CURATED COLLECTION

Staying Humble

The wisest people in history were often the first to admit how little they understood.

31 quotes found

“
What is a self, if not a story told in a borrowed tongue?

—Meena AlexanderPoet & Memoirist

Late Modern ERA • South Asia

“
Sometimes, silence is the loudest sound. It speaks volumes of unspoken truths.

—Pham Thi HoaiNovelist & Essayist

Late Modern ERA • Southeast Asia

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Fear is a mirror; it shows us what we most deeply dread within ourselves.

—Amparo DávilaWriter

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
Don't be in a hurry to condemn because he doesn't do what you do or think as you think.

—Malcolm XActivist & Minister

Post-War ERA • North America

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Everyone has a secret, but that doesn't mean it should be told.

—Keri HulmeNovelist

Late Modern ERA • Oceania

“
Even if you dislike a woman, it is still possible to understand her.

—Zhang AilingWriter & Novelist

Early Modern ERA • East Asia

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The monstrous always dwells in our innermost self.

—Armonía SomersNovelist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
I had to listen to myself to find what was real.

—Lauryn HillAuthor & Thinker

Late Modern ERA • North America

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Language is such that you struggle to exist simultaneously everywhere.

—Claudia RankinePoet & Essayist

Digital Age ERA • Caribbean

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I am trying to remember, it is a difficult thing to do.

—Jean RhysNovelist

Post-War ERA • Caribbean

“
To believe you are magnificent. And gradually to discover that you are not magnificent.

—Czesław MiłoszPoet, Novelist & Essayist

Post-War ERA • Eastern Europe

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To write about these lives is to risk embellishment, sentimentality, projection.

—Saidiya HartmanScholar & Author

Digital Age ERA • North America

“
Grief does not change you. It reveals you.

—Bessie HeadNovelist

Post-War ERA • Southern Africa

“
No one can be happy who has not been honest with herself.

—Henrik IbsenPlaywright

Industrial Age ERA • Nordic

“
Words do not fall like rain. They fall like stones.

—Alejandra PizarnikPoet

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
Writing became a way of making sense of life.

—Bessie HeadNovelist

Late Modern ERA • Southern Africa

“
Fear is humanity's oldest and most powerful emotion.

—Rosa MonteroJournalist & Novelist

Digital Age ERA • Southern Europe

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The tension between standing apart and being involved — that is what a writer is.

—Nadine GordimerNovelist & Activist

Post-War ERA • Southern Africa

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One must be naked to understand cruelty.

—Armonía SomersNovelist

Post-War ERA • Latin America

“
I think in one language and I dream in another.

—Abdelkebir KhatibiSociologist, Novelist & Philosopher

Post-War ERA • North Africa

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