when clarice lispector said “respect yourself more than others, respect your needs, respect even what is bad in you—respect especially what you imagine to be bad in you—for the love of God, don’t try to make yourself into somebody perfect—don’t copy an ideal person, copy yourself—that is the one way to live. take for yourself what belongs to you, and what belongs to you is all that your life demands. it seems like an amoral moral. but what is truly amoral is having given up on yourself. have the courage to transform yourself, my darling”
