Audre Lorde Quotes About Silence

Quotes about: Silence

• 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

• 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

• When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

  Audre Lorde

  Strong Women, Honesty, Silence

  Audre Lorde (1995). “The Black Unicorn: Poems”, p.25, W. W. Norton & Company

• Your silence will not protect you.

  Audre Lorde

  Inspiring, Healing, Commitment

  Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.10, Univ. Press of Mississippi

• ... it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence.

  Audre Lorde

  Differences, Silence

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.44, Crossing Press

• [Speaking] is never without fear; of visibility, of the harsh light of scrutiny and perhaps judgment, of pain, of death. But we have lived through all of those already, in silence, except death. And I remind myself all the time now, that if I were to have been born mute, and had maintained an oath of silence my whole life for safety, I would still have suffered, and I would still die.

  Audre Lorde

  Pain, Light, Safety

  Audre Lorde (1997). “The Cancer Journals”

• I was going to die, if not sooner, then later, whether or not I had ever spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.

  Audre Lorde

  Silence, Protect You, Protected

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

• 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

• The transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation .

  Audre Lorde

  Self, Silence, Action

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

• 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. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect....what I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid? ...Death on the other hand, is the final silence...my silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you.

  Audre Lorde

  Believe, Hands, Silence

  Essay "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action", in Sister Outsider, www.csusm.edu. December 28, 1977.

• There are many lesbians and gay men trapped by their fear into silence and invisibility, and they exist in a dim valley of terror wearing nooses of conformity.

  Audre Lorde

  Gay, Men, Silence

• For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.

  Audre Lorde

  Luxury, Silence, Waiting

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.44, Crossing Press

• Silence has never brought us anything of worth.

  Audre Lorde

  Silence

  Audre Lorde (1997). “The Cancer Journals”

• Black writers, of whatever quality, who step outside the pale of what black writers are supposed to write about, or who black writers are supposed to be, are condemned to silences in black literary circles that are as total and as destructive as any imposed by racism.

  Audre Lorde

  Writing, Circles, Racism

  Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.85, Univ. Press of Mississippi

• The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.

  Audre Lorde

  Bridges, Differences, Broken

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.44, Crossing Press

• What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence.

  Audre Lorde

  Fear, Silence, Needs

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

• stoicism and silence does not serve us nor our communities, only the forces of things as they are.

  Audre Lorde

  Silence, Community, Doe

  Audre Lorde (2017). “A Burst of Light: And Other Essays”, p.117, Courier Dover Publications

• Silence and invisibility go hand in hand with powerlessness.

  Audre Lorde

  Hands, Silence, Invisibility

  Audre Lorde (1997). “The Cancer Journals”

• What I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid?

  Audre Lorde

  Silence

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

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