Bell Hooks Quotes

By taking responsibility for how you choose to respond to anything or anyone, you're aligning yourself with the beautiful dance of life.

It is far better to grasp the universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.

You just have to find your activism, and don't let anyone tell you what that should look like. If you're doing the work, and you're getting someone to think, you're on the right path.

Remember that consciousness is power. Consciousness is education and knowledge. Consciousness is becoming aware. It is the perfect vehicle for students. Consciousness-raising is pertinent for power, and be sure that power will not be abusively used, but used for building trust and goodwill domestically and internationally. Tomorrow's world is yours to build.

The rhythm of being an activist today involves a pretty simple rhythm. You have to open your eyes to the reality before you. You have to look and see.

Individuals who were submerged in reality, merely feeling their needs, emerge from reality and perceive the causes of their needs.

And we can't avoid an inch of our own experience; if we do it causes a blur, a bleep, a puffy unreality. Our job is to wake up to everything, because if we slow down enough, we see that we are everything.

Art and activism seem to go together naturally, the idea being that if you're an entertainer, you can have a voice, and if you have a voice, you can make a difference. But if I were not an actress, I would still try to extend myself beyond my little micro-universe of my job, family and personal joy.

A lot of exercise is mindless; you can have music or the radio on and not be aware. But if you're aware in anything you do - and it doesn't have to be yoga - it changes you. Being present changes you.

Wherever you are, be there totally. If you find your here and now intolerable and it makes you unhappy, you have three options: remove yourself from the situation, change it, or accept it totally. If you want to take responsibility for your life, you must choose one of those three options, and you must choose now. Then accept the consequences.

The truly humble feel the ground beneath their feet every day and do not only become aware of it when held aloft or pushed down to their knees.

Don't accept that you are in crisis just because everyone says you are.

And in a democracy, when we say we're mad at what's going on, what we need to be saying is we're mad at ourselves.

It's very healthy to be aware of your ego.

The real meditation practice is how we live our lives from moment to moment to moment.

You can be self-empowered and still learning about how you think about things daily.

Seeing reality for what it is is what we call discernment. The work of discernment is very hard.

My own saying is: 'Create the hype, but don't ever believe it.'

I'm challenging everybody on every side of every divide to be more who they are, to cultivate their capacity for awareness.

You learn to accept your own reality.

It is important to recognize and politics positive thinking is often the slaves' virtue - something that people do to con themselves about the burden and change being placed upon them.

You largely constructed your depression. It wasn't given to you. Therefore, you can deconstruct it.

I regret that I have not written more, shouted louder, and acted out my beliefs.

Other people do not have to change for us to experience peace of mind.

In real life, the most important decision you ever make is, where does reality leave off and make-believe begin? If you make a mistake about that, you're dead. You know, you're out on the street corner. You think there's no bus coming. You step out, you're dead.