Quotes to promote courage

I find it helpful to know what other people have said about courage, about failing, about injustice, etc., since I am working against injustice, trying to find courage to step up to the plate again, and working with the awareness that failure is part of the process.

Coincidentally, a friend sent me a blog post she thought I'd be interested in.  At the end of it was a series of quotes which I found very relevant to my above concerns.  I found them helpful so I'm pasting them here.  The link to the blog is at the end of the quotes in case you're interesting in exploring more.

There may be times when we are powerless to prevent injustice, but there must never be a time when we fail to protest.

            - Elie Wiesel

A patriot must always be ready to defend his country against his government.

            - Edward Abbey

You just need to be a flea against injustice. Enough committed fleas biting strategically can make even the biggest dog uncomfortable and transform even the biggest nation.

            - Marian Wright Edelman

We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.

            - Elie Wiesel

To sin by silence when they should protest makes cowards of men.

            - Abraham Lincoln

Silence becomes cowardice when occasion demands speaking out the whole truth and acting accordingly.

            - Mahatma Gandhi

If I were to remain silent, I'd be guilty of complicity.

            - Albert Einstein

Who can protest an injustice, but does not, is an accomplice to the act

            - The Talmud

Urge me not to use moderation in a cause like the present. I am in earnest. I will not equivocate. I will not excuse. I will not retreat a single inch. And I will be heard.

            - William Lloyd Garrison

Never be afraid to raise your voice for honesty and truth and compassion against injustice and lying and greed. If people all over the world...would do this, it would change the earth

            - William Faulkner

It hurts to care; the courage to care is the profoundest courage there is.

            - Julia Butterfly Hill

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

            - Edmund Burke

If one is forever cautious, can one remain a human being?

            - Aleksander Solzhenitsyn

To dare - is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare - is to lose oneself.

            - Soren Kierkegaard

He who risks and fails can be forgiven. He who never risks and never fails is a failure in his whole being.

            - Paul Tillich

It is only by risking our person from one hour to another that we live at all.

            - William James

 www.lindagraham-mft.net

Albert Camus' speech at the Nobel Prize in Literature Banquet, 1957

I found this in the magazine for the French Film Festival here in Richmond.  I like what he wrote.  It feels true to me.  I am working these days to try to figure out how to express myself in such a way that affects people and makes them more aware of the state of our world (i.e. my piece about the vaginal probe, my pieces about women's body image).  Camus wrote about the oppression of the world during WWII.  He refers to that here:

For myself, I cannot live without my art. But I have never placed it above everything. If, on the other hand, I need it, it is because it cannot be separated from my fellow men, and it allows me to live, such as I am, on one level with them. It is a means of stirring the greatest number of people by offering them a privileged picture of common joys and sufferings. It obliges the artist not to keep himself apart; it subjects him to the most humble and the most universal truth. And often he who has chosen the fate of the artist because he felt himself to be different soon realizes that he can maintain neither his art nor his difference unless he admits that he is like the others. The artist forges himself to the others, midway between the beauty he cannot do without and the community he cannot tear himself away from. That is why true artists scorn nothing: they are obliged to understand rather than to judge. And if they have to take sides in this world, they can perhaps side only with that society in which, according to Nietzsche's great words, not the judge but the creator will rule, whether he be a worker or an intellectual.

By the same token, the writer's role is not free from difficult duties. By definition he cannot put himself today in the service of those who make history; he is at the service of those who suffer it. Otherwise, he will be alone and deprived of his art. Not all the armies of tyranny with their millions of men will free him from his isolation, even and particularly if he falls into step with them. But the silence of an unknown prisoner, abandoned to humiliations at the other end of the world, is enough to draw the writer out of his exile, at least whenever, in the midst of the privileges of freedom, he manages not to forget that silence, and to transmit it in order to make it resound by means of his art.

