Rupi Kaur writes deep poems about women strength, beauty, love and life to name a few. She so beautifully puts together short poems and quotes that make women rethink how they look and act in society. We all need a good quote here and there whether it’s to use as an Instagram caption or as a self-affirmation in the morning. These 12 Rupi Kaur quotes will change your life from your outlook on it to how you see yourself.
““i want to apologize to all the women i have called beautiful
before i’ve called them intelligent or brave
i am sorry i made it sound as though
something as simple as what you’re born with
is all you have to be proud of
when you have broken mountains with your wit
from now on i will say things like
you are resilient, or you are extraordinary
not because i don’t think you’re beautiful
but because i need you to know
you are more than that”
―
Women are judged just by their looks majority of the time in society. We are expected to always look our best because that is all people see. Beauty isn’t really something we can control and doesn’t reflect our skills or character if we are beautiful. What about the women who aren’t born with beauty? Society see’s them as less valuable even though their looks have nothing to do with who they are. What about the women who are beautiful but have so many other strengths? We and society shouldn’t focus on genetics and what we look like but on who we are as a person. It’s much more of a compliment to call someone strong than beautiful because that strength came from experiences and that person had to work to be strong. Society should hold less value on what we look like that the many other good qualities we have that are not only gender neutral but reflect who we are as a person.
“Loneliness is a sign you are in desperate need of yourself.”
― Milk and Honey
So many people, especially women, think that loneliness is a bad thing. Society has told us that we can’t do things by ourself or spend too much time alone. Although, being around people is essential to happiness, so is being alone. Stages in your life usually come at the right time and if you’re feeling lonely, that could be a sign that you need to be lonely, that you need to reconnect with who you are and what makes you happy. It’s so easy to lose ourselves in other people, especially when in a relationship, that is why it is important to reconnect with yourself once in while to remember who you really are.
“if you were born with the weakness to fall you were born with the strength to rise”
― Milk and Honey
So many people think that when something bad happens, it will stay bad forever. That when you’re depressed, you’ll always be depressed or when you’re unemployed it will always be that way. But if bad things can happen, so can good things. If you keep pushing, then things will turn out how you want them to or will result in a way that leaves you happy. Just as bad things happen in your life so can good things and you just have to stay positive.
“you tell me to quiet down cause my opinions make me less beautiful but i was not made with a fire in my belly so i could be put out i was not made with a lightness on my tongue so i could be easy to swallow i was made heavy half blade and half silk difficult to forget and not easy for the mind to follow”
― Milk and Honey
Women are expected to be quiet and complacent. They are seen as loud and talkative only because they are expected to be quiet. Women dumb themselves down to seem more attractive and many are told that you can’t be both smart and attractive almost as if being smart makes you less attractive. We are told to fit into categories i.e. smart, beautiful, funny, athletic and we can’t possibly fit into all of the categories. Women and society need to be taught that being smart and having opinions is beautiful and makes you more attractive not less.
“stay strong through your pain
grow flowers from it
you have helped me
grow flowers out of mine so
bloom beautifully
dangerously
loudly
bloom softly
however you need
just bloom”
― Milk and Honey
Pain makes you stronger but pain can also destroy you if you don’t fight through it. Beautiful things can come from pain, you can become stronger, more compassionate, more residents and the list goes on and on. This poem urges it’s readers to stay strong through pain and turn it into something beautiful instead of breaking under it.
“for you to see beauty here
does not mean
there is beauty in me
it means there is beauty rooted
so deep within you
you can’t help but
see it everywhere”
― Milk and Honey
So many women fail to see their own beauty and strengths and are easy to point them out in others. We see other women’s good qualities and think that it is because we do not process the same qualities but
this poem urges us to look within are selves and see that the traits we like in other people are often ones we possess ourselves.
“how is it so easy for you to be kind to people he asked milk and honey dripped from my lips as i answered cause people have not been kind to me”
― Milk and Honey
It is often said that the kindest people are the people who are the most sad or who have gone through the most pain and this poem urges people to be kind to kind people or just be kind to everyone because you never know what someone is going through or has been through.
“the world gives you so much pain and here you are making gold out of it
– there is nothing purer than that”
― Milk and Honey
Everybody has hard stuff to deal with in life even if it doesn’t seem like. We’re expected to act like everything’s ok all the time and that’s hard. People should get more respect for their resilience.
“fall
in love
with your solitude”
― Milk and Honey
Falling in love with your solitude is like falling in love with yourself and getting in tune with your wants and needs as their are a lot of people who always put others before them selves. Also, you have to be in love with yourself before loving anyone else.
“we all move forward when we recognize how resilient and striking the women around us are.”
-Rupi Kaur
It’s important to have strong women around you to lift you up and help you keep going when you’re down and it’s important for women to lift other women up.
“You tell me
I am not like most girls
and learn to kiss me with your eyes closed
something about the phrase– something about
how I have to be unlike the women
i call sisters in order to be wanted
makes me want to spit your tongue out
like i am supposed to be proud you picked me
as if i should be relieved you think
i am better than them”
-Rupi Kaur
Many women would takes this as a compliment as they see themselves in a competition with every other women and the need to feel better than them but we need to band together and stop putting echoer down making it more easy for men to do.
“Sadness looks the same across all cultures, races and communities. So does happiness and joy.”
-Rupi Kaur
W are constantly trying to divide and although language is a barrier, we’re all just human at the end of the day and our emotions can connect us.
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