When you know your name, you should hang on to it, for unless it is noted down and remembered, it will die when you do.
Interpretation
This quote emphasizes the importance of identity and memory in preserving one's legacy.
Toni Morrison's quote highlights the significance of a person's name as a representation of their identity. It suggests that names hold power and meaning, and if they are not acknowledged or remembered by others, they may fade away entirely along with the individual, thus advocating for the importance of remembering and honoring the lives of others.
In practice
In a graduation speech emphasizing the importance of remembering those who shaped our lives.
There is a certain kind of peace that is not merely the absence of war. It is larger than that. The peace I am thinking of is not at the mercy of history's rule, nor is it a passive surrender to the status quo. The peace I am thinking of is the dance of an open mind when it engages another equally open one -- an activity that occurs most naturally, most often in the reading/writing world we live in. Accessible as it is, this particular kind of peace warrants vigilance.
You looking good." "Devil's confusion. He lets me look good long as I feel bad.
What do you say? There really are no words for that. There really aren't. Somebody tries to say, 'I'm sorry, I'm so sorry.' People say that to me. There's no language for it. Sorry doesn't do it. I think you should just hug people and mop their floor or something.
An innocent man is a sin before God. Inhuman and therefore untrustworthy. No man should live without absorbing the sins of his kind, the foul air of his innocence, even if it did wilt rows of angel trumpets and cause them to fall from their vines.
Like friendship, hatred needed more than physical intimacy; it wanted creativity and hard work to sustain itself
One of my kids was born in 1968. There were going to be political difficulties, but they were never going to have that level of hatred and contempt that my brothers and my sister and myself were exposed to.
You have been saying much about Dr. Carey and his work. When I am gone, say nothing about Dr. Carey; speak about Dr. Carey's Saviour.
However much we guard against it, we tend to shape ourselves in the image others have of us.
You get racism crossing the street; it's in the very fabric of American society.
The permanent temptation of life is to confuse dreams with reality. The permanent defeat of life comes when dreams are surrendered to reality.
As a young man... you don't know anything about yourself. And add on to that, you're on the cover of magazines. People are interviewing you about what you think. You feel like a real phony.
We are not merely historians but also and always citizens.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.