Audre Lorde

"We must imagine ourselves into existence in ways that have never been tried before."

"The future is not predetermined; it is something we create through our choices and our courage."

"The erotic is a resource within each of us that lies in a deeply female and spiritual plane, firmly rooted in the power of our unexpressed or unrecognized feeling."

"In order to perpetuate itself, every oppression must corrupt or distort those various sources of power within the culture of the oppressed that provide energy for change."

"There is no such thing as a single issue. We do not live single issue lives."

"If I cannot be myself, then there is no self to be."

"The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house."

"Silence has never brought us anything of value."

"Your silence will not protect you."

"We can learn to work and speak when we are afraid in the same way we have learned to work and speak when we are tired."

"It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences."

"The transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation, and that always carries a risk."

"Deep social change requires the kind of courage that comes from a very deep place."

"When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid."

"There is no hierarchy of oppressions."

"To acknowledge the feeling of powerlessness is the first step toward change."

"We were never meant to survive."

"Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare."

"Poetry is not a luxury."

"The strongest principle for growth lies in human choice."

"Difference must not be merely tolerated, but seen as a fund of necessary polarities between which our creativity can spark like a dialectic."

"I am deliberate and afraid of nothing."

"It is very difficult to survive in this world if you do not know who you are."

"Self-care is an act of survival."

"The quality of light by which we regard our lives has direct bearing on the quality of the lives we lead."

"Change is the only constant and sometimes these changes are painful, yet that is how we grow."

"I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole."

"If you want me to be happy, don't tell me what to do."

"Our visions begin with our desires."

"The false dichotomy between intellect and emotion must be destroyed."