"Death is with you all the time you get deeper in it as you move towards it, but it's not unfamiliar to you. It's always been there, so what becomes unfamiliar to you when you pass away from the moment is really life."

Life

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Thematic Reflection

This quotation examines the core nature of Life as articulated by Bell Hooks. Within historical and literary traditions, reflections on Life provide actionable mental models, challenging individuals to evaluate personal ethics, self-discipline, and daily actions.

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About Bell Hooks

Gloria Jean Watkins, better known by her pen name bell hooks, was an American philosopher, educator, author, and social critic; she was a Distinguished Professor in Residence at Berea College in Kentucky. Professor hooks wrote about race, feminism, and social class. Her work explored the intersections of race, capitalism, and gender, and what she described as their ability to produce and perpetuate systems of oppression and class domination. Her work served as foundational to the modern idea of intersectionality. She published numerous scholarly articles and nearly 40 books, in styles ranging from essays and poetry to children's literature, with a body of work that addressed love, gender, art, history, sexuality, and mass media.

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More by Bell Hooks

"The political core of any movement for freedom in the society has to have the political imperative to protect free speech."

— Bell Hooks
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"I have been thinking about the notion of perfect love as being without fear, and what that means for us in a world that's becoming increasingly xenophobic, tortured by fundamentalism and nationalism."

— Bell Hooks
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"For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?"

— Bell Hooks
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"I'm such a girl for the living room. I really like to stay in my nest and not move. I travel in my mind, and that that's a rigorous state of journeying for me. My body isn't that interested in moving from place to place."

— Bell Hooks
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More about Life

"I would borrow my mom's red Borghese lipstick and smear it on like a clown!"

— Brooke Burns
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"Wisdom principle 64 tells us that the journey of life is lesson 73."

— Natalie Babbitt
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"Most women are one man away from welfare."

— Gloria Steinem
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"I am deeply Catholic and always will be, but I'm no longer a member of the church. I left in 2003 because of the sex abuse scandal."

— Julianna Baggott
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