“My fullest concentration of energy is available to me only when I integrate all the parts of who I am, openly, allowing power from particular sources of my living to flow back and forth freely through all my different selves, without the restrictions of externally imposed definition. “I find I am constantly being encouraged to pluck out some one aspect of myself and present this as the meaningful whole, eclipsing or denying the other parts of self.” -Audre Lordeġ6. Learn about her own lived experience and how she shared these moments to invigorate others to keep their integrity in the face of adversity.ġ5. Staying true to yourself and your values is something Lorde highly encouraged others to do throughout her life. Anger is a grief of distortions between peers, and its object is change.” -Audre Lorde Quotes on Integrity “Hatred is the fury of those who do not share our goals, and its object is death and destruction.

“Within each one of us there is some piece of humanness that knows we are not being served by the machine which orchestrates crisis after crisis and is grinding all our futures into dust.” -Audre Lordeġ4. And hatred is a deathwish for the hated, not a lifewish for anything else.” -Audre Lordeġ3. Such strength does not focus upon what lies ahead, but upon what lies behind, upon what created it-hatred. “Anger is useful to help clarify our differences, but in the long run, strength that is bred by anger alone is a blind force which cannot create the future. “We share a common interest, survival, and it cannot be pursued in isolation from others simply because their differences make us uncomfortable.” -Audre Lordeġ2. Continuity does not happen automatically, nor is it a passive process.” -Audre Lordeġ0.

We forget that the necessary ingredient needed to make the past work for the future is our energy in the present, metabolizing one into the other. So often we either ignore the past or romanticize it, render the reason for unity useless or mythic. “Our persistence in examining the tensions within diversity encourages growth toward our common goal. “We must recognize and nurture the creative parts of each other without always understanding what will be created.” -Audre Lordeĩ. “Unity implies the coming together of elements which are, to begin with, varied and diverse in their particular natures.” -Audre LordeĨ. “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 Lordeħ. “When we define ourselves, when I define myself, the place in which I am like you and the place in which I am not like you, I'm not excluding you from the joining-I'm broadening the joining.” -Audre LordeĦ. And in order for us to do this, we must allow each other our differences at the same time as we recognize our sameness.” -Audre Lordeĥ. “What we must do is commit ourselves to some future that can include each other and to work toward that future with the particular strengths of our individual identities. I do not have to be you to recognize that our wars are the same.” -Audre LordeĤ. “You do not have to be me in order for us to fight alongside each other. When you come into conflict over other existing differences, there is a vulnerability to each other which is desperate and very deep.” -Audre Lordeģ. And if you survive you survive, because those skills and defenses have worked. “When a people share a common oppression, certain kinds of skills and joint defenses are developed. “In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.” -Audre LordeĢ. The following quotes capture her perspective on creating bonds and open a window into how we can better work together towards our goals.ġ. Lorde was keen on embracing people’s differences in order to build stronger coalitions and communities. From Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, this collection of quotes honors her ongoing influence and reflects her wisdom. Today, Lorde’s legacy lives on in both her written work and the lives of those impacted by her activism. A self-described “black, lesbian, mother, warrior, poet,” she was known for the bold and powerful language she used throughout her many poems, essays, and speeches as well as her two memoirs. Audre Lorde was a writer, librarian, civil rights activist, and feminist who dedicated her life to fighting against the injustices of homophobia, classism, sexism, and racism.

Women unity quotes