All efforts at self-transformation challenge us to engage in on-going, critical self-examination and reflection about feminist practice, and about how we live… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
The most basic activism we can have in our lives is to live consciously in a nation living in fantasies. Living consciously… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
Feminist effort to end patriarchal domination should be of primary concern precisely because it insists on the eradication of exploitation and oppression… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
To be changed by ideas was pure pleasure. But to learn ideas that ran counter to values and beliefs learned at home… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
If any female feels she need anything beyond herself to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
The one person who will never leave us, whom we will never lose, is ourself. Learning to love our female selves is… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
The wounded heart learns self-love by first overcoming low self-esteem. — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
Within the new self-help books for women, patriarachy and male domination are rarely identified as forces that lead to the oppression, exploitation,… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
Of all the definitions of love that abound in our universe, a special favorite of mine is... “the will to extend one's… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
It's in the act of having to do things that you don't want to that you learn something about moving past the… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
In an ideal world we would all learn in childhood to love ourselves. We would grow, being secure in our worth and… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
Whether we learn how to love ourselves and others will depend on the presence of a loving environment. Self-love cannot flourish in… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
When we work with love we renew the spirit; that renewal is an act of self-love, it nurtures our growth. — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
Relationships are treated like Dixie cups. They are the same. They are disposable. If it does not work, drop it, throw it… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
To counter the fixation on a rhetoric of victimhood, black folks must engage in a discourse of self-determination. — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
Any woman who wishes to be an intellectual, to write non-fiction, to deal with theory, faces a lot of discrimination coming her… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
Even the wealthiest professional woman can be "brought down" by being in a relationship where she longs to be loved and is… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
Self-love is the foundation of our loving practice. Without it our other efforts to love fail. Giving ourselves love we provide our… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
I can be critical of Beyoncé and yet also appreciate aspects of her power and representation. I can especially critique the way… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
People with healthy self-esteem do not need to create pretend identities. — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
The first act of violence that patriarchy demands of males is not violence toward women. Instead patriarchy demands of all males that… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
I think this is often misunderstood in the West, where people feel that there can be no justice unless everything is the… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
It is important for this country to make its people so obsessed with their own liberal individualism that they do not have… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
In order for me to engage in a revolutionary struggle for collective Black self-determination, I have to engage feminism because that becomes… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
Women are often belittled for trying to resurrect these men and bring them back to life and to love. They are in… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
Right now, for many Americans, class is being foregrounded like never before because of the economic situation. It doesn't mean that race doesn't matter,… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
“Most folks believe we are hardwired biologically to long for sex but they do not believe we are hardwired to long for love. Almost… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
... we need to interrogate "reverence," for idolization can be another way one is objectified and not really taken seriously. — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
The power of patriarchy has been to make maleness feared and to make men feel that it is better to be feared that to… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
“I feel enormously blessed to be a successful black woman writer in this culture, but I have found my small fame, such as it… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
In this culture, the phrase 'black woman' is not synonymous with 'tender,' or 'gentle.' It's as if those words couldn't possibly speak to the… — bell hooks Copy Share Image
It's interesting to look at all the aspects where everyday Americans, many of whom are not college educated, are thinking deeply now about our… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
The true teacher is within us. A good teacher is someone who can help you to go back and touch the true teacher within,… — Bell Hooks Copy Share Image
“Advancing the notion that there can be many "feminisms" has served the conservative and liberal political interests of women seeking status and privileged class… — bell hooks Copy Share Image
