Quotes from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter

J. Nozipo Maraire ·  208 pages

Rating: (1K votes)


“There is not a man in the world who is worth your dignity. Do not confuse self-sacrifice with love.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter


“To love is a beautiful, mysterious event; do not miss it. Be neither too cautious nor too absorbed. Too many of us reason with our heart and experience with our heads.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter


“Welcome, my dear, to the Western world, land of democracy, freedom, and bigotry.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter


“Until we begin to put pen to paper, we historically do not exist.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter


“Racism is a phenomenal thing; it is like a thick mist that obscures the vision and judgement of even great minds.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter



“The heart knows no logic beyond need and desire; the head has no senses except the common and the pragmatic. Neither, frankly, is particularly useful in love, anyway.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter


“I had once been naïve enough to believe that all would be well if you lived by the rules. Good things happened to good people, blessed are the meek, et cetera, et cetera. How disillusioned I have become since then. It hurt, because I wondered now what all the discipline, repression, and suppression had been for if it had not procured me the thing I had most wanted, and it certainly did not guarantee happiness.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter


“Foreign Cash is not the answers to our problems, my friend. Africa needs the hearts and minds of its sons and daughters to nurture it. You were our pride, Mukoma Bryon. When you did not return, a whole village lost its investment. Africa is all that we have. If we do not build it, no one else will.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter


“I suspect, even more importantly, the aged are hidden away so that we do not remember that one day we shall all walk that path, that we shall one day grow slow and stooped.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter


“You shall be distinguished overseas by your colourful plumage, graceful flight and beautiful songs. There are so many lovely features that will make you conspicuous among the flock.”
― J. Nozipo Maraire, quote from Zenzele: A Letter for My Daughter



About the author

J. Nozipo Maraire
Born place: in Harare, Zimbabwe
Born date January 1, 1966
See more on GoodReads

Popular quotes

“The Council on Foreign Relations is like an establishment country club—a
veritable Who’s Who of American policy-making. The mainstream press has
historically given scant coverage to exactly what it is that the CFR does. The
“Foreign Relations” part of the name would seem to indicate a group devoted
to the study of foreign policy objectives. Indeed, on the rare occasions that the
CFR is mentioned in the mainstream media, it is inevitably referred to as “an
influential foreign policy think tank”—makes it even more curious that so
many celebrated figures decidedly lacking in “foreign policy” experience are
or have been members.”
― Donald Jeffries, quote from Hidden History: An Exposé of Modern Crimes, Conspiracies, and Cover-Ups in American Politics


“Life isn’t a linear journey. Sometimes it’s one step backwards, two steps forward and then a jump out to the side. It’s kind of like the “Time Warp”, when you think about it.
Life follows many directions and hopefully, eventually, your mind and body and life and love, all catch up with each other.”
― Karina Halle, quote from The Pact


“The important question regarding spirituality is not which God you follow but are you true to your soul? Are you living a spiritual life? Are you a kind person here on earth, getting joy from your existence, causing no harm, and doing good to others?”
― Brian L. Weiss, quote from Same Soul, Many Bodies: Discover the Healing Power of Future Lives through Progression Therapy


“One time Bonaventure heard the graphite of a pencil rasp across a piece of paper and leave a slight and quivered mark behind. He listened so hard he heard the graphite's history, when it was still a part of metamorphic rock that didn't know it would one day almost capture what was almost a thought from the mind of an insane man.”
― quote from The Silence of Bonadventure Arrow


“What did you think I would do? Ask her if I could braid her hair after we gave each other facials and painted our toenails?
Marcus”
― Dianne Duvall, quote from Night Reigns


Interesting books

The Water is Wide
(16.5K)
The Water is Wide
by Pat Conroy
The Silkworm
(162.3K)
The Silkworm
by Robert Galbraith
Through a Glass, Darkly
(5.8K)
Through a Glass, Dar...
by Jostein Gaarder
Other Voices, Other Rooms
(10.9K)
Other Voices, Other...
by Truman Capote
Catching Jordan
(54.1K)
Catching Jordan
by Miranda Kenneally
The Last Guardian
(42.3K)
The Last Guardian
by Eoin Colfer

About BookQuoters

BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

Founded in 2023, BookQuoters has quickly become a large and vibrant community of people who share an affinity for books. Books are seen by some as a throwback to a previous world; conversely, gleaning the main ideas of a book via a quote or a quick summary is typical of the Information Age but is a habit disdained by some diehard readers. We feel that we have the best of both worlds at BookQuoters; we read books cover-to-cover but offer you some of the highlights. We hope you’ll join us.