None of us is great enough for such a task. But in all circumstances of life, in obscurity or temporary fame, cast in the irons of tyranny or for a time free to express himself, the writer can win the heart of a living community that will justify him, on the one condition that he will accept to the limit of his abilities the two tasks that constitute the greatness of his craft: the service of truth and the service of liberty. Because his task is to unite the greatest possible number of people, his art must not compromise with lies and servitude which, wherever they rule, breed solitude. Whatever our personal weaknesses may be, the nobility of our craft will always be rooted in two commitments, difficult to maintain: the refusal to lie about what one knows and the resistance to oppression.

Artists as World Leaders

In response to my blog posts of the last couple of days, I received this essay from Dawn Flores, a very powerful dance teacher, artist, creative woman.  I love it!  It was apparently written in 1981 at a conference on creativity and the oppression that artists experience in doing their work.

Artists as World Leaders

"Everyone is continually creative in infinite ways in their lives, but we who have chosen to dedicate parts of our lives to our creative work as artists have particular joys and difficulties to face.  The works of artists shine forth as some of the most magnificent achievements of humanity.  Artists are, however, viciously oppressed economically and in other ways, battling numerous “harmful stereotypes, damaging competition which deeps us apart, tremendous financial insecurity in most cases (or giving up altogether on being paid for what we do), and constant devaluation of our work. 

Artists have always been, are now, and will continue to be in the vanguard of social change.  We constantly have the choice, and need to be encouraged if so inclined, to see ourselves as leaders in the world, putting our and using our art as a tool for humanity’s re-emergence.  We can choose whether to be client or counselor to our audience.  We can create opportunities to do, display, perform, publish our work; systems of financial and emotional support; opportunities to grow and lead and learn from other artists.

It is important for people outside our oppression to listen thoroughly to how tough (as well as good) it has been for us as artists, and constantly hold out to us the vision of our full possibilities.  We need to see and be treated as people first, artists second.  We are under tremendous pressure to stay productive, and we, ourselves, need to be validated, as well as our work.  Don’t ask immediately “what are you doing next?” Expect change and growth in our work, and be aware when commenting on it.  Probably every artist has a frozen need for ravenous praise and applause, and at the same time, hungers for an honest response, even if negative.  Remember that art works are marvelously complex things to be thought about and measured in many, many more ways that the rigid yardstick—”Is it good?”.  Also, though we have slack in the area of creativity and are happy to encourage people, think twice before telling us (with a sigh) how you always wished you could play guitar.  It makes us feel separate and tends to reinforce the artist as superhuman/weirdo stereotype.

We are workers.  We are usually highly skilled and low paid.  Art is not a magically delivered talent that comes automatically: we have to learn what we do.  RC learning theory applies to our skills as well.  It is not a privilege to do art; it is our job (even if we have other work).  We do it because we love it and because we must work.  No one who has a challenging, creative job should be considered lucky—we all have that right.

Art is powerful.  Single songs have fired whole movements (The Marseillaise, The Internationale, We Shall Overcome).  Single works have brought into focus whole cultures and historical periods (the poems of Sappho, the Easter Island statues, Guernica).  The ability to create art has made large differences for individuals and communities.  In the context of social change, this power could be tapped much more fully.  The capitalist establishment uses art very knowledgeably towards its goals—and if art can sell toothpaste, why not socialism?  As we artists become interested in world changing, it is important to remember to use what we do best; it isn’t necessary to click envelopes for our favorite world change group when we can use our art to further our world goals.  At the same time we are not in political groups as transmitter of policy created by others—the artist as megaphone.  We are are own thinkers.  We need not do only our art.  We are fine human beings in every way and we shap our lives and environments as we see fit.

Finally, there is a great power in this fact: we are, most of us, doing the work we love best.  That can make us profoundly effective—acting on our best thinking, where our heart lies."

Report of the Artists as World Leader Support Group

Nuit, Marty P., Ed Rejuney, Roger Rosen, Vicky Rovere, Jesse Tassencourt, Cathy Winter

As Wide World Changing Workshop III, November, 1981