The white fathers told us: I think, therefore I am. The black goddess within each of us - the poet - whispers in our dreams: I feel, therefore I can be free.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of emotions in the quest for freedom and self-identity.
Audre Lorde’s quote contrasts two philosophical perspectives: the rational thought represented by 'I think, therefore I am,' and the emotional wisdom expressed in 'I feel, therefore I can be free.' It highlights the significance of feeling and intuition in understanding oneself and achieving true freedom, suggesting that human experiences encompass more than just rational thought; they involve deep emotional awareness and connection to one's inner self.
In practice
In a speech about mental health, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of emotional well-being.
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.
My goal is this: always to put myself in the place in which I am best able to serve, wherever my gifts and qualities find the best soil to grow, the widest field of action. There is no other goal.
Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results … We understand this law in the natural world, and work with it; but few understand it in the mental and moral world—although its operation there is just as simple and undeviating— and they, therefore, do not cooperate with it.
We are Divine enough to ask and we are important enough to receive.
It is a fool's prerogative to utter truths that no one else will speak.
There are all kinds of stupid people that annoy me but what annoys me most is a lazy argument.
During a Chess competition a Chessmaster should be a combination of a beast of prey and a monk
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