Sometimes we drug ourselves with dreams of new ideasl The head will save us. The brain alone will set us free. But there are no new ideas waiting in the wings to save us as women, as human. There are only old and forgotten ones, new combinations, extrapolations and recognitions from within ourselves--along with the renewed courage to try them out.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that true creativity comes from within and is built upon past ideas rather than waiting for new inspirations to appear.
Audre Lorde's quote suggests that as individuals, particularly women, we often seek new ideas to drive us forward, but in reality, our power lies in rediscovering and reinterpreting old concepts. It underscores the importance of self-innovation and courage to experiment with these ideas, highlighting that our liberation comes not from external sources but from the courage to utilize our inner knowledge and experiences.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a women's empowerment seminar to inspire creativity.
The fact that we are here and that I speak these words is an attempt to break that silence and bridge some of those differences between us, for it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence. And there are so many silences to be broken.
There is no thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.
There are no new ideas. There are only new ways of making them felt.
I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.
I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.
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.
You have to be willing to grow. Growth is different from something that happens to you: You produce it. You live it. The prerequisites for growth are the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them.
So you work on yourself as a gift to other human beings. Then you use every situation you have with other human beings as a vehicle to work on yourself by seeing where you get stuck-where you push, where you grab, where you judge, where you do all the stuff.
Who can calculate the wounds inflicted, their depth and pain, by harsh and mean words spoken in anger? How pitiful a sight is a man who is strong in many ways but who loses all control of himself when some little thing, usually of no significant consequence, disturbs his equanimity.
The business (and person) who tries to be everything to everyone ends up being nothing to anyone.
Let no man in the world live in delusion. Without a Guru none can cross over to the other shore.
If you were going to be successful in the world of crime, you needed a reputation for honesty.
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