You may not have the words for how you are feeling, but chances are, someone else does. Isn’t that why we turn to art? In times of stagnation, fear, and isolation, we seek wisdom from those who live alongside us and who came before in the hopes that something might resonate — that their words might inspire us to keep going. Like James Baldwin said: “You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read.” Consider this quote #0. Read on for ten more. 

“People who deny the existence of dragons are often eaten by dragons. From within.”

Ursula K. Le Guin

“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation and that is an act of political warfare.”

Audre Lorde

“It is one thing to be good at what you do, and it is another thing to be good and bold enough to have fun while doing it.”

Hanif Abdurraqib 

“I tell my students, ‘When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game.’”

Toni Morrison

“I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality. This is why right temporarily defeated is stronger than evil triumphant.”

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

“Play itself is a primary process, not a luxury, not a hobby, but something all children must do to survive into adulthood.”

Sarah Ruhl

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”

Virginia Woolf

“Listen to the mustn’ts, child. Listen to the don’ts. Listen to the shouldn’ts, the impossibles, the won’ts. Listen to the never haves, then listen close to me… Anything can happen, child. Anything can be.”

Shel Silverstein

“Life, with its rules, its obligations, and its freedoms, is like a sonnet: You’re given the form, but you have to write the sonnet yourself.”

Madeleine L’Engle

“I think we are well-advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind’s door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends.”

Joan Didion

What quotes inspire you?