“You may trod me in the very dirt.But still, like dust, I’ll rise.” –Maya Angelou
Writer – Justin Howard @Jthnomad
We live in a world today that is the embodiment of the old quote “Life is stranger then fiction,” in part due to our current leaders ushering us in the age of ‘reality tv’ where our daily existence is so much more dramatic then anything seen on Bravo or E!
Sometimes a part of me wonders if the writers on Netflix’s House of Cards weren’t subconsciously channeling the future, when writing the series… Like on the series, we live in a world today where civil liberties are being not only violated, they are being pushed backwards. Minorities are targeted now by violence & hatred from all qaurters. As recently departed Karl Lagerfeld said, “We live in a dark, romantic and quite tragic world.”
It is in these moments of dramatic flair ups, and dark moments I find myself turning to books for hope. Yes, I do mean plain old fashion physical books. There is something about the smell of the paper, the tactile weigh of them in my hands that reassures me that there are still bits of wisdom and intelligence to be found in the world today.
So here is my collection of over 30 quotes revolving around the words – Kindness, Hope, and Rebellion from creators, leaders and iconic writers. I found most of these quotes in marvelous works like A Wrinkle In Time that embodies the best of humanity. I hope these words of wisdom help you discover your own authentic voice and the power that each of us holds within to change our communities for the better.
Hope
“Hope can be a powerful force. Maybe there’s no actual magic in it, but when you know what you hope for most and hold it like a light within you, you can make things happen, almost like magic.”
―Laini Taylor, Daughter of Smoke & Bone
“You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
―Maya Angelou
“Do not lose hope—what you seek will be found. Trust ghosts. Trust those that you have helped to help you in their turn. Trust dreams. Trust your heart, and trust your story.”
―Neil Gaiman, Fragile Things: Short Fictions and Wonders
“Only in the darkness can you see the stars.”
―Martin Luther King Jr.
Kindness
“So the small things came into their own: small acts of helping others, if one could; small ways of making one’s own life better: acts of love, acts of tea, acts of laughter. Clever people might laugh at such simplicity, but, she asked herself, what was their own solution?”
―Alexander McCall Smith, The Good Husband of Zebra Drive
“’Because when everything is said and done…the world runs on kindness. It simply has to, or we’d never be a able to bear ourselves. It might not seem so to you now, but it will when you’re older.’ ~Ariel”
―Kathleen Glasgow, Girl in Pieces
“We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided.”
―J.K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
LITERATURE
“A book, too, can be a star, a living fire to lighten the darkness, leading out into the expanding universe.”
― Madeleine L’Engle
“A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life-raft and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the imagination. On a cold rainy island, they are the only sheltered public spaces where you are not a consumer, but a citizen instead”
―Caitlin Moran
“History is entirely created by the person who tells the story.”
―Lin-Manuel Miranda, Hamilton: The Revolution
“Books, you know, they’re not just commodities. The profit motive often is in conflict with the aims of art. We live in capitalism. Its power seems inescapable. So did the divine right of kings. Any human power can be resisted and changed by human beings. Resistance and change often begin in art, and very often in our art—the art of words.”
―Ursula K. Le Guin
“A word to the unwise.
Torch every book.
Char every page.
Burn every word to ash.
Ideas are incombustible.
And therein lies your real fear.”
―Ellen Hopkins
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
―Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
“But I suppose the most revolutionary act one can engage in is…to tell the truth.”
―Howard Zinn, Marx in Soho: A Play on History
“Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world… Would do this, it would change the earth.”
―William Faulkner
Rebellion
“Our masters have not heard the people’s voice for generations and it is much, much louder than they care to remember.”
―Alan Moore, V for Vendetta
“We have it in our power to begin the world over again.”
―Thomas Paine
“If you want to rebel, rebel from inside the system.That’s much more powerful than rebelling outside the system.”
―Marie Lu, Legend
“The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.”
―Arthur C. Clarke
Endurance
“At the end of the day it’s about how much you can bear, how much you can endure. Being together, we harm nobody; being apart, we extinguish ourselves.”
―Tabitha Suzuma, Forbidden
“The unending paradox is that we do learn through pain.”
― Madeleine L’Engle
“I used many times to touch my own chest and feel, under its asthmatic quiver, the engine of the heart and lungs and blood and feel amazed at what I sensed was the enormity of the power I possessed. Not magical power, but real power. The power simply to go on, the power to endure, that is power enough, but I felt I had also the power to create, to add, to delight, to amaze and to transform.”
―Stephen Fry, Moab Is My Washpot
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