Audre Lorde

Audre Lorde

23 quotes

Audre Lorde, an American writer and feminist activist, is widely remembered for insights that continue to resonate with readers everywhere. Whether reflecting on Women or Strength, Audre Lorde brought uncommon clarity to every subject. Our collection holds 29 quotes from Audre Lorde, each offering a different angle on Women, Strength, Learning, Work, and Truth. Here is a taste of their wisdom: "But the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women."

“Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat.”

— Audre Lorde

Learning

All Quotes by Audre Lorde

“When I use my strength in the service of my vision it makes no difference whether or not I am afraid.”

— Audre Lorde

Strength

“But, on the other hand, I get bored with racism too and recognize that there are still many things to be said about a Black person and a White person loving each other in a racist society.”

— Audre Lorde

Society

“Only by learning to live in harmony with your contradictions can you keep it all afloat.”

— Audre Lorde

Learning

“In discussions around the hiring and firing of Black faculty at universities, the charge is frequently heard that Black women are more easily hired than are Black men.”

— Audre Lorde

Women

“The failure of academic feminists to recognize difference as a crucial strength is a failure to reach beyond the first patriarchal lesson. In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.”

— Audre Lorde

Failure

“I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't.”

— Audre Lorde

Fear

“Black women are programmed to define ourselves within this male attention and to compete with each other for it rather than to recognize and move upon our common interests.”

— Audre Lorde

Women

“I am deliberate and afraid of nothing.”

— Audre Lorde

Inspirational

“I would like to do another piece of fiction dealing with a number of issues: Lesbian parenting, the 1960's, and interracial relationships in the Lesbian and Gay community.”

— Audre Lorde

Parenting

“Art is not living. It is the use of living.”

— Audre Lorde

Art

“I can't really define it in sexual terms alone although our sexuality is so energizing why not enjoy it too?”

— Audre Lorde

Alone

“When I dare to be powerful - to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”

— Audre Lorde

Strength

“I remember how being young and black and gay and lonely felt. A lot of it was fine, feeling I had the truth and the light and the key, but a lot of it was purely hell.”

— Audre Lorde

Truth

“Black women sharing close ties with each other, politically or emotionally, are not the enemies of Black men.”

— Audre Lorde

Women

“We have to consciously study how to be tender with each other until it becomes a habit because what was native has been stolen from us, the love of Black women for each other.”

— Audre Lorde

Women

“But the true feminist deals out of a lesbian consciousness whether or not she ever sleeps with women.”

— Audre Lorde

Women

“In our work and in our living, we must recognize that difference is a reason for celebration and growth, rather than a reason for destruction.”

— Audre Lorde

Work

“Poetry is not only dream and vision it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.”

— Audre Lorde

Architecture

“The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives.”

— Audre Lorde

Hope

“The learning process is something you can incite, literally incite, like a riot.”

— Audre Lorde

Learning