Reader > Reader's Quotes

“[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

“When we define ourselves, when I define myself, the place in which I am like you and the place in which I am not like you, I'm not excluding you from the joining - I'm broadening the joining.”
― Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“Your silence will not protect you.”
― Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“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, The Cancer Journals

“very old people in Russia have a
stamp upon them that I hope I can learn and never lose, a matter-of-fact
resilience and sense of their place upon the earth that is very sturdy and
reassuring”
― Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches