And this is a grave responsibility, projected from within each of us, not to settle for the convenient, the shoddy, the conventionally expected, nor the merely safe.
Interpretation
We must take responsibility for seeking higher standards and not just accept what is easy or conventional.
In this quote, Audre Lorde emphasizes the importance of personal responsibility in striving for excellence and authenticity. She encourages individuals to look beyond societal norms and superficial safety, urging them to pursue deeper, more meaningful choices that reflect their true selves and values.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth and self-improvement.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
There's always someone asking you to underline one piece of yourself - whether it's Black, woman, mother, dyke, teacher, etc. - because that's the piece that they need to key in to. They want to dismiss everything else.
Judgement comes from experience, and experience comes from bad judgement.
If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle
A good reputation is something that must be earned, yet can never be bought.
I was raised that way: don't get mad, get smart.
[I] learned ... that friends are a good source of food and soul when one has not yet gotten the hang of cooking or living (as opposed to dying) alone. That nothing-not booze, not love, not sex, not work, not moving from state to state-will make the past disappear. Only time and patience heal things. I learned that cutting up your arms in an attempt to make the pain move from inside to outside, from soul to skin, is futile. That death is a cop-out. I tried all of these things.
we know nothing of tomorrow, our business is to be good and happy today
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