Maria

“That’s what an empire is,” he said, “an orchestrator of gravity, a sun around which all weaker things spin.”
― Omar El Akkad, American War

“Her voice carried the voices of a hundred thousand souls in it; a whole history of resistance and rage moved with her.”
― Daniel José Older, Shadowshaper

“It is your nature to warm all you see, and the sun does not ask forgiveness for shining.”
― Samantha Shannon, A Day of Fallen Night

“Nelson Mandela once said, 'If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his language, that goes to his heart.' He was so right. When you make the effort to speak someone else's language, even if it's just basic phrases here and there, you are saying to them, 'I understand that you have a culture and identity that exists beyond me. I see you as a human being”
― Trevor Noah, Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood