Erica

“My life was narrated for me by others. Their voices were forceful, emphatic, absolute. It had never occurred to me that my voice might be as strong as theirs.”
― Tara Westover, Educated

“We teach girls shame. “Close your legs. Cover yourself.” We make them feel as though being born female they’re already guilty of something. And so, girls grow up to be women who cannot say they have desire. They grow up to be women who silence themselves. They grow up to be women who cannot say what they truly think. And they grow up — and this is the worst thing we do to girls — they grow up to be women who have turned pretense into an art form.”
― Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

“I don't think every person is unique. If every person is unique, then unique is a completely unneccessary word."
"Don't you think that every person has something specific that makes them special?"
"Maybe, but if that's the case, then people are 99 percent boring."
"And you, are you one of the few people who isn't boring?"
"I don't think I'm any more remarkable than anyone else. THe difference is that I've discovered that I don't need to go around pretending I have a personality.”
― Gunnar Ardelius, I Need You More Than I Love You and I Love You to Bits

“Something very beautiful happens to people when their world has fallen apart: a humility, a nobility, a higher intelligence emerges at just the point when our knees hit the floor. Perhaps, in a way, that's where humanity is now: about to discover we're not as smart as we thought we were, will be forced by life to surrender our attacks and defenses which avail us of nothing, and finally break through into the collective beauty of who we really are."

[Facebook post, August 31, 2013]”
― Marianne Williamson