Skip to content

The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire. For having experienced the fullness of this depth of feeling and recognizing its power, in honor and self-respect we can require no less of ourselves.

— Audre Lorde Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

Another quote →

Source and credibility

Wikiquote does not flag this quote as disputed or misattributed.

Source: p. 54
Work: Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches, 1984
Source quality: Precise citation Points to a specific work with a page, chapter, date or similar locator, so you can look it up.

More by Audre Lorde

All our children are outriders for a queendom not yet assured.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

Rape is not aggressive sexuality, it is sexualized aggression.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

Narcissism comes not out of self-love but out of self-hatred.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

The need for sharing deep feeling is a human need.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

The knowledge of fear can help make us free.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

Difference does not have to be threatening.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

One oppression does not justify another.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.

The Uses of Anger : Women Responding to Racism (1981)

All Audre Lorde quotes →

More quotes by Audre Lorde

Oppressors always expect the oppressed to extend to them the understanding so lacking in themselves.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

Difference is that raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

There is, for me, no difference between writing a good poem and moving into sunlight against the body of a woman I love.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

We are jointly responsible for the care and raising of the young, since that they be raised is a function, ultimately, of the species.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.

Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches (1984)

All Audre Lorde quotes →

Attribution

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