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Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.

Audre Lorde

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Audre Lorde
Age: 58 †
Born: 1934
Born: February 18
Died: 1992
Died: November 17
Essayist
Feminist
Librarian
Novelist
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
New York City
New York
Audre Geraldine Lorde
Preservation
Warfare
Caring
Compassion
Political
Self
Indulgence

More quotes by Audre Lorde

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But the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women.
Audre Lorde
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Black women are programmed to define ourselves within this male attention and to compete with each other for it rather than to recognize and move upon our common interests.
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Even the smallest victory is never to be taken for granted. Each victory must be applauded.
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Anger, used, does not destroy. Hatred does.
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I remember how being young and black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell.
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The difference between poetry and rhetoric is being ready to kill yourself instead of your children.
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How a diamond comes into a knot of flame How a sound comes into a word, coloured By who pays what for speaking. Some words are open. Love is a word another kind of open — As a diamond comes into a knot of flame I am black because I come from the earth's inside. Take my word for jewel in your open light.
Audre Lorde
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When we create out of our experiences, as feminists of color, women of color, we have to develop those structures that will present and circulate our culture.
Audre Lorde
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Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat.
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When I speak of the erotic, then I speak of it as an assertion of the life force of women of that creative energy empowered, the knowledge and use of which we are now reclaiming in our language, our history, our dancing, our loving, our work, our lives.
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The absence of any consideration of lesbian consciousness or the consciousness of third world women leaves a serious gap within this conference. . . .
Audre Lorde
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There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
Audre Lorde
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... it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence.
Audre Lorde
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I have come to believe that caring for myself is not self-indulgent. Caring for myself is an act of survival.
Audre Lorde
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When you reach out and touch other human beings, it doesn't matter whether you call it therapy or teaching or poetry.
Audre Lorde
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I am not only a casualty, I am also a warrior.
Audre Lorde
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Art is not living. It is the use of living.
Audre Lorde
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If you do not learn to hate you will never be lonely enough to love easily nor will you always be brave, although it does not grow any easier. Do not pretend to convenient beliefs, even when they are righteous you will never be able to defend your city while shouting.
Audre Lorde
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You are the one that you are looking for.
Audre Lorde
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Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.
Audre Lorde