Who am I to be brilliant?

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of G-d. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of G-d that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”

----from A Return to Love, by Marianne Williamson.

Quotes from bell hooks:
"The transformative power of love is the foundation of all meaningful social change,"
- bell hooks

"I began writing a book on love because I felt that the United States is moving away from love."

"I have been thinking about the notion of perfect love as being without fear, and what that means for us in a world that's becoming increasingly xenophobic, tortured by fundamentalism and nationalism."

"We judge on the basis of what somebody looks like, skin color, whether we think they're beautiful or not. That space on the Internet allows you to converse with somebody with none of those things involved."

"When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people, we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us."

"Yesterday I was thinking about the whole idea of genius and creative people, and the notion that if you create some magical art, somehow that exempts you from having to pay attention to the small things."

"Love is an action, never simply a feeling."

"If I do not speak in a language that can be understood there is little chance for a dialogue."

"In a culture of domination, preoccupation with victimage is inevitable."

"Writing and performing should deepen the meaning of words, should illuminate, transfix and transform."

"I still think it's important for people to have a sharp, ongoing critique of marriage in patriarchal society — because once you marry within a society that remains patriarchal, no matter how alternative you want to be within your unit, there is still a culture outside you that will impose many, many values on you whether you want them to or not."

"The overall impact of postmodernism is that many other groups now share with black folks a sense of deep alienation, despair, uncertainty, loss of sense of grounding even if it is not informed by shared circumstance."

" Many spiritual teachers - in Buddhism, in Islam - have talked about first-hand experience of the world as an important part of the path to wisdom, to enlightenment. "

"Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression."

"Life-transforming ideas have always come to me through books."

"The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom..."

"Writing is my passion. It is a way to experience the ecstatic. The root understanding of the word ecstasy –‘to stand outside’—comes to me in those moments when I am immersed so deeply in the act of thinking and writing that everything else, even flesh, falls away.” –bell hooks, Remembered Rapture: dancing with words"