30 Audre Lorde Quotes About Life & Feminism
“Audre Lorde” by “350 Vermont“, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Audre Lorde was a social rights activist, writer and librarian. She devoted her life to working for the upliftment and stopping the injustices of homophobia. She passed away in 1992 but has left behind her powerful ideas in the form of her poems and essays.
She started to write at an early age. Her first article was published in the magazine ‘Seventeen’. She used to describe herself as a “black lesbian feminist warrior mother”.
Her work speaks about racism, sexism and homophobia prevalent in America. One of the most popular books is ‘Sister Outsider’. Here is a list of Audre Lorde quotes that will give you a sense of power.
Audre Lorde Quotes About Life
All her life, she fought against social discrimination of various sorts. She raised her voice against injustice that is deep-rooted in our society. Her poems and essays portray the powerful personality she had. Read these Audre Lorde quotes about life and her experiences.
“In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.”
AUDRE LORDE
SOURCE: SISTER OUTSIDER
“Too often, we pour the energy needed for recognizing and exploring difference into pretending those differences are insurmountable barriers, or that they do not exist at all.”
AUDRE LORDE
“Unity implies the coming together of elements which are, to begin with, varied and diverse in their particular natures.”
AUDRE LORDE
“The difference between poetry and rhetoric is being ready to kill yourself instead of your children.”
AUDRE LORDE
“Your silence will not protect you.”
AUDRE LORDE
SOURCE: CONVERSATIONS WITH AUDRE LORDE
“Nothing I accept about myself can be used against me to diminish me.”
AUDRE LORDE
“If you can’t change reality, change your perceptions of it.”
AUDRE LORDE
“You cannot, you cannot use someone else’s fire. You can only use your own. And in order to do that, you must first be willing to believe that you have it.”
AUDRE LORDE
“I urge each one of us here to reach down into that deep place of knowledge inside herself and touch that terror and loathing of any difference that lives here. See whose face it wears.”
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
SOURCE: THE CANCER JOURNALS
“Oppressed peoples are always being asked to stretch a little more, to bridge the gap between blindness and humanity.”
AUDRE LORDE
“We do not need to become each other in order to work together.”
AUDRE LORDE
“I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”
AUDRE LORDE
“We share a common interest, survival, and it cannot be pursued in isolation from others simply because their differences make us uncomfortable.”
AUDRE LORDE
“Hatred is the fury of those who do not share our goals, and its object is death and destruction. Anger is a grief of distortions between peers, and its object is change.”
AUDRE LORDE
Audre Lorde Quotes On Feminism
We all know that people of colour were being ill-treated in the past. Audre spent her life with difficulties, but nothing could stop her from fighting such social evils. What she faced herself gave her the power to work for others so no one would face it. Here are some Audre Lorde quotes on feminism that will help you understand the true meaning of being a feminist.
“No woman is responsible for altering the psyche of her oppressor, even when that psyche is embodied in another woman.”
AUDRE LORDE
“I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”
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
“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.”
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
“Some women wait for themselves around the next corner and call the empty spot peace, but the opposite of living is only not living, and the stars do not care.”
AUDRE LORDE
SOURCE: THE COLLECTED POEMS OF 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
“Any discussion among women about racism must include the recognition and use of anger. This discussion must be direct and creative because it is crucial.”
AUDRE LORDE
“Unacknowledged class differences rob women of each others’ energy and creative insight.”
AUDRE LORDE
“We are African women and we know, in our blood’s telling, the tenderness with which our foremothers held each other.”
AUDRE LORDE
Audre’s life teaches us that injustices in society demand to be fought back. She dared to combat social evils, which made her powerful and bold. She may not be present physically, but her ideas will always be there for each of us to use. With these Audre Lorde quotes, we have tried to keep igniting the flame of equality among us.
You can also check out these 30 Roy T Bennett Quotes For Positivity In Life!
