Audre Lorde Quotes about Silence

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When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.

Audre Lorde

Strong Women, Honesty, Silence

Audre Lorde (1995). “The Black Unicorn: Poems”, p.25, W. W. Norton & Company

My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, I had made contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences.

Audre Lorde

Real, Differences, Silence

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.41, Crossing Press

... it is not difference which immobilizes us, but silence.

Audre Lorde

Differences, Silence

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.44, Crossing Press

For we have been socialized to respect fear more than our own needs for language and definition, and while we wait in silence for that final luxury of fearlessness, the weight of that silence will choke us.

Audre Lorde

Luxury, Silence, Waiting

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.44, Crossing Press

What are the words you do not yet have? What do you need to say? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence.

Audre Lorde

Fear, Silence, Needs

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.41, Crossing Press

The transformation of silence into language and action is an act of self-revelation .

Audre Lorde

Self, Silence, Action

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.42, Crossing Press

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.

Audre Lorde

Believe, Hands, Silence

Essay "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action", in Sister Outsider, www.csusm.edu. December 28, 1977.

Silence has never brought us anything of worth.

Audre Lorde

Silence

Audre Lorde (1997). “The Cancer Journals”

What I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid?

Audre Lorde

Silence

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.41, Crossing Press

I was going to die, if not sooner, then later, whether or not I had ever spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you.

Audre Lorde

Silence, Protect You, Protected

Audre Lorde (2012). “Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches”, p.41, Crossing Press

Silence and invisibility go hand in hand with powerlessness.

Audre Lorde

Hands, Silence, Invisibility

Audre Lorde (1997). “The Cancer Journals”

There are many lesbians and gay men trapped by their fear into silence and invisibility, and they exist in a dim valley of terror wearing nooses of conformity.

Audre Lorde

Gay, Men, Silence