When silence is a choice, it is an unnerving presence. When silence is imposed, it is censorship.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
For far too long we have been seduced into walking a path that did not lead us to ourselves. For far too long we have said yes when we wanted to say no. And for far too long we have said no when we desperately wanted to say yes. . . . When we don't listen to our intuition, we abandon our souls. And we abandon our souls because we are afraid if we don't, others will abandon us.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote highlights the importance of listening to our intuition and being true to ourselves, rather than conforming to external expectations.
Terry Tempest Williams emphasizes the struggle many face in staying true to their authentic selves amidst societal pressures. The quote suggests that people often compromise their own desires and instincts out of fear of rejection or abandonment by others. By ignoring our intuition, we risk losing our identity and essence, leading to a disconnect from our true selves, ultimately resulting in a deep sense of loss and discontent.
Themes
IntuitionSelfAbandonmentFearAuthenticitySoul
In practice
Example use cases
In a motivational speech about following one's true path.
More from Terry Tempest Williams
All quotes →The human heart is the first home of democracy. It is where we embrace our questions: Can we be equitable? Can we be generous? Can we listen with our whole beings, not just our minds, and offer our attention rather than our opinion? And do we have enough resolve in our hearts to act courageously, relentlessly, without giving up, trusting our fellow citizens to join us in our determined pursuit-a living democracy?
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
Once upon a time, when women were birds, there was the simple understanding that to sing at dawn, and to sing at dusk, was to heal the world through joy. The birds still remember what we have forgotten, that the world is meant to be celebrated.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
I am slowly, painfully discovering that my refuge is not found in my mother, my grandmother, of even the birds of Bear River. My refuge exists in my capacity to love. If I can learn to love death then I can begin to find refuge in change.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
How do we remain faithful to our own spiritual imagination and not betray what we know in our own bodies? The world is holy. We are holy. All life is holy.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
The Eyes of the Future are looking back at us and they are praying for us to see beyond our own time.
Terry Tempest WilliamsRead
Similar quotes
Life isn't some vertical or horizontal line -- you have your own interior world, and it's not neat.
Patti SmithRead
A man is a god in ruins. When men are innocent, life shall be longer, and shall pass into the immortal, as gently as we awake from dreams.
Ralph Waldo EmersonRead
In these two things the greatness of man consists, to have God dwelling in us as to impart His character to us, and to have Him dwelling in us, that we recognize His presence, and know that we are His, and He is ours. The one is salvation; the other, the assurance of it.
Frederick William RobertsonRead
It was during the Reagan years that defiance of international law and the U.N. Charter became entirely open.
Noam ChomskyRead
Almost certainly God is not in time. His life does not consist of moments one following another...Ten-thirty-- and every other moment from the beginning of the world--is always Present for Him. If you like to put it this way, He has all eternity in which to listen to the split second of prayer put up by a pilot as his plane crashes in flames.
C. S. LewisRead
Hinduism threw away Buddhism after taking its sap. The attempt of all the Southern Acharyas was to effect a reconciliation between the two. Shankaracharya's teaching shows the influence of Buddhism. His disciples perverted his teaching and carried it to such an extreme point that some of the later reformers were right in calling the Acharya's followers "crypto-buddhists".
Swami VivekanandaRead