Natalie

“It was the theologian St. Augustine of Hippo who, thousands of years ago, said something about man’s natural tendency to seek divine worship. There is a hole, so to say, that God created for Himself in man’s soul that man tries to fill with everything else before he found rest by coming back to the creator. It is, apparently, what makes men fanatics, apologists, heroes or traitors, saints or heretics, politicians, soccer hooligans, or martyrs. [St. Augustine didn’t appear too concerned with women’s holes. But one must assume they have it too, and were perhaps preoccupied with trying to survive in a man’s world to ask questions, to write books, to start wars in an attempt to fill it]”
― Lemlem Tilahun, Virgins Always Bleed:

“And my grandfather... was forever knocked into that middle place, unable to worship a God in whose existence he could not wholly disbelieve. Permanent alteration: a hole.”
― Salman Rushdie, Midnight’s Children

“Guilt is not a response to anger; it is a response to one’s own actions or lack of action. If it leads to change then it can be useful, since it is then no longer guilt but the beginning of knowledge. Yet all too often, guilt is just another name for impotence, for defensiveness destructive of communication; it becomes a device to protect ignorance and the continuation of things the way they are, the ultimate protection for changelessness.”
― Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches

“Whenever we engage in consumption or production patterns which take more than we need, we are engaging in violence.”
― Vandana Shiva, Earth Democracy: Justice, Sustainability, and Peace