Why Rupi Kaur's Quotes Are My Favourite Thing Right Now

Lately I've been obsessively looking at Rupi Kaur's 'Milk and Honey' quotes and saving them to my phone for safe keeping as well as inspiration. So for those who aren't familiar with Rupi Kaur: She is a famous poet on Instagram, popular for her feminist short poems. They're empowering, beautiful and relatable works of art. She's the feminist we all need, who utilises such struggles in order to advocate towards women and young girls recognising their own strengths, while projecting the notion of equality for all and in fact everyone should be a feminist because after all we are all equal human beings who deserve respect and love no matter what ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender or profession. She delivers a woman-positive message in a completely unapologetic and empowering manner.

Rupi Kaur’s writing offers an extraordinary look into the purest form of feminism and a goal that reaches much beyond the infiltrated negative associations often around the term “feminism." She works to highlight the strength of women and defeat a stigma surrounding women since the dawn of time, carefully and consistently calling women names such as “resilient” or “extraordinary” before she calls them “pretty.” In doing so, she projects the notion that "pretty" is lovely and "pretty" is impactful in a self-confidence manner, but "pretty" as a compliment is not strong or powerful, and does not signify one's importance to the world at large.

In her own words, " 'Milk and Honey' is a collection of poetry about survival... it is about the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. We all know being a woman is hard, sometimes, but to know that other women are facing almost similar to worse circumstances makes it easier for all of us to stand together and face womanhood together, Rupi Kaur is setting an example and paving the road for young outspoken women, allowing girls to feel confident and empowered by their life experiences, and ultimately, being a woman. We are really brave to be ourselves in a society where girls are thought to be everything but themselves. We can be whoever we want to be, inside and outside. We don't have to follow the rules people create for us any longer.

It's a feminism handbook, really. It brings home messages that need to be heard loudly. We are so much more than our bodies. We are intelligent, strong creatures and our appearances and functions are not something to be commented on like a football game. She encourages you to grow flowers in sites of destruction and to provide yourself with the tools to love yourself and others. The collection celebrates inner beauty, deflecting beauty standards and those who prioritize physical appearances.

1. "Whats the greatest lesson a woman should learn? 

that since day one. she's already has everything

she needs within herself. it's the world that

convinced her she did not"

2. "we all move forward when

we recognize how resilient

and striking the women

around us are"

3. “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”

4. "what terrifies me most is how we

foam at the mouth with envy

when others succeed

but sigh in relief

when they are failing

our struggle to

celebrate each other is

what's proven most difficult

in being human"

5. "if you were born with
the weakness to fall
you were born
with the strength to rise"

6. "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."

7. " your body

is a museum

of natural disasters

can you grasp how

stunning that is"

8. "i know it's hard

believe me

i know it feels like

tomorrow will never come

and today will be the most

difficult day to get through

but i swear you will get through

the hurt will pass

as it always does

if you give it time and

let it so let it

go

slowly

like a broken promise

let it go"

9. "we are all born

so beautiful

the greatest tragedy is

being convinced we are not"

10. “i am water

soft enough

to offer life

tough enough

to drown it away” 

11. "the world

gives you

so much pain

and here you are

making gold out of it

- there is nothing purer than that"

12. “i want to apologize to all the women 

i have called pretty.

 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 the most you have to be proud of 

when your spirit has crushed mountains

 from now on i will say things like you are resilient

 or you are extraordinary 

not because i don’t think you’re pretty 

but because you are so much more than that” 

13. “other women's bodies
are not our battlegrounds” 

14. “it was when I stopped searching for home within others
and lifted the foundations of home within myself
I found there were no roots more intimate
than those between a mind and body
that have decided to be whole.”

15. “i do not want to have you to fill
the empty parts of me i want to be full on my own
i want to be so complete i could light a whole city
and then i want to have you
cause the two of us combined could set it on fire”

16. “i don’t know what living a balanced life feels like
when i am sad
i don’t cry i pour
when i am happy
i don’t smile i glow
when i am angry
i don’t yell i burn
the good thing about
feeling in extremes
is when i love
i give them wings
but perhaps
that isn't
such a good thing
cause they always
tend to leave and
you should see me
when my heart is broken
i don't grieve
i shatter” 

17. "it has been one of the greatest and most difficult years of my life.
i learned everything is temporary. moments. feelings.
people. flowers. i learned love is about giving. everything.
and letting it hurt. i learned that vulnerability is always the right
choice because it is easy to be cold in a world that makes it
so very difficult to remain soft, i learned all things come in
twos. life and death. pain and joy. salt and sugar. me and you.
it is the balance of the universe. it has been the year of
hurting so bad but living so good. making friends out of
strangers. making strangers out of friends. learning
mint chocolate chip ice-cream will fix just about everything. and
for the pains it can't there will always be my mothers arm.
we must learn to focus on warm energy. always. soak our
limbs in it and become better lovers to the world. for if we
can't learn to be kinder to each other how will we ever learn
to be kinder to the most desperate parts of ourselves.

18. "fall
in love with your solitude"

19. "i like the way stretch marks
on my thighs look human that we're soft yet wild when we need to be i love that about us how capable we are of feeling how unafraid we are of breaking and tend to our wounds with grace just being a woman calling myself a woman makes me utterly whole and complete"

20. "accept yourself
as you were designed"

21. "the universe took its time on you
crafted you precisely
so you could offer the world
something distinct from everyone else
so when you doubt
how you were created
you doubt an energy greater than us both"

22. "your art is not about how many people like your work
 your art is about if your heart likes your work
if your soul likes your work
it’s about how honest you are with yourself
and you must never trade honesty for reliability"

23. "my heart aches for sisters more than anything
it aches for women helping women
like flowers ache for spring"

24. “you deserve to be
completely found
in your surroundings
not lost within them”

25. "to hate
is an easy lazy thing
but to love
takes strength
everyone has
but not all are
willing to practice"


26. "our work should equip
the next generation of women
to outdo us in every field
this is the legacy we'll leave behind"

We are flowers, cheering each other on to grow and celebrating in each other's accomplishments as we would our own. Our bodies are sacred and our minds are strong. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

"and here you are living
despite it all"

Have you read Milk and Honey? What is your favourite quote?

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