 Copy quote
Revolution is not a one time event.

Audre Lorde

Revolution, Events, One Time

"Sister Outsider". Book by Audre Lorde, 1984.

55 Copy quote
Oppression is as American as apple pie.

Audre Lorde

Apples, Pie, Apple Pie

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.114, Crossing Press

87 Copy quote
What do we want from each other
after we have told our stories

Audre Lorde

Stories, Want

14 Copy quote

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Born: February 18, 1934
Died: November 17, 1992
Occupation: Writer
Cite this Page: Citation

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