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When fear rules, obedience is the only survival choice.

Fear Control, Social Obedience, Personal Power, Control, Obedience, Power

When fear rules obedience is the only survival choice

When fear rules obedience is the only survival choice

When fear rules obedience is the only survival choice

Toni Morrison’s Quotes On Topics

More Toni Morrison Quotes

“It is this rattling I believe that affects the second point: our uneasiness with our own feelings of foreignness, our own rapidly fraying sense of belonging. To what do we pay greatest allegiance? Family, language group, culture, country, gender? Religion, race? And if none of these matter, are we urbane, cosmopolitan, or simply lonely? In other words, how do we decide where we belong? What convinces us that we do? Or put another way, what is the matter with foreignness?”

Belonging Questions, Cultural Identity, Existential Foreignness, Belonging, Identity, Culture

“My home is such a powerfully imaginative place that the space is almost irrelevant. I think the house I live at on the Hudson is where I belong because it’s the only place where I am that I never think about when I’m leaving.”

Imaginative Space, Home Comfort, Belonging Sense, Space, Comfort, Belonging

“The presence of evil was something to be first recognized, then dealt with, survived, outwitted, triumphed over.”

Facing Evil, Overcoming Adversity, Survival Strategies, Evil, Survival, Triumph

“But then Job was a man. Invisibility was intolerable to men. What complaint would a female Job dare to put forth? And if, having done so, and He deigned to remind her of how weak and ignorant she was, where was the news in that? What shocked Job into humility and renewed fidelity was the message a female Job would have known and heard every minute of her life.”

Gender Injustice, Biblical Reflection, Feminine Strength, Gender, Injustice, Strength

“Those white things have taken all I had or dreamed,” she said, “and broke my heartstrings too. There is no bad luck in the world but whitefolks.”

Cultural Oppression, Racial Suffering, Lost Dreams, Oppression, Racism, Misfortune

“The best art is political and you ought to be able to make it unquestionably political and irrevocably beautiful at the same time.”

Art, Politics, Beauty, Expression, Creativity, Activism

“She is a friend of mind. She gather me, man. The pieces I am, she gather them and give them back to me in all the right order. It's good, you know, when you got a woman who is a friend of your mind.”

Female Friendship, Emotional Support, Mindful Connection, Friendship, Woman, Support

“Anger is better. There is a sense of being in anger. A reality and presence. An awareness of worth. It is a lovely surging.”

Anger Power, Emotional Awareness, Personal Worth, Power, Awareness, Worth

“That’s something you will have- a broken heart.”

Heartbreak, Pain, Love, Loss, Emotions, Healing

“Unpersecuted, unjailed, unharrassed writers are trouble for the ignorant bully, the sly racist, and the predators feeding off the world’s resources.”

Writers, Freedom, Oppression, Justice, Activism, Resistance

“Whatever happens, whether you get rich or stay poor, ruin your health or live to old age, you always end up back where you started: hungry for the one thing everybody loses – young loving.”

Nostalgic Love, Life Cycle, Emotional Hunger, Nostalgia, Love, Life

“Writing is really a way of thinking – not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.”

Creative Process, Thoughtful Writing, Emotional Exploration, Process, Writing, Exploration

“She is not so afraid at night because she is the color of it.”

Fear, Identity, Night, Color, Courage, Strength

“Her color is a cross she will always carry.”

Racial Burden, Personal Identity, Social Struggles, Race, Identity, Struggles

“I sang “O Holy Night” in a school choir. My mother came and listened to me and complimented me. So that was the high point. I cannot sing a note.”

Music, Family, Praise, Performance, Memory, Imperfection

“A dead hydrangea is as intricate and lovely as one in bloom. Bleak sky is as seductive as sunshine, miniature orange trees without blossom or fruit are not defective; they are that.”

Life Beauty, Nature Perspective, Emotional Resilience, Beauty, Perspective, Resilience

“Pain. I seem to have an affection, a kind of sweettooth for it. Bolts of lightning, little rivulets of thunder. And I the eye of the storm.”

Pain, Emotion, Storm, Intensity, Reflection, Strength

“The function, the very serious function of racism is distraction. It keeps you from doing your work. It keeps you explaining, over and over again, your reason for being. Somebody says you have no language and you spend twenty years proving that you do. Somebody says your head isn’t shaped properly so you have scientists working on the fact that it is. Somebody says you have no art, so you dredge that up. Somebody says you have no kingdoms, so you dredge that up. None of this is necessary. There will always be one more thing.”

Racism Distraction, Identity Struggles, Cultural Validation, Distraction, Struggles, Validation

“Love is never any better than the lover. Wicked people love wickedly, violent people love violently, weak people love weakly, stupid people love stupidly, but the love a free man is never safe.”

Love, Relationships, Freedom, Passion, Intensity, Danger

“She needed what most colored girls needed: a chorus of mamas, grandmamas, aunts, cousins, sisters, neighbors, Sunday school teachers, best girl friends, and what all to give her the strength life demanded of her – and the humor with which to live it.”

Support, Family, Strength, Community, Life, Humor