Quotes That Touch

"In becoming forcibly and essentially aware of my mortality, and of what I wished and wanted for my life, however short it might be, priorities and omissions became strongly etched in a merciless light, and what I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid? To question or to speak as I believed could have meant pain, or death. But we all hurt in so many different ways, all the time, and pain will either change or end. Death, on the other hand, is the final silence. And that might be coming quickly now, without regard for whether I had ever spoken what needed to be said, or had only betrayed myself into small silences, while I planned someday to speak, or waited for someone else’s words." -Audre Lorde

“If you stand at the edge of a mountain and believe you will fly, you’ll fly. You will only fall if you think you’re going to fall.” -Asma Khan

"Love shouldn’t be like that. Did you ever see the way the clouds love a mountain? They circle all around it; sometimes you can’t even see the mountain for the clouds. But you know what? You go up top and what do you see? His head. The clouds never cover the head. His head pokes through, because the clouds let him; they don’t wrap him up. They let him keep his head up high, free, with nothing to hide him or bind him."  -Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon

“there have been so many times
i have seen a man wanting to weep
but  instead
beat his heart until it was unconscious.”- Nayyirah Waheed

“Each friend represents a world in us, a world not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born.”- Anais Nin

"you can't make homes out of human beings
someone should have already told you that
and if he wants to leave
then let him leave
you are terrifying
and strange and beautiful
something not everyone knows how to love." -Warsan Shire

“And what if I write of you. Is that more love than you can handle. -Nayyirah Waheed

“I was too smart and that made people uncomfortable--most folks where we've lived our whole lives don't trust too much intelligence in a woman. There is also the problem of my eyes--they don't hide anything. If I don't care for a person, my eyes make it plain. I don't care for most. Folks are generally comfortable with the small lies they tell each other. They don't know what to do with someone like me, who mostly doesn't bother with small lies.” 
― Roxane Gay, Difficult Women

 

"Be so completely yourself that everyone else feels safe to be themselves too." —earthmedicina

"Running away from an emotion. Is a sure way to carry it with you." -Nayyirah Waheed

"How healing it is to unlearn an unsupportive philosophy." -anon

"I am grateful to have been loved and to be loved now and to be able to love, because that liberates. Love liberates. It doesn't just hold—that's ego. Love liberates. It doesn't bind. Love says, 'I love you. I love you if you're in China. I love you if you're across town. I love you if you're in Harlem. I love you. I would like to be near you. I'd like to have your arms around me. I'd like to hear your voice in my ear. But that's not possible now, so I love you. Go." Dr. Maya Angelou

"You can't give another human the responsibility of your happiness."-Taraji P. Henson

"Forgive yourself. Not just once. Again, and again, and again. As many times as it takes to find peace." -author unknown

"I choose to risk my significance; to live so that what came to me as a seed goes to the next as a blossom and that which came to me as a blossom, goes on as fruit. "- Dawna Markova

"Tell the truth through whichever veil comes to hand-but tell it. Resign yourself to the lifelong sadness that comes from never being satisfied." -Zadie Smith

"Pride won't return you back safely when you travel too far outside of yourself." -Melissa Tripp

"Ease is a greater threat to progress than hardship." -Denzel Washington

"there will be pain, there will be doubt, there will be beauty, there will be the unknown. there will be so many moments of joy and delight that the whole universe will feel painted in hues of amber and wonder. there will be times you are so sad you can’t lift your head. and there will be times you are so happy that the sensation of life knocks you down. but most importantly, there will be you. a whole, whole lot of it. and you will feel good about who she is and who she is still becoming." -Solange

"Do cross oceans for people. Love people, all people. No conditions attached, no wondering whether or not they are worthy. Cross oceans, climb mountains. Life and love isn't about what you gain, it's about what you give." author unknown

He replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.” Matthew 17:20