When I use my strength in the service of my vision it makes no difference whether or not I am afraid.
Interpretation
Courage is about using your inner strength to pursue your goals despite fear.
This quote emphasizes the idea that true courage is demonstrated when we choose to channel our strengths and abilities towards our personal vision or goals, regardless of the fear that may accompany such pursuits. It suggests that fear should not hold us back, as the commitment to our vision can empower us to act decisively and with purpose.
In practice
During a motivational speech, this quote can inspire individuals to overcome their fears.
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.
I was not athletically inclined. I was very quiet, introverted, non-confrontational. My three older brothers were athletes - basketball, football - but I was kind of a momma's boy. Then one day, my brother Roger encouraged me to go to the boxing gym with him. I tried the gloves on, and it just felt so natural.
If people don't vote, everything stays the same. You can protest until the sky turns yellow or the moon turns blue, and it's not going to change anything if you don't vote.
This is a fight between a free world and a slave world.
In difficult and desperate cases, the boldest counsels are the safest.
I think when I got enough pain and I was broken enough, and I got to my bottom, it enabled me enough to ask for help. But I needed a lot of pain.
Some day the workers will take possession of your city hall, and when we do, no child will be sacrificed on the altar of profit!
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