TOP TEN TUESDAY | MEMORABLE QUOTES FROM BOOKS

I have trouble with posts that call for quotes. I don’t note them down as I’m reading, and I have a terrible memory. So only a few of these come directly from my own reading, the rest I vaguely remembered and had to look up. I’ve included a couple of quotes that stood out to me or touched me this year, but most of these quotes are about a topic I’ve been studying: racism. It’s such an important issue. It always has been, but it’s been getting discussed more, and I’m in full support of that. So here are some of the quotes that stood out to me on the topic.

First a couple that aren’t on topic:

“I began to realize that coming in such close contact with my own mortality had changed both nothing and everything. Before my cancer was diagnosed, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when. After the diagnosis, I knew that someday I would die, but I didn’t know when. But now I knew it acutely. The problem wasn’t really a scientific one. The fact of death is unsettling. Yet there is no other way to live.” – When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi

“I will always aspire to contain my shit as best I can, but I am no longer interested in hiding my dependencies in an effort to appear superior to those who are more visibly undone or aching.” – The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson

And now on to some of my favourite quotes on race:

“I know what the world has done to my brother and how narrowly he has survived it. And I know, which is much worse, and this is the crime of which I accuse my country and my countrymen, and for which neither I nor time nor history will ever forgive them, that they have destroyed and are destroying hundreds of thousands of lives and do not know it and do not want to know it. One can be, indeed one must strive to become, tough and philosophical concerning destruction and death, for this is what most of mankind has been best at since we have heard of man. (But remember: most of mankind is not all of mankind.) But it is not permissible that the authors of devastation should also be innocent. It is the innocence which constitutes the crime.” – The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

“Black people love their children with a kind of obsession. You are all we have, and you come to us endangered.” – Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“And don’t make the mistake of calling us resilient. To not have been destroyed, to not have given up, to have survived, is no badge of honor. Would you call an attempted murder victim resilient?” – There There by Tommy Orange

“There’s no White History Month because we celebrate the accomplishments of white people Every. Single. Day. White people have always been esteemed in this country, have always been celebrated. Black people have had to push to celebrate themselves and their culture in public.” – Uncomfortable Conversations With a Black Man by Emmanuel Acho

“The entire narrative of this country argues against the truth of who you are.” – Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates

“So many black families spend all of their time trying to fix the problems of the past. That is the curse of being black and poor, and it is a curse that follows you from generation to generation. My mother calls it ‘the black tax.’ Because the generations that have come before you have been pillaged, rather than being free to use your skills and education to move forward, you lose everything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero.” – Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

“Where the really sincere people have got to do their ‘proving’ of themselves is not among the black victims, but out on the battle lines of where America’s racism really is – and that’s in their own home communities.” – The Autobiography of Malcolm X by Malcolm X and Alex Haley

“We should hope not for a colorblind society but instead for a world in which we can see each other fully, learn from each other, and do what we can to respond to each other with love. That was King’s dream – a society that is capable of seeing each of us, as we are, with love. That is a goal worth fighting for.” – The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander

Most of these are books I’ve read, with the exception of the final quote which I’ve read, but haven’t yet completed the whole book. All of these ideas have stuck with me, though, and have informed my perspective on race and racism. I’d love to hear any quotes on this topic – or, if you can’t remember specific quotes, any books you’ve read that have left you with some important ideas to consider.

Top Ten Tuesday is a weekly link-up feature created by The Broke and the Bookish and hosted by Jana at That Artsy Reader Girl. Every week TTT has a different topic, and everyone who links up has to create a link of ten items that fit that topic. To see past and upcoming topics, go here.