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“I’m well known for not being very enthusiastic about giving advice, because advice is only useful as an ego exercise unless you actually know the recipien.

— Tressie McMillan Cottom

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Advice

More quotes by Tressie McMillan Cottom

We don’t even have the power to build a bubble, right? That’s the ultimate story of being who we are and writing about ourselves. We don’t even have the authority to create that bubble.

Part of my personal political project is naturalizing the sound of expert information in a Black American woman’s voice.

The hyper-visibility means that you both can't hide, but also never really feel completely seen by authority figures and by your peer groups. Trapped in that space of hyper-visibility, I think, is where we wrestle with the ideas of, 'What part of me matters?'

I want to be able to show up and raise the hell at the precise right moment that might tip the scales in a way that will make something a little more clear, or a little bit more just, for people I care about…

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A man must serve his time to every trade
Save censure — critics are ready-made.

Lord Byron English Bards and Scotch Reviewers (1809)

The physician can bury his mistakes, but the architect can only advise his clients to plant vines.

Frank Lloyd Wright

Parodies and caricatures are the most penetrating of criticisms.

Aldous Huxley Point Counter Point (1928)

Let no man value at a little price
A virtuous woman's counsel; her wing'd spirit
Is feather'd oftentimes with heavenly words.

George Chapman The Gentleman Usher (1606)

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Tressie McMillan Cottom (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.