bell hooks citations

“Living simply makes loving simple.”

“Love is a combination of care, commitment, knowledge, responsibility, respect and trust.”

“The one person who will never leave us, whom we will never lose, is ourself. Learning to love our female selves is where our search for love must begin.”

“I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance.”

“But many of us seek community solely to escape the fear of being alone. Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”

“Popular escapist fiction enchants adult readers without challenging them to be educated for critical consciousness.”

“When we face pain in relationships our first response is often to sever bonds rather than to maintain commitment.”

“Class struggle is inextricably bound to the struggle to end racism.”

“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?”

“Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.”

“No black woman writer in this culture can write "too much". Indeed, no woman writer can write "too much"… No woman has ever written enough.”

“Being oppressed means the absence of choices”

“The practice of love offers no place of safety. We risk loss, hurt, pain. We risk being acted upon by forces outside our control.”

“Contrary to what we may have been taught to think, unnecessary and unchosen suffering wounds us but need not scar us for life. It does mark us. What we allow the mark of our suffering to become is in our own hands.”

“feminism is for everybody”

“Love is an action, never simply a feeling.”

“Honesty and openness is always the foundation of insightful dialogue.”

“The function of art is to do more than tell it like it is-it’s to imagine what is possible.”

“To love well is the task in all meaningful relationships, not just romantic bonds.”

“Giving generously in romantic relationships, and in all other bonds, means recognizing when the other person needs our attention. Attention is an important resource.”

“When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people, we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us.”

“If you do not know what you feel, then it is difficult to choose love; it is better to fall. Then you do not have to be responsible for your actions.”

“There will be no mass-based feminist movement as long as feminist ideas are understood only by a well-educated few.”

“All our silences in the face of racist assault are acts of complicity.”

“One of the most subversive institutions in the United States is the public library..”

“Justice demands integrity. It’s to have a moral universe — not only know what is right or wrong but to put things in perspective, weigh things. Justice is different from violence and retribution; it requires complex accounting.”

“A generous heart is always open, always ready to receive our going and coming. In the midst of such love we need never fear abandonment. This is the most precious gift true love offers - the experience of knowing we always belong.”

“We have to constantly critique imperialist white supremacist patriarchal culture because it is normalized by mass media and rendered unproblematic.”

“I believe that it is impossible for two individuals not committed to their own and each other’s well being to sustain a healthy and enduring relationship.”