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It’s a struggle but that’s why we exist, so that another generation of Lesbians of color will not have to invent themselves, or their history, all over again.

Audre Lorde

To search for power within myself means I must be willing to move through being afraid to whatever lies beyond.
AUDRE LORDE

Afraid Beyond Myself Power Search Willing
It does not pay to cherish symbols when the substance lies so close at hand.
AUDRE LORDE

Cherish Close Hands Pay Substance Symbol
When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.
AUDRE LORDE

Afraid Feminism Important Powerful Service Strength Vision Women Empowerment
It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.
AUDRE LORDE

Ability Acceptance Celebration Difference Divide Equality Recognize
I wish to raise a Black man who will not be destroyed by, nor settle for, those corruptions called power by the white fathers who mean his destruction as surely as they mean mine.
AUDRE LORDE

Black Black Lives Matter Corruption Destroy Father Man Power Racism
If I didn’t define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people’s fantasies for me and eaten alive.
AUDRE LORDE

Alive Eat Fantasy Inspirational Myself People Self Respect
If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of it. That’s the beginning of social protest.
AUDRE LORDE

Alter Beginning Die Justice Pain Protest Social
I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigated pain. It is important to share how I know survival is survival and not just a walk throught the rain.
AUDRE LORDE

Duty Important Intense Pain Rain Speak Survival Truimph Truth
Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action.
AUDRE LORDE

Action Angry Guilty Lack Response
We must wake up knowing we have work to do and go to bed knowing we’ve done it.
AUDRE LORDE

Bed Done Motivational Satisfaction Wake Up Work
Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.
AUDRE LORDE

Architecture Change Dreams Future Live Poetry Vision
My experience with people who tried to label me was that they usually did it to either dismiss me or use me.
AUDRE LORDE

Dismiss Experience Label People Try Used
I have been woman for a long time beware my smile I am treacherous with old magic.
AUDRE LORDE

Beware Magic Old Smile Woman
I want to live the rest of my life, however long or short, with as much sweetness as I can decently manage, loving all the people I love, and doing as much as I can of the work I still have to do.
AUDRE LORDE

Decent Life Live Love Management People Sweet Want Work
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
AUDRE LORDE

Afraid Deliberate Inspirational One Liner
How hard it is to sleep in the middle of life.
AUDRE LORDE

Deep Life One Liner Sleep Struggle

It’s a struggle but that’s why we exist, so that another generation of Lesbians of color will not have to invent themselves, or their history, all over again.

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It’s a struggle but that’s why we exist, so that another generation of Lesbians of color will not have to invent themselves, or their history, all over again.

Related Topics

Popular Authors

More Audre Lorde Quotes