# Audre Lorde's most powerful quotes (with their source)

"Your silence will not protect you", "I am not free while any woman is unfree" and "Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation": the most quoted lines of Audre Lorde, from Sister Outsider, The Cancer Journals and A Burst of Light, each with its source.

- 278 votes · 13 items
- Feb 20, 2020 · Cooper M.
- https://even.best/en/l/5139/audre-lorde-s-most-powerful-quotes-with-their-source

## Top 13

1. **Your silence will not protect you.** (26 · ▲28 ▼2) — "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action", Sister Outsider (1984), p. 41.
2. **I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.** (22 · ▲24 ▼2) — "The Uses of Anger", Sister Outsider (1984).
3. **In our world, divide and conquer must become define and empower.** (21 · ▲23 ▼2) — "Age, Race, Class, and Sex", Sister Outsider (1984), p. 112.
4. **Anger is loaded with information and energy.** (20 · ▲22 ▼2) — "The Uses of Anger", Sister Outsider (1984).
5. **Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.** (18 · ▲21 ▼3) — A Burst of Light (1988), p. 125.
6. **The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House.** (12 · ▲17 ▼5) — Title of her 1979 talk, published in Sister Outsider (1984).
7. **Without community there is no liberation.** (12 · ▲17 ▼5) — "Age, Race, Class, and Sex", Sister Outsider (1984), p. 112.
8. **There is no such thing as a single-issue struggle because we do not live single-issue lives.** (12 · ▲16 ▼4) — "Learning from the 60s", Sister Outsider (1984), p. 138.
9. **What I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid?** (11 · ▲15 ▼4) — "The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action", Sister Outsider (1984), p. 41.
10. **When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.** (11 · ▲14 ▼3) — The Cancer Journals (1980).
11. **Each time you love, love as deeply as if it were forever / Only, nothing is eternal.** (8 · ▲13 ▼5) — Undersong (1992).
12. **Difference is that raw and powerful connection from which our personal power is forged.** (6 · ▲13 ▼7) — "Age, Race, Class, and Sex", Sister Outsider (1984), p. 112.
13. **Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless so it can be thought.** (-1 · ▲5 ▼6) — "Poetry Is Not a Luxury", Sister Outsider (1984), p. 37.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.