Audre Lorde Quotes

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Audre Lorde

Profession : Poet

Birth : February 18, 1934

In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.

Audre Lorde

I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't.

Audre Lorde

We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us, the love of Black women for each other.

Audre Lorde

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.

Audre Lorde

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

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

It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.

Audre Lorde

Life is very short and what we have to do must be done in the now.

Audre Lorde

The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.

Audre Lorde

I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.

Audre Lorde

Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever.

Audre Lorde

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

Audre Lorde

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

The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house.

Audre Lorde

Part of the lesbian consciousness is an absolute recognition of the erotic within our lives and, taking that a step further, dealing with the erotic not only in sexual terms.

Audre Lorde

Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat.

Audre Lorde

When I use my strength in the service of my vision it makes no difference whether or not I am afraid.

Audre Lorde

Attend me, hold me in your muscular flowering arms, protect me from throwing any part of myself away.

Audre Lorde

Your silence will not protect you.

Audre Lorde

The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.

Audre Lorde