Not biology, but ignorance of ourselves, has been the key to our powerlessness
Interpretation
Our limitations come from a lack of understanding of ourselves rather than our inherent biological capabilities.
Adrienne Rich emphasizes that the true source of our powerlessness lies not in our biological makeup, but rather in our ignorance about our own potential and the complexities of our identity. By suggesting that understanding ourselves is crucial, she advocates for self-awareness and knowledge as keys to empowerment and agency in our lives.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal development, one could use this quote to highlight the importance of self-discovery.
My children cause me the most exquisite suffering of which I have any experience. It is the suffering of ambivalence: the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blissful gratification and tenderness. Sometimes I seem to myself, in my feelings toward these tiny guiltless beings, a monster of selfishness and intolerance.
The word revolution itself has become not only a dead relic of Leftism, but a key to the deadendedness of male politics: the revolution of a wheel which returns in the end to the same place; the revolving door of a politics which has liberated women only to use them, and only within the limits of male tolerance.
A president cannot meaningfully honor certain token artists while the people at large are so dishonored.'β
There is no 'the truth','a truth' - truth is not one thing, or even a system. It is an increasing complexity. the pattern of the carpet is a surface. When we look closely, or when we become weavers, we learn of the tiny multiple threads unseen in the overall pattern, the knots on the underside of the carpet
It is the suffering of ambivalence: the murderous alternation between bitter resentment and raw-edged nerves, and blissful gratification and tenderness
It's as if, in the mother's eyes, her smile, her stroking touch, the child first reads the message:'You are there!'
Listening to people espouse beliefs different from mine is informative, not threatening, because the only thing that can alter my worldview is a new and undeniable truth, and contrary to what Jack Nicholson says in 'A Few Good Men', "I CAN handle the truth.
If faith in ourselves had been more extensively taught and practiced, I am sure a very large portion of the evils and miseries that we have would have vanished.
Which is why I am writing this book. To think. To understand. It just happens to be the way I'm made. I have to write things down to feel I fully comprehend them.
Nothing is finer for the purposes of great productions than a very gradual ripening of the intellectual powers.
I write to save someone's life, probably my own
One who imitates what is bad always goes beyond his model; while one who imitates what is good always comes up short of it.
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