Rashida Snowden > Rashida's Quotes

“Love is too strong, too intense, for what I feel. For what I am allowed to feel.”
― Tomi Adeyemi, Children of Blood and Bone

“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
― James Baldwin

“Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death--ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life. One is responsible for life: It is the small beacon in that terrifying darkness from which we come and to which we shall return.”
― James Baldwin, The Fire Next Time

“Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done.”
― Bryan Stevenson, Just Mercy

“His voice rose under the black smoke before the burning wreckage of the island; and infected by that emotion, the other little boys began to shake and sob too. And in the middle of them, with filthy body, matted hair, and unwiped nose, Ralph wept for the end of innocence, the darkness of mans heart, and the fall through the air of the true, wise friend called Piggy.”
― William Golding, Lord of the Flies

“I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”
― Frank Herbert, Dune

“I believe you hear a click, not in your head but in your soul, when you find the place where you belong. You can ignore it, but really, why would you?”
― Stephen King, If It Bleeds

“I am a city of sounds.
I will keep you safe.

I know I am supposed to feel ugly.
They all tell me that no woman
should look so well-traveled,
but they do not know.

I am earth. I am sun and skies.
I am the high road, the low road.
I am every poem about skin.
I am a world that cannot be explored in one day.
I am not a place for cowards.”
― Caitlyn Siehl, What We Buried

“I think,” Hoa says slowly, “that if you love someone, you don’t get to choose how they love you back.”
― N.K. Jemisin, The Stone Sky

“Death is a strange thing. People live their whole lives as if it does not exist, and yet it's often one of the great motivations for living. Some of us, in time, become so conscious of it that we live harder, more obstinately, with more fury. Some need its constant presence to even be aware of its antithesis. Others become so preoccupied with it that they go into the waiting room long before it has announced its arrival. We fear it, yet most of us fear more than anything that it may take someone other than ourselves. For the greatest fear of death is always that it will pass us by. And leave us there alone.”
― Fredrik Backman, A Man Called Ove

“Reader's Bill of Rights

1. The right to not read

2. The right to skip pages

3. The right to not finish

4. The right to reread

5. The right to read anything

6. The right to escapism

7. The right to read anywhere

8. The right to browse

9. The right to read out loud

10. The right to not defend your tastes”
― Daniel Pennac

“and i said to my body. softly. ‘i want to be your friend.’ it took a long breath. and replied ‘i have been waiting my whole life for this.”
― Nayyirah Waheed

“Become so very free that your whole existence is an act of rebellion.”
― Albert Camus, The Rebel

“Strange is relative, Okojo.”
― Ayana Gray, Beasts of Ruin

“Some truths only tragedy can teach. The first one I learned is that when people acknowledge your pain, they want your pain to acknowledge them back. They need to witness it in real time, or else you're not doing your part.”
― Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

“Two faults. My race and my gender. But they are not faults. They are strength. And I am more than this man can comprehend.”
― Tracy Deonn, Legendborn

“Cultivate your curves - they may be dangerous but they won't be avoided.”
― Mae West

“All that you touch
You Change.

All that you Change
Changes you.

The only lasting truth
is Change.

God
is Change.”
― Octavia E. Butler

“You’re a colored woman who lacks any of the advantages this country treasures. You are neither white nor a man, and so you’ll be judged harshly and unfairly, even as you perform well. However, you will be judged doubly, and the consequences will be severe if you falter.”
― Victoria Christopher Murray, Harlem Rhapsody