Emilie

“I should be prettier or less, depending on who was looking and when.”
― Jessica Knoll, Bright Young Women

“It was as if, because of the very strangeness of my heritage and the worlds I straddled, I was from everywhere and nowhere at once, a combination of ill-fitting parts, like a platypus or some imaginary beast, confined to a fragile habitat, unsure of where I belonged. And I sensed, without fully understanding why or how, that unless I could stitch my life together and situate myself along some firm axis, I might end up in some basic way living my life alone.”
― Barack Obama, A Promised Land

“In their heroic efforts-going door to door to register voters, sitting down at lunch counters, and marching to freedom songs-I saw the possibility of practicing the values my mother taught me; how you could build power not by putting others down but by lifting them up. This was true democracy at work-democracy not as a gift from on high, or a division of spoils between interest groups, but rather democracy that was earned, the work of everybody. The result was not just a change in material conditions, but a sense of dignity for people and communities, a bond between those who had once seemed far apart.”
― Barack Obama, A Promised Land

“Bryce sobbed, "I bought you, and now I set you free, Lehabah."
Lehaba's smile didn't falter. "I know," she said. "I peeked in your drawer."
And despite the monster trying to break loose behind them, Bryce choked on a laugh before she begged, "You are a free person- you do not have to do this. You are free, Lehabah."
Yet Lehabah remained at the foot of the stairs. "Then let it be known that my first act of freedom was to help my friends.”
― Sarah J. Maas, House of Earth and Blood