In my 20s I was such a serious, boring-looking person. I would never do my nails. I never even danced. But I was taught by the women. They had gone through hell, but they would dance and sing. I came to realise I can't argue for a happy world if I am not happy myself.
Interpretation
True happiness comes from within and can inspire others.
In this quote, Zainab Salbi reflects on her transformation from a serious and boring individual to someone who embraces joy and self-expression through actions like dancing and doing her nails. She acknowledges the struggles of women around her who, despite their hardships, chose to celebrate life, and this realization led her to understand that one cannot advocate for happiness in the world without embodying it personally.
In practice
Using this quote in a motivational speech to inspire young women.
In every single culture I encountered, there were always women who defied cultural norms to do what they believed was right for them. This phenomenon has never been related to how rich, poor, successful or not successful the woman may be.
I find it amazing that the only group of people who are not fighting and not killing and not pillaging and not burning and not raping, and the group of people who are mostly — though not exclusively — who are keeping life going in the midst of war, are not included in the negotiating table.
War is not a computer-generated missile striking a digital map. War is the color of earth as it explodes in our faces, the sound of child pleading, the smell of smoke and fear. Women survivors of war are not the single image portrayed on the television screen, but the glue that holds families and countries together. Perhaps by understanding women, and the other side of war ... we will have more humility in our discussions of wars... perhaps it is time to listen to womens side of history.
Every woman must own her story; otherwise we are all part of the silence.
As women, we must speak out, speak up, say no to our inheritance of loss and yes to a future of women-led dialogue about women's rights and value.
There's a lot of projection that if you're in service then you shouldn't look good. I'm no different from anybody else. I like clothes, I like shoes, I like to go have nice dinners, I like to dance. Just because I've dedicated myself to serving women, why do you think I need to sacrifice myself?
Everyone contributes a word, a sentence, an image, but in the end it all makes sense: the happiness of one becomes the joy of all.
I lay in that tub on the seventeenth floor of this hotel for-women-only, high up over the jazz and push of New York, for near unto an hour, and I felt myself growing pure again. I don't believe in baptism or the waters of Jordan or anything like that, but I guess I feel about a hot bath the way those religious people feel about holy water.
It is a new road to happiness, if you have strength enough to castigate a little the various impulses that sway you in turn.
There must be quite a few things that a hot bath won't cure, but I don't know many of them.
Happiness is mostly a by-product of doing what makes us feel fulfilled.
I don't mind to look older. I don't have this urge that so many people have that they've always got to look young all _x000D_ their lives. I think you should be the age you are and enjoy it... But if you want to have it, go ahead and have it, _x000D_ but take a good look before you do because, just maybe, you look absolutely beautiful the way you are.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.