eva ₊˚⊹♡ > eva ₊˚⊹♡'s Quotes

“Our culture celebrates the idea of women who are able to “do it all” but does not question the premise of that praise.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“So look away, arrest your perfectionism, still your socially conditioned sense of duty.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Chudi does not deserve any special gratitude or praise, nor do you—you both made the choice to bring a child into the world, and the responsibility for that child belongs equally to you both.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Feminism Lite uses analogies like “he is the head and you are the neck.” Or “he is driving but you are in the front seat.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Feminism Lite uses the language of “allowing.” Theresa May is the British prime minister and here is how a progressive British newspaper described her husband: “Philip May is known in politics as a man who has taken a back seat and allowed his wife, Theresa, to shine.” Allowed.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“The writer had accused me of being “angry,” as though “being angry” were something to be ashamed of. Of course I am angry. I am angry about racism. I am angry about sexism. But I recently came to the realization that I am angrier about sexism than I am about racism. Because in my anger about sexism, I often feel lonely. Because I love, and live among, many people who easily acknowledge race injustice but not gender injustice.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“If a woman has power then why do we need to disguise that she has power?”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Teach her to question language. Language is the repository of our prejudices, our beliefs, our assumptions. But to teach her that, you will have to question your own language.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Because I do not believe that marriage is something we should teach young girls to aspire to.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Teach her, too, to question the idea of women as a special species. I once heard an American politician, in his bid to show his support for women, speak of how women should be “revered” and “championed”—a sentiment that is all too common.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Never speak of marriage as an achievement. Find ways to make clear to her that marriage is not an achievement, nor is it what she should aspire to. A marriage can be happy or unhappy, but it is not an achievement.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Here’s a nifty solution: Each couple that marries should take on an entirely new surname, chosen however they want as long as both agree to it, so that a day after the wedding, both husband and wife can hold hands and joyfully journey off to the municipal offices to change”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Teach her to reject likeability. Her job is not to make herself likeable, her job is to be her full self, a self that is honest and aware of the equal humanity of other people.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Make dressing a question of taste and attractiveness instead of a question of morality.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Surround her with a village of aunties, women who have qualities you’d like her to admire. Talk about how much you admire them. Children copy and learn by example. Talk about what you admire about them.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“If she knows an uncle who cooks well—and does so with indifference—then she can smile and brush off the foolishness of somebody who claims that “women must do the cooking.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele; or, A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“Teach her that saying no when no feels right is something to be proud of.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Dear Ijeawele, or A Feminist Manifesto in Fifteen Suggestions

“I was not worried at all—it had not even occurred to me to be worried, because a man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the kind of man I would have no interest in.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

“Even the language we use illustrates this. The language of marriage is often a language of ownership, not a language of partnership.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

“What if, in raising children, we focus on ability instead of gender? What if we focus on interest instead of gender?”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

“I have chosen to no longer be apologetic for my femininity. And I want to be respected in all my femaleness.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

“My father told jokes and laughed and charmed everyone, and broke things and walked on the shards without knowing he had broken things.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Zikora

“On that snowy day when he asked to borrow all that money to take care of his sick sister in Georgia, Lily’s disgust fought with relief and lost. She picked up the dog tags he’d left on the bathroom sink and hid them away in a drawer next to her bankbook. Now the apartment was all hers to clean properly, put things where they belonged, and wake up knowing they’d not been moved or smashed to pieces. The loneliness she felt before Frank walked her home from Wang’s cleaners began to dissolve and in its place a shiver of freedom, of earned solitude, of choosing the wall she wanted to break through, minus the burden of shouldering a tilted man. Unobstructed and undistracted, she could get serious and develop a plan to match her ambition and succeed.”
― Toni Morrison, Home

“He liked Atlanta. Unlike Chicago, the pace of everyday life was human here. Apparently there was time in this city. Time to roll a cigarette just so, time to examine vegetables with the eye of a diamond cutter. And time for old men to gather outside a storefront and do nothing but watch their dreams go by: the gorgeous cars of criminals and the hip-sway of women. Time, too, to instruct one another, pray for one another, and chastise children in the pews of a hundred churches.”
― Toni Morrison, Home

“Like all hard labor, picking cotton broke the body but freed the mind for dreams of vengeance, images of illegal pleasure—even ambitious schemes of escape. Cutting into these big thoughts were the little ones. Another kind of medicine for the baby? What to do about an uncle’s foot swollen so large he can’t put it in a shoe? Will the landlord be satisfied with half the rent this time?”
― Toni Morrison, Home

“Cee was different. Two months surrounded by country women who loved mean had changed her. The women handled sickness as though it were an affront, an illegal, invading braggart who needed whipping. They didn’t waste their time or the patient’s with sympathy and they met the tears of the suffering with resigned contempt”
― Toni Morrison, Home

“Once they knew she had been working for a doctor, the eye rolling and tooth sucking was enough to make clear their scorn. And nothing Cee remembered—how pleasant she felt upon awakening after Dr. Beau had stuck her with a needle to put her to sleep; how passionate he was about the value of the examinations; how she believed the blood and pain that followed was a menstrual problem—nothing made them change their minds about the medical industry.”
― Toni Morrison, Home

“Misery don’t call ahead. That’s why you have to stay awake—otherwise it just walks on in your door.”
― Toni Morrison, Home

“There was no excess in their gardens because they shared everything. There was no trash or garbage in their homes because they had a use for everything. They took responsibility for their lives and for whatever, whoever else needed them. The absence of common sense irritated but did not surprise them. Laziness was more than intolerable to them; it was inhuman. Whether you were in the field, the house, your own backyard, you had to be busy. Sleep was not for dreaming; it was for gathering strength for the coming day. Conversation was accompanied by tasks: ironing, peeling, shucking, sorting, sewing, mending, washing, or nursing. You couldn’t learn age, but adulthood was there for all. Mourning was helpful but God was better and they did not want to meet their Maker and have to explain a wasteful life. They knew He would ask each of them one question: “What have you done?”
― Toni Morrison, Home

“The final stage of Cee’s healing had been, for her, the worst. She was to be sun-smacked, which meant spending at least one hour a day with her legs spread open to the blazing sun. Each woman agreed that that embrace would rid her of any remaining womb sickness. Cee, shocked and embarrassed, refused. Suppose someone, a child, a man, saw her all splayed out like that? “Nobody going to be looking at you,” they said. “And if they do? So what?” “You think your twat is news?”
― Toni Morrison, Home