"I defend my right to be complex."

— Leslie Feinberg

"My body and the bodies of the people I love are the most intimate sites of American imperialism. Because our sex anatomy isn’t normal, they operate on us without our consent. Because who we have sex with isn’t normal, they won’t let us get married. Because our gender isn’t normal, they don’t give us jobs, health care, or housing. We work, we pay rent, we pay taxes, but because we’re not normal, we don’t get the same freedoms other Americans enjoy, the same freedoms American soldiers are murdering to protect.
Normal is a weapon of mass destruction. It’s just as deadly, and just like those weapons, it’ll never be found."

—

Thea Hillman in her memoir Intersex (for lack of a better word), 2008

via Quote of the day: Normal « Shapely Prose

"There Is A Voice Inside Of You
That Whispers All Day Long,
‘I Feel That This Is Right For Me,
I Know That This Is Wrong.’
No Teacher, Preacher, Parent, Friend
Or Wise Man Can Decide
What’s Right For You - Just Listen To
The Voice That Speaks Inside."

— Shel Silverstein

(Source: cognitivedissonance, via mappingindiana)

"All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself."

—

Ralph Ellison, Invisible Man

I recently found my old copy of Invisible Man. It was my favorite book in high school. I wrote my college essay on it. This paragraph was underlined in my book. It’s funny, because I think this was my favorite quote before I really even had the courage to follow the advice it imparts. It was probably 4 years after I underlined this that I really started asking myself the questions that I only I could answer.

"You cannot change your destination overnight, but you can change your direction overnight."

— Jim Rohn