The more I use my strength in the service of my vision the less I am afraid.
Interpretation
Using one's strength for a purpose reduces fear.
This quote by Audre Lorde emphasizes that the more we dedicate our abilities and efforts towards fulfilling our personal vision or goals, the less fear we will experience. It suggests that action and commitment can alleviate apprehension, empowering us to pursue our ambitions with confidence.
In practice
In a motivational speech about pursuing one's dreams.
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.
Never depart from the way of martial arts.
I don't like looking at myself. I have such bad body dysmorphia.
But if the strength ain't real, I recall thinking the very last thing that day, before I finally passed out, then the weakness sure enough is. Weakness is true and real. I used to accuse the kid of faking his weakness. But faking proves the weakness is real. Or you wouldn't be so weak as to fake it. No, you can't ever fake being weak. You can only fake being strong. . .
What people don't understand when you've already been a suicide and pulled through is that after the sadness comes fear: Where is my mind going with this? I don't want to die. I do not want to die. When you don't have so much control over your own thoughts, over the myriad voices in your head, you don't know where they could go.
MY REGRETS ARE ABOUT THE PEOPLE I COULDN’T SAVE—Marines, soldiers, my buddies. I still feel their loss. I still ache for my failure to protect them.
In 2001, I was being treated for breast cancer, and I was pretty sure I was going to recover.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.