I realize that if I wait until I am no longer afraid to act, write, speak, be, I'll be sending messages on a Ouija board, cryptic complaints from the other side
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of overcoming fear to take action in life.
Audre Lorde's quote reflects the idea that waiting for fear to subside before taking action may lead to missed opportunities and regrets. Instead of letting fear dictate our choices, we should act despite it, as delaying action can turn our dreams and desires into unfulfilled messages from the past.
In practice
In a motivational speech to inspire others to pursue their dreams despite their fears.
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.
Young Egyptians, gazing through the windows of the Internet, have gained a keener sense than many of their elders of the freedoms and opportunities they lack. They have found in social media a way to interact and share ideas, bypassing, in virtual space, the restrictions placed on physical freedom of assembly.
Often, during combat, the warrior of light receives blows that he was not expecting. And he realizes that, during a war, his enemy is bound to win some of the battles. When this happens, the warrior of light weeps bitter tears and rests in order to recover his energies a little. But he immediately resumes the battle for his dreams.
It is curious that physical courage should be so common in the world and moral courage so rare.
Having breast cancer is massive amounts of no fun. First they mutilate you; then they poison you; then they burn you. I have been on blind dates better than that.
Sexuality and gender don't change anyone's performance on the court.
When I started boxing, people laughed at me and said, 'What can women do in boxing?' I took it as a challenge. If men can do it, why can't women? And I became a world champion before my marriage.
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