I've never been convinced that experience is linear, circular, or even random. It just is. I try to put it in some kind of order to extract meaning from it, to bring meaning to it.
I'll be damned if I want most folks out there to do unto me what they do unto themselves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of treating others with the same respect and care that we give ourselves.
Toni Cade Bambara's quote reflects a profound understanding of human relationships and empathy. It suggests that one should not accept the negative treatment that people often inflict on themselves and, by extension, on others. The speaker expresses a refusal to allow themselves to be subjected to the same unkindness or indifference that individuals might demonstrate towards their own well-being. This highlights the need for self-respect and the importance of fostering healthy interpersonal dynamics.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about self-worth and healthy boundaries, this quote can encourage individuals to prioritize their own well-being.
More from Toni Cade Bambara
All quotes β(M)aybe we too busy being flowers or fairies or strawberries instead of something honest and worthy of respect . . . you know . . . like being people.
Take away the miseries and you take away some folks' reason for living.
Write a lot and hit the streets. A writer who doesn't keep up with what's out there ain't gonna be out there.
The dream is real, my friends. The failure to make it work is the unreality.
Similar quotes
A deep sense of love and belonging is an irreducible need of all people. We are biologically, cognitively, physically, and spiritually wired to love, to be loved, and to belong. When those needs are not met, we don't function as we were meant to. We break. We fall apart. We numb. We ache. We hurt others. We get sick.
I like people too much or not at all. I've got to go down deep, to fall into people, to really know them.
Accursed from their birth they be Who seek to find monogamy, Pursuing it from bed to bedβ I think they would be better dead.
I wish men would stop telling me how they are not 'bad guys,' how they're 'an exception to the norm.'
She had always been too wise to tell him all she thought and felt, knowing by some intuition of her own womanhood that no man wants to know everything of any woman.
The pride that keeps us from forgiving is the same pride which keeps us from accepting forgiveness.