There is a certain kind of peace that is not merely the absence of war. It is larger than that. The peace I am thinking of is not at the mercy of history's rule, nor is it a passive surrender to the status quo. The peace I am thinking of is the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one -- an activity that occurs most naturally, most often in the reading/writing world we live in. Accessible as it is, this particular kind of peace warrants vigilance.
I dream a dream that dreams back at me.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote expresses the idea that our dreams and aspirations have a reciprocal relationship with us. They reach back to shape our identity and influence our actions.
Toni Morrison's quote suggests that the dreams we hold are not just one-sided aspirations; they are alive and dynamic. Our dreams reflect our innermost desires and thoughts, and in turn, they challenge and inspire us to become the person we are meant to be, shaping our reality and experiences. It emphasizes the connection between our dreams and our conscious existence, representing a deeper dialogue between our aspirations and ourselves.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote can be used in a motivational speech about pursuing one's aspirations.
More from Toni Morrison
All quotes βYou looking good." "Devil's confusion. He lets me look good long as I feel bad.
What do you say? There really are no words for that. There really aren't. Somebody tries to say, 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.' People say that to me. There's no language for it. Sorry doesn't do it. I think you should just hug people and mop their floor or something.
An innocent man is a sin before God. Inhuman and therefore untrustworthy. No man should live without absorbing the sins of his kind, the foul air of his innocence, even if it did wilt rows of angel trumpets and cause them to fall from their vines.
Like friendship, hatred needed more than physical intimacy; it wanted creativity and hard work to sustain itself
One of my kids was born in 1968. There were going to be political difficulties, but they were never going to have that level of hatred and contempt that my brothers and my sister and myself were exposed to.
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Custom is our nature. What are our natural principles but principles of custom?
As long as a human being worries about when he will die, and what he has that is his,_x000D_ all of his works are zero._x000D_ When affection for the I-creature and what it owns is dead,_x000D_ then the work of the Teacher is over.
You can't judge an internal injury by the size of the hole.
We are not to make the Torah into God Himself, nor the Bible into a "paper pope." The Bible is only the result of the Word of God. We can experience the return of the Word of God in the here and now, the perpetual return of the actual, living, indisputable Word of God that makes possible the act of witnessing, but we should never think of the Bible as any sort of talisman or oracle constantly at our disposal that we need only open and read to be in relation to the Word of God and God Himself.
Every month, it is woman's fate to face the abyss of time and being, the abyss which is herself.
The many-voiced song of the river echoed softly. Siddhartha looked into the river and saw many pictures in the flowing water. The river's voice was sorrowful. It sang with yearning and sadness, flowing towards its goal ... Siddhartha was now listening intently...to this song of a thousand voices ... then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of one word: Om - Perfection ... From that hour Siddhartha ceased to fight against his destiny.