Audre Lorde Quotes - Page 4

Quotes about:

• [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”

  55 Copy quote

• 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

  30 Copy quote

• 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.

  44 Copy quote

• I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigated pain. It is important to share how I know survival is survival and not just a walk throught the rain.

  Audre Lorde

  Pain, Rain, Survival

  Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.89, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  39 Copy quote

• What woman here is so enamored of her own oppression that she cannot see her heel print upon another woman's face?

  Audre Lorde

  Faces, Oppression, Print

  32 Copy quote

• Anger, used, does not destroy. Hatred does.

  Audre Lorde

  Hatred, Black History, Doe

  16 Copy quote

• Silence has never brought us anything of worth.

  Audre Lorde

  Silence

  Audre Lorde (1997). “The Cancer Journals”

  9 Copy quote

• If you can't change reality, change your perceptions of it.

  Audre Lorde

  Reality, Perception, Can't Change

  5 Copy quote

• I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival.

  Audre Lorde

  Believe, Caring, Self

  58 Copy quote

• I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a Ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side

  Audre Lorde

  Inspirational, Writing, Diversity

  Audre Lorde (1997). “The Cancer Journals”

  54 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

• One pays a lot, we all pay a lot, for awareness.

  Audre Lorde

  Pay, Awareness

  Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.15, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  35 Copy quote

• Wherever the bird with no feet flew, she found trees with no limbs.

  Audre Lorde

  Feet, Bird, Tree

  21 Copy quote

• What do we want from each other
  after we have told our stories

  Audre Lorde

  Stories, Want

  14 Copy quote

• We tend to think of the erotic as an easy, tantalizing sexual arousal. I speak of the erotic as the deepest life force, a force which moves us toward living in a fundamental way.

  Audre Lorde

  Moving, Thinking, Erotic

  Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.99, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  57 Copy quote

• My fear of anger taught me nothing.

  Audre Lorde

  Anger, Taught

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.124, Crossing Press

  6 Copy quote

• I am not only a casualty, I am also a warrior.

  Audre Lorde

  Warrior, Casualties

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

  16 Copy quote

• Every Black woman in America lives her life somewhere along a wide curve of ancient and unexpressed angers.

  Audre Lorde

  Curves, America, Black

  19 Copy quote

• In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that can provide energy for change.

  Audre Lorde

  Order, Energy, Culture

  Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.53, Crossing Press

  8 Copy quote

• 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

  19 Copy quote

• I am a Black Lesbian Feminist Warrior Poet Mother, stronger for all my identities, and I am indivisible.

  Audre Lorde

  Mother, Warrior, Feminist

  13 Copy quote

• There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.

  Audre Lorde

  Mother, Teacher, Keys

  Audre Lorde, Joan Wylie Hall (2004). “Conversations with Audre Lorde”, p.31, Univ. Press of Mississippi

  24 Copy quote

• 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

  30 Copy quote

• The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The black goddess within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.

  Audre Lorde

  Dream, Father, Thinking

  10 Copy quote

• Because the machine will try to grind you into dust anyway, whether or not we speak.

  Audre Lorde

  Dust, Trying, Machines

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

  27 Copy quote

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