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Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde Quotes

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Famous Audre Lorde Quotes

“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.”

KnowsGivingSelfHardReasonRealityActionFacesLife IsMotivationEnemyOur LivesDespairSurvivalToolsAltruismPreservationPowerlessSelf PreservationHard Questions
Author:Audre Lorde
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“... poetry is not a luxury. It is a vital necessity of our existence. It forms the quality of the light within which we predicate our hopes and dreams toward survival and change, first made into language, then into idea, then into more tangible action. Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought. The farthest horizons of our hopes and fears are cobbled by our poems, carved from the rock experiences of our daily lives.”

WayGivingFirstsMadeIdeasHelpingDreamLightActionFormNamesLanguageExistenceQualityRocksSurvivalLuxuryDaily LifePoetry IsHorizonTangibleHopes And DreamsNamelessHopes And FearsLight Within
Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
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“Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action. If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge. Yet all too often, guilt is just another name for impotence, for defensiveness destructive of communication; it becomes a device to protect ignorance and the continuation of things the way they are, the ultimate protection for changelessness.”

IfsWayActionNamesIgnoranceCommunicationProtectUltimateGuiltResponseProtectionDestructiveDevicesImpotenceContinuationNot GuiltyDefensivenessFeeling Guilty
Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
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“Black and Third World people are expected to educate white people as to our humanity. Women are expected to educate men. Lesbians and gay men are expected to educate the heterosexual world. The oppressors maintain their position and evade their responsibility for their own actions. There is a constant drain of energy which might be better used in redefining ourselves and devising realistic scenarios for altering the present and constructing the future.”

PeopleMenWorldMightActionUsedHumanityEnergyWomenBlackWhiteResponsibilityPositionGayRacismThirdsConstantExpectedRealisticEducateScenariosDrainsOppressorsThird WorldGay MenRedefiningDevising
Book:Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches
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