#dent

Be tough minded but tenderhearted. ↗

— H. Jackson Brown Jr.

#independent-thought #inspirational #life #inspirational

[Transcendentalism maintains] that man has ideas, that come not through the five sense, or the powers of reasoning; but are either the result of direct revelation from God, his immediate inspiration, or his immanent presence in the spiritual world. ↗

— Charles Mayo Ellis

#transcendentalism #unitarianism #inspirational

If no one had ever challenged religious authority, there’d be no democracy, no public schools, women’s rights, improvements to science and medicine, evolution of slavery and no laws against child abuse or spousal abuse. I was afraid to challenge my religious beliefs because that was the basis of creation—mine anyway. I was afraid to question the Bible or anything in it, and when I did, that’s when I became involved with PFLAG and realized that my son was a perfectly normal human being and there was nothing for God to heal because Bobby was perfect just the way he was. ↗

— Mary Griffith

#gay-rights #independent-thought #inspirational #religion #inspirational

Confidence is like a dragon where, for every head cut off, two more heads grow back. ↗

— Criss Jami

#confidence #confident #determination #dragon #dragons

We do not behave out of our identity, we behave out of our understanding of our identity in Christ. ↗

— Shelley Hendrix

#identity #identity-in-christ #inspirational #purpose #inspirational

It is easier to live through someone else than to complete yourself. The freedom to lead and plan your own life is frightening if you have never faced it before. It is frightening when a woman finally realizes that there is no answer to the question 'who am I' except the voice inside herself. ↗

— Betty Friedan

#feminism #identity #independence #living-vicariously #self-discovery

I am not an angel," I asserted; "and I will not be one till I die: I will be myself. ↗

— Charlotte Brontë

#empowerment #flaws #freedom #gender #ideal-woman

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

#freedom #job #students #freedom

When we blindly adopt a religion, a political system, a literary dogma, we become automatons. ↗

— Anaïs Nin

#dogma #freedom-of-thought #independent-thought #inspirational #politics

Just as the sea is an open and ever flowing reality, so should our oceanic identity transcend all forms of insularity, to become one that is openly searching, inventive, and welcoming. ↗

— Epeli Hauʻofa

#inspirational #pacific #inspirational