Julie

“But when we began talking about Asian concepts of “soft power” — what Ni calls leadership “by water rather than by fire” — I started to see a side of him that was less impressed by Western styles of communication. “In Asian cultures,” Ni said, “there’s often a subtle way to get what you want. It’s not always aggressive, but it can be very determined and very skillful. In the end, much is achieved because of it. Aggressive power I beats you up; soft power wins you over.”
― Susan Cain, Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking

“Learning to listen must be the work of settlers on colonized land, of modern societies that treat the earth as a thing to be exploited, and of healthcare workers, as we increasingly encounter existential threats from pandemics, forest fires, catastrophic floods, and global warming, all signs that we are critically out of balance.”
― Rupa Marya and Raj Patel

“And sometimes I’ll ask what people have recently—say in the last day or two—come to realize they love, a question that at first seems to be difficult for some of them, as they say, “I like” this, or “I like” that, to which I try to lean on them by saying, “No, no, I said, what do you love?” Because sharing what we love is dangerous, it is vulnerable, it is like baring your neck, or your belly, and it reveals that, in some ways, we are all commonly tender.”
― Ross Gay, Inciting Joy: Essays

“Oppression is never about humanity or lack thereof. It is, and always has been, about power.”
― Clint Smith, How the Word Is Passed: A Reckoning with the History of Slavery Across America