My mother helped me understand how not to show off what I knew, but how to use it so that others might benefit.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of humility in sharing knowledge for the benefit of others.
In this quote, Dorothy Height reflects on the lessons taught by her mother regarding the responsible use of knowledge. Instead of flaunting what one knows, the quote advocates for using that knowledge to support and uplift others, highlighting the value of humility and communal growth over self-promotion.
In practice
In a speech about mentorship, I could use this quote to describe the role of a mentor.
I think of my life as a unity of circles. Some are concentric, others overlap, but they all connect in some way. Sometimes the connections don't happen for years. But when they do, I marvel. As in a shimmering kaleidoscope, familiar patterns keep unfolding
Progress comes from caring more about what needs to be done than about who gets the credit
We had people of all backgrounds coming together - all races, all creeds, all colors, all status in life. And coming together there was a kind of quiet dignity and a kind of sense of caring and a feeling of joint responsibility.
There is no contradiction between effective law enforcement and respect for civil and human rights.
The Black family of the future will foster our liberation, enhance our self-esteem, and shape our ideas and goals.
We have to improve life, not just for those who have the most skills and those who know how to manipulate the system. But also for and with those who often have so much to give but never get the opportunity.
Jews have a special relationship to books, and the Haggadah has been translated more widely, and reprinted more often, than any other Jewish book. It is not a work of history or philosophy, not a prayer book, userβs manual, timeline, poem or palimpsest - and yet it is all these things.
Here I was into astronomy, and here into anthropology, and there I go into geology. It was much more fun to be able to research and write about whatever I wanted to.
I was born in Bayonne, New Jersey. I grew up in the projects. I never went anywhere. But I have lived a thousand lives and Iβve loved a thousand loves. Iβve walked on distant worlds and seen the end of time. Because I read.
Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.
Traveling is my form of self-education. Every stream I fish now is not as good as it used to be. Traveling is my form of self-education. Every stream I fish now is not as good as it used to be. If you keep your eyes open as you travel around, you realize we are destroying this planet.
Children, after all, are not just adults-in-the-making. They are people whose current needs and rights and experiences must be taken seriously.
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