Audre Lorde Quotes

So it is better to speak, remembering we were never meant to survive.

My voice is not going to be silenced by anybody.

Your silence will not protect you.

I wish I could shut up, but I can't, and I won't.

I refuse to be silenced.

I was silent as a child, and silenced as a young woman; I am taking my lumps and bumps for being a big mouth, now, but usually from those whose opinion I don't respect.

People and systems count on our silence to keep us exactly where we are.... in a world that wants us to whisper, I choose to yell.

I will not be silenced or deterred.

I always had to fight for the chance to get people to hear me.

I will not allow anyone to shut me up or shame me into silence, and I'm not going to rot away behind closed doors.

But death is stronger than that and when you cover your eyes you are the one who can't see the dark. The dark still sees you.

The use of language is all we have to pit against death and silence.

I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood. That the speaking profits me, beyond any other effect....what I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid? ...Death on the other hand, is the final silence...my silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you.

Never be bullied into silence.

Men will not always die quietly.

They can't hurt me. Sure, they can crush you and kill you. They can lay you out on 42nd and Broadway and put hoses on you and flush you in the sewers and put you on the subway and carry you out to Coney island and bury you on the Ferris wheel. But I refuse to sit here and worry about dying.

More safe I sing with mortal voice, unchang'd To hoarse or mute, though fall'n on evil days, On evil days though fall'n, and evil tongues.

Between a high, solid wall and an egg that breaks against it, I will always stand on the side of the egg.

Let us refuse to be silent! Speaking freely is a decisive step forward on the road to freedom.

I killed you once", the Lord Ruler said, turning back to Kelsier. "You tried", Kelsier replied, his voice loud and firm, carrying across the square. "But you can't kill me, Lord Tyrant. I represent that thing you've never been able to kill no matter how hard you try. I am hope.

Someday you will die, and until you know that, you're useless to me.

Security is the denial of life

If you let them kill you, they will

You are protected, in short, by your ability to love!