Quotes from bell hooks

though our paths are many, we are made one community in love.

men suffer by the patriarchal insistence that they enact rituals of alienation that lead to "estrangement from women." She states

Black and white women have for so long allowed their idea of liberation to be formed by the existing status quo that they have not yet devised a strategy by which we can come together. They have had only a slave's idea of freedom. And to the slave, the master's way of life represents the ideal free lifestyle.

In order to makes these changes she had to make use of another vital aspect of self-esteem, "self-assertiveness," defined by Branden as "the willingness to stand up for myself, to be who I am openly, to treat myself with respect in all human encounters.

Yes, it's true. Few intellectuals fuse intellectual power with deep moral concern and political engagement. Edward Said is somebody that comes to mind, but for every Edward Said there are one hundred and fifty academicians who, albeit interesting and competent, are narrow. So it follows that for every bell hooks there are one hundred and fifty academics threatened by your poly-vocality.

As long as sexist thinking socializes boys to be "killers," whether in imaginary good guy, bad guy fights or as soldiers in imperialism to maintain coercive power over nations, patriarchal violence against women and children will continue.

We cannot have a wolrd of great environmentalism while we maintain the violence of whtie supremacy and racism.

In our culture privacy is often confused with secrecy

WHEN I WAS a child, it was clear to me that life was not worth living if we did not know love. I wish I could testify that I came

Wounded hearts turn away from love because they do not want to do the work of healing necessary to sustain and nurture love. Many men, especially, often turn away from true love and choose relationships in which they can be emotionally withholding when they feel like it but still receive love from someone else.

Ultimately, they choose power over love. To know and keep true love we have to be willing to surrender the will to power.

Young progressives committed to social justice who had found it easy to maintain radical politics when they were living on the edge, on the outside, did not want to do the hard work of changing and reorganizing our existing system in ways that would affirm the values of peace and love, or democracy and justice. They fell into despair. And that despair made capitulation to the existing social order the only place of comfort.

but who will always support the right of women to choose, to be lesbian or bisexual.

When I was a child, it was clear to me that life was not worth living if did not know love. I wish I could testify that I came to this awareness because of the love I felt in my life. But it was love's absence that let me know how much love mattered.

When we are able to accept that giving ourselves over to love completely restores the soul, we are made perfect in love.

Everything we do in life is rooted in theory.

positive recognition and acceptance of difference is a necessary starting point as we work to eradicate white supremacy.

Sexual promiscuity and sexual liberation were not one and the same.

I've written 18 books, mostly dealing with issues of social justice, ending racism, feminism, and cultural criticism.

Lying has become so much the accepted norm that people lie even when it would be simpler to tell the truth.

My idea of a delicious time is to read a book that is wonderful. But the ruling passion of my life is being a seeker after truth and the divine.

Whether we learn how to love ourselves and others will depend on the presence of a loving environment. Self-love cannot flourish in isolation.

Knowing love or the hope of knowing love is the anchor that keeps us from falling into that sea of despair.

Yesterday I was thinking about the whole idea of genius and creative people, and the notion that if you create some magical art, somehow that exempts you from having to pay attention to the small things.