Alaa Murabit’s family moved from Canada to Libya when she was 15. Before, she’d felt equal to her brothers, but in this new environment she sensed big …
What Islam really says about women | Alaa Murabit

Alaa Murabit’s family moved from Canada to Libya when she was 15. Before, she’d felt equal to her brothers, but in this new environment she sensed big …
Just above our terror, the stars painted this story
in perfect silver calligraphy. And our souls, too often
abused by ignorance, covered our eyes with mercy.
— Aberjhani, I Made My Boy Out of Poetry
Be thankful for a breath of fresh air to be alive and well. Allow love and happiness to penetrate throughout your mind and soul. Take time to relax and live in the moment, the now, the present. Enjoy today.
— Amaka Imani Nkosazana
To see and feel one’s beloved naked for the first time is one of life’s pure, irreducible epiphanies. If there is a true religion in the universe, it must include that truth of contact or be forever hollow. To make love to the one true person who deserves that love is one of the few absolute rewards of being a human being, balancing all of the pain, loss, awkwardness, loneliness, idiocy, compromise, and clumsiness that go with the human condition. To make love to the right person makes up for a lot of mistakes.
— Dan Simmons, The Rise of Endymion
Generally she kept her head down, but on the occasions she raised it she was treated to the most intimate of panoramic views: the scattered possessions of the three people she had created. Several small items made her cry: a tiny woollen bootie, a broken orthodontic retainer, a woggle from a cub-scout tie. She had not become Malcolm X’s private secretary. She never did direct a movie or run for the Senate. She could not fly a plane. But here was all this.
— Zadie Smith, On Beauty
One might almost say that an apparition is human vision corrected by divine love. I do not see you as you really are, Joseph; I see you through my affection for you. The Miracles of the Church seem to me not to rest so much upon faces or voices or healing power coming suddenly near to us from afar off, but upon our perceptions being made finer, so that for a moment our eyes can see and our ears can hear what is there about us always.
— Willa Cather, Death Comes for the Archbishop
People who say that they know who you are, based on you from the past, is akin to saying that they know who you are now based on clothing you once wore.
— Gillian Duce
To die,
so young to die.
No, no, not I,
I love the warm sunny skies,
light, song, shining eyes,
I want no war, no battle cry,
No, no, not I.
— Hannah Senesh
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.
— Anonymous, Holy Bible: King James Version
Separate yourself from those who hinder your vision. Make a choice to walk away from the trap set to ensnare you. Realize when someone is pulling you backwards every time you take a step forward. Separate from them and the result of your action will be a life of success.
— Amaka Imani Nkosazana
In this walk to freedom, we must, without question obtain hearts of honesty and a tongue of truthfulness.
— The Tru Sum, Excerpts To Exodus
I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.
— Madonna
And you see it happening more, it?s crazy to watch. Whether in politics, or corporate, or even sports lately? women being expected to answer and even apologize for over achievement or wanting equal pay.
But what message are we sending?
Win, but not too much.
Celebrate, but not too much.
Be empowered, but not too much.
Own your body, but not too much.
Show emotion, but not too much.
Question, but not too much.
Report injustice, but not too much.
Love yourself, but not too much.
If we want to flourish as a society, then we need to recognize this about ourselves and change it. Let?s break free from the psychological prison of inequality. And of course some people will fight to keep things as they?ve always been, but we can expect that. The warden is never happy when the prison closes. Regardless of the resistance, let?s stand up for this change anyway. Our daughters, our sisters, our moms, our neighbors, all the women in our society deserve better than that, and we are better than that. Outdated ideas inevitably lead to outdated behaviors, it?s time for an update.
— Steve Maraboli