Lisa > Lisa's Quotes

“Every child born into this living world is a wonder of absolute singularity, an exquisitely unique organism with a complexity that we can only glimpse and estimate. We must therefore greet every new birth with the humility and awe that is borne of our overpowering limits and terrible constraints. I have never examined a newborn infant without muted reverence for its glistening newness and unfettered promise.”
― W Thomas Boyce, The Orchid and the Dandelion: Why Some Children Struggle and How All Can Thrive

“The original problem of racism has not been solved by suasion. Knowledge is only power if knowledge is put to the struggle for power. Changing minds is not a movement. Critiquing racism is not activism. Changing minds is not activism. An activist produces power and policy change, not mental change. If a person has no record of power or policy change, then that person is not an activist.”
― Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist

“Pain is usually essential to healing. When it comes to healing America of racism, we want to heal America without pain, but without pain, there is no progress.”
― Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist

“What if we treated racism in the way we treat cancer? What has historically been effective at combatting racism is analogous to what has been effective at combatting cancer. I am talking about the treatment methods that gave me a chance at life, that give millions of cancer fighters and survivors like me, like you, like our loved ones, a chance at life. The treatment methods that gave millions of our relatives and friends and idols who did not survive cancer a chance at a few more days, months, years of life. What if humans connected the treatment plans?”
― Ibram X. Kendi, How to Be an Antiracist

“In every previous classroom, I had been responsible for decoding teachers’ references to white middle-class experiences. It’s like when you’re sailing…or You know how when you’re skiing, you have to…My white teachers had an unspoken commitment to the belief that we are all the same, a default setting that masked for them how often white culture bled into the curriculum.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

“It wants to pat itself on the back for helping poor Black folks through missions or urban projects but has no interest in learning from Black people’s wisdom, talent, and spiritual depth. Whiteness wants enough Blackness to affirm the goodness of whiteness, the progressiveness of whiteness, the openheartedness of whiteness. Whiteness likes a trickle of Blackness, but only that which can be controlled.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

“If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.”
― Fred DeVito

“Our only chance at dismantling racial injustice is being more curious about its origins than we are worried about our comfort. It’s not a comfortable conversation for any of us. It is risky and messy. It is haunting work to recall the sins of our past. But is this not the work we have been called to anyway? Is this not the work of the Holy Spirit to illuminate truth and inspire transformation? It’s haunting. But it’s also holy.”
― Austin Channing Brown, I'm Still Here: Black Dignity in a World Made for Whiteness

“The best people I know are constantly learning, putting themselves humbly under the leadership of others who’ve gone before them. This is no indicator of weakness but rather healthy ambition. That woman is unafraid of a challenge and cares enough about her own development to ask for help and secure the outcome she wants. Learners become our most effective leaders.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You

“Would you consider that the folks you admire most, the ones thriving in the career you want or living in a vibrant way that makes your heart swell are there because they asked for a lot of help along the way? And do still? They are not too proud to ask for assistance, admit when they are stumped, learn from other people, reinforce their weaknesses. Nor do they hesitate to share credit, pass the microphone, celebrate the victories of others, consider it a group win.”
― Jen Hatmaker, Fierce, Free, and Full of Fire: The Guide to Being Glorious You

“The biblical scholars I love to read don’t go to the holy text looking for ammunition with which to win an argument or trite truisms with which to escape the day’s sorrows; they go looking for a blessing, a better way of engaging life and the world, and they don’t expect to escape that search unscathed.”
― Rachel Held Evans, Inspired: Slaying Giants, Walking on Water, and Loving the Bible Again

“No amount of lecturing and nagging would have accomplished this result. It took an experience with parental boundaries to develop child boundaries. You are like an oak tree that the child runs her head into over and over again, until she realizes that the tree is stronger than she is, and she walks around it next time.”
― Henry Cloud, Boundaries with Kids: When to Say Yes, How to Say No

“Reading the book of Proverbs on child rearing is like paying good money for financial advice and being told after ten sessions, “Here’s what I’ve come up with. Invest your money wisely, and you will be set for retirement.” I was hoping for stock tips.”
― Peter Enns, How the Bible Actually Works: In Which I Explain How An Ancient, Ambiguous, and Diverse Book Leads Us to Wisdom Rather Than Answers—and Why That’s Great News

“The trick to dealing with criticism is letting it do its good work but forbidding it to demoralize and destroy or to embitter.”
― Beth Moore, All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir

“A pencil instead of a pen? Because unlike ink, graphite is erasable. People make mistakes, Mr. Roth. A pencil allows one to clear the mistake and move on. Scientists expect mistakes, and because of it, we embrace failure.” Then she eyed his pen disapprovingly.”
― Bonnie Garmus, Lessons in Chemistry

“Workaholism is a disease. We need treatment and coping advice for those afflicted, not cheerleaders for their misery.”
― Celeste Headlee, Do Nothing: How to Break Away from Overworking, Overdoing, and Underliving

“We rarely think about change this way because everyone is consumed by the end goal. But one push-up is better than not exercising. One minute of guitar practice is better than none at all. One minute of reading is better than never picking up a book. It’s better to do less than you hoped than to do nothing at all.”
― James Clear, Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones