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Quote by Lailah Gifty Akita

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Lailah Gifty Akita

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“So many words get lost. They leave the mouth and lose their courage, wandering aimlessly until they are swept into the gutter like dead leaves. On rainy days, you can hear their chorus rushing past: IwasabeautifulgirlPleasedon’tgoItoobelievemybodyismadeofglass-I’veneverlovedanyoneIthinkofmyselfasfunnyForgiveme…. There was a time when it wasn’t uncommon to use a piece of string to guide words that otherwise might falter on the way to their destinations. Shy people carried a little bunch of string in their pockets, but people considered loudmouths had no less need for it, since those used to being overheard by everyone were often at a loss for how to make themselves heard by someone. The physical distance between two people using a string was often small; sometimes the smaller the distance, the greater the need for the string. The practice of attaching cups to the ends of string came much later. Some say it is related to the irrepressible urge to press shells to our ears, to hear the still-surviving echo of the world’s first expression. Others say it was started by a man who held the end of a string that was unraveled across the ocean by a girl who left for America. When the world grew bigger, and there wasn’t enough string to keep the things people wanted to say from disappearing into the vastness, the telephone was invented. Sometimes no length of string is long enough to say the thing that needs to be said. In such cases all the string can do, in whatever its form, is conduct a person’s silence.”

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Book:The History of Love
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“I Found the Light I have witnessed darkness in its most profound form—a grim tapestry of human suffering woven from selfishness and neglect. I have seen the homeless jostle for a sliver of concrete beneath the bridges, claiming a patch of cold ground for the night. I have watched children, their eyes too old for their faces, sift through reeking bins for scraps of food, numbed to the stench of decay. Desperate souls, stripped of dignity, stretch out their hands not for help, but for mere alms. The streets are a river of bowed heads and shadowed faces, a silent procession of the forgotten. In this city, does anyone remember how to smile? “Someone must do something!” The cry echoed in my mind, aimed at the distant, powerful figures: the government in its marble halls, the outspoken Christian leaders, the lavish politicians, the wealthy executives in their glass towers. I searched the faces around me, hoping to see a hero, one man who might rise above his own struggles to lift up another. I found none. A profound sadness settled over me, a grief for a humanity that seemed to have lost not only its way but its very soul. Seeking refuge from the biting wind and the even harsher reality of the streets, I pushed open the door to a restaurant. Warmth washed over me. An imposing mirror framed in sleek aluminium and rich wood adorned the entrance, a testament to a world of curated beauty and comfort. I caught my own reflection and instinctively straightened my coat. But the man staring back at me was a stranger—a coward, a man who had surrendered. I saw a light long ago dimmed by overwhelming circumstance, a voice silenced before it could even whisper a protest, a fighter who had shamefully fled the ring while the real battle raged just outside the door. The truth struck me with the force of a physical blow. The prayer I had been casting outward had no recipient. The hero I was waiting for would never come. In that crystal-clear moment, without a second thought, I turned and strode back onto the street. But I was not returning to search for the light. I was returning as the light. A radiant, defiant joy overflowed my heart. I had found my reason to live. I would not solve everything, but I could do something. I would shine, however faintly, and impact life, one person at a time.”

Inspirational QuotesLeadership QuotesLight And DarknessImpacting Lives
Author:Abiodun Fijabi
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