emancipation

Can death be sleep, when life is but a dream, And scenes of bliss pass as a phantom by? The transient pleasures as a vision seem, And yet we think the greatest pain is to die. - john keats

[theliteraryjournals]

Opinion is really the lowest form of human knowledge. It requires no accountability, no understanding. The highest form of knowledge is empathy, for it requires us to suspend our egos and live in another’s world. It requires profound purpose larger than the self kind of understanding.

Plato, The Republic (via wordsnquotes)

[wordsnquotes]

You can’t measure the mutual affection of two human beings by the number of words they exchange.

Milan Kundera, Identity (via wordsnquotes)

[wnq-anonymous]

It takes a few seconds to hurt someone. But sometimes it takes years to repair the damage. Cherish the hearts that love you.

Anonymous (via wordsnquotes)

[blackness-by-your-side]

This is very important.  

[fly-underground]

“These WW [white women] are saying “this is just the beginning.” Our ancestors have marched since 1492. This is our whole lives. This is who we are.”

[sayingsofthesalaf]

Do not let your love be obsessive and do not let your hatred be destructive. When you love, do not go to a level of obsession as a child does with the things he loves, and when you hate, do not hate in such way that you want your opponent to be destroyed and doomed.

Umar Ibn Al-Khattab (radiallahu’anhu) [Narrated by Abd ar-Razzaq in al-Musannaf, 20] (via sayingsofthesalaf)

[oliviacirce]

After learning my flight was detained 4 hours, I heard the announcement: If anyone in the vicinity of gate 4-A understands any Arabic, Please come to the gate immediately. Well—one pauses these days. Gate 4-A was my own gate. I went there. An older woman in full traditional Palestinian dress, Just like my grandma wore, was crumpled to the floor, wailing loudly. Help, said the flight service person. Talk to her. What is her Problem? we told her the flight was going to be four hours late and she Did this. I put my arm around her and spoke to her haltingly. Shu dow-a, shu- biduck habibti, stani stani schway, min fadlick, Sho bit se-wee? The minute she heard any words she knew—however poorly used— She stopped crying. She thought our flight had been canceled entirely. She needed to be in El Paso for some major medical treatment the Following day. I said no, no, we’re fine, you’ll get there, just late, Who is picking you up? Let’s call him and tell him. We called her son and I spoke with him in English. I told him I would stay with his mother till we got on the plane and Would ride next to her—Southwest. She talked to him. Then we called her other sons just for the fun of it. Then we called my dad and he and she spoke for a while in Arabic and Found out of course they had ten shared friends. Then I thought just for the heck of it why not call some Palestinian Poets I know and let them chat with her. This all took up about 2 hours. She was laughing a lot by then. Telling about her life. Answering Questions. She had pulled a sack of homemade mamool cookies—little powdered Sugar crumbly mounds stuffed with dates and nuts—out of her bag— And was offering them to all the women at the gate. To my amazement, not a single woman declined one. It was like a Sacrament. The traveler from Argentina, the traveler from California, The lovely woman from Laredo—we were all covered with the same Powdered sugar. And smiling. There are no better cookies. And then the airline broke out the free beverages from huge coolers— Non-alcoholic—and the two little girls for our flight, one African American, one Mexican American—ran around serving us all apple juice And lemonade and they were covered with powdered sugar too. And I noticed my new best friend—by now we were holding hands— Had a potted plant poking out of her bag, some medicinal thing, With green furry leaves. Such an old country traveling tradition. Always Carry a plant. Always stay rooted to somewhere. And I looked around that gate of late and weary ones and thought, This is the world I want to live in. The shared world. Not a single person in this gate—once the crying of confusion stopped —has seemed apprehensive about any other person. They took the cookies. I wanted to hug all those other women too. This can still happen anywhere. Not everything is lost.

Naomi Shihab Nye (b. 1952), “Gate A-4.” I think this poem may be making the rounds, this week, but that’s as it should be. (via awelltraveledwoman)

[snapgif]

Joe Biden speaks for all of us.[video]

[haraami-bi-deactivated20170923]

I literally burst out laughing omg I love him

[thelovejournals]

It doesn’t take a lot of strength to hang on. It takes a lot of strength to let go.

J.C. Watts (via thelovejournals)

[fyp-philosophy]

Those who do not move do not notice their chains.

Rose Luxemburg (via fyp-philosophy)

[thelovejournals]

I do not trust people who don’t love themselves and yet tell me, ‘I love you.’ There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt.

Maya Angelou  (via thelovejournals)

[kushandwizdom]

“ Even if you’re not friends anymore you never share their secrets, because they told you that in confidence when they were close to you. ”

http://twitter.com/goodquoteco (via kushandwizdom)

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kushandwizdom

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[nsid-deactivated20160325]

Iss zamaane mein wafaa ki talaash na kar Ghalib, Wo zamaana aur tha jab makaan kache aur log sacche hua karte the

[yayikzamana]

Mirza Ghalib  (via ranimehlandi)

“Do not search for loyalty in this age, That was a different time when the houses were made of mud and the people were honest”

(via fly-underground)

[words-of-emotion]

Choose the person who makes you better.

(via words-of-emotion)

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words-of-emotion

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kushandwizdom

)

[violentwavesofemotion-deactivat]

It is rare indeed that people give. Most people guard and keep; they suppose that it is they themselves and what they identify with themselves that they are guarding and keeping, whereas what they are actually guarding and keeping is their system of reality and what they assume themselves to be. One can give nothing whatever without giving oneself—that is to say, risking oneself.

James Baldwin, from “The Fire Next Time” (via violentwavesofemotion)

[blackgirlshairrock]

Ruby Bridges was the first African-American child to attend an all-white public elementary school in the American South.

[ninasdrafts]

We accept less than we deserve because we’re too scared of wanting more.

13 words n.j. (via ninasdrafts)

[kushandwizdom]

“ Always remember, God will never take anything away from you without the intention of replacing it with something much better. ”

http://twitter.com/goodquoteco (via kushandwizdom)