Dorcas Cheng-Tozun > Quotes

“Even when things are hard and exhausting and uncertain, they can still be good.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Start, Love, Repeat: How to Stay in Love with Your Entrepreneur in a Crazy Start-up World

“Chenoweth and Stephen also discovered that in order to secure major political change, at least 3.5 percent of the population must actively participate in protests.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“There is no wasted time or experience in our lives; it all contributes to the development of our spirit and character, our knowledge and skills, and that, in turn, influences our ability to lead and inspire and connect. If you need to be on the sidelines for a few months, years, or even decades, honor that. There is no shame or weakness in healthy choices like that.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“Unfortunately, we live at a moment in which ignorance appears to be one of the defining features of American political and cultural life,” cultural studies professor Henry A. Giroux said in a 2016 interview. “Ignorance has become a form of weaponized refusal to acknowledge the violence of the past. . . . The warning signs from history are all too clear. Failure to learn from the past has disastrous political consequences.”10 Without knowledge based on reliable records, our societies cannot understand our past mistakes, how to repair them, or how to prevent them from happening again.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“Who knows what you could do if you found the right people to do it with?”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“Engineering with empathy”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“Self-compassion strengthens our coping muscles, builds our resilience in the face of challenging and painful experiences, and empowers us to speak out when something isn’t right.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“From 1979 to 2009, the level of empathic concern declined by an alarming 48 percent, with the steepest rate of decline coming after 2000...With less empathy, we are far more prone to regard people as the other, the different, or the enemy - something we see happening across the political spectrum.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“women found that those with higher levels of self-compassion felt stronger and more competent, asserted themselves more, and were more committed to social activism.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“The potential impact of extending respect and a listening ear should never be underestimated.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“Drudgery is not simply about being bored, though it can include that. Roles that lead us into drudgery deplete far more energy than they give to us; they often involve difficult, intractable people or problems; they make us feel restricted, unappreciated, or disrespected. Drudgery sounds mild, but it can have immensely serious consequences, including burnout and depression. The most objectively meaningful role in the world can still sap us of our joy and energy if it does not match who we are and what we can give.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“For me, hope does not spring organically. I do not have a hope-generator built within me. I suspect many other highly sensitive people are the same...Fortunately, hope is a choice. It is a verb, an action that we pursue.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways, Library Edition

“We are wired to want to fit everyone - including ourselves - into the well-known grooves of long-held categories. If someone doesn't fit, we are forced to grapple with tension, with dissonance. And that is a very uncomfortable place to be.”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways

“This “organized forgetting,” as Giroux calls it, is happening all around the world. A 2018 special report from the Index on Censorship found that authoritarian governments are focusing significant energy on controlling historical narratives—shutting down museums, banning history books, and even imprisoning historians who challenge them.11”
― Dorcas Cheng-Tozun, Social Justice for the Sensitive Soul: How to Change the World in Quiet Ways