I'm not alone, I'm free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody.
Interpretation
This quote expresses the liberation that comes from personal independence and self-identity.
Lena Horne's quote highlights the importance of freedom from societal expectations and the pressures to conform or achieve certain statuses. It suggests that true freedom lies in being authentic to oneself, rather than being defined by external labels or the achievements recognized by others.
In practice
This quote is perfect for a motivational speech about personal growth and self-acceptance.
It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it. Carry it by the comfortable handles of gratitude for what's positive and that it is not worse, rather than the uncomfortable edges of bitterness for the negatives and that it is not better.
I was unique in that I was a kind of black that white people could accept. I was their daydream. I had the worst kind of acceptance because it was never for how great I was or what I contributed. It was because of the way I looked.
I'm still learning, you know. At 80, I feel there is a lot I don't know.
My identity is very clear to me now, I am a black woman.
In my early days I was a sepia Hedy Lamarr. Now I'm black and a woman, singing my own way.
Unless virtue guide us our choice must be wrong.
The greatest genius will not be worth much if he pretends to draw exclusively from his own resources
From a very young age, my parents taught me the most important lesson of my whole life: They taught me how to listen. They taught me how to listen to everybody before I made up my own mind. When you listen, you learn. You absorb like a sponge - and your life becomes so much better than when you are just trying to be listened to all the time.
You dig deeper and it gets more and more complicated, and you get confused, and it's tricky and it's hard, but... It is beautiful.
Your job isn't to find these ideas but to recognize them when they show up.
I found I wasn't asking good enough questions because I assumed I knew something.
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