# Quote — Toni Cade Bambara, The Salt Eaters

> So used to being unwhole and unwell, one forgot what it was to walk upright and see clearly, breathe easily, think better than was taught, be better than one was programmed to believe—so concentration was necessary to help a neighbor experience the best of herself or himself. For people sometimes believed that it was safer to live with complaints, was necessary to cooperate with grief, was all right to become an accomplice in self-ambush.

- Author: [Toni Cade Bambara](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-cade-bambara.md)
- Book: [The Salt Eaters](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-cade-bambara/the-salt-eaters.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Toni_Cade_Bambara#The_Salt_Eaters_(1980)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-cade-bambara/the-salt-eaters/so-used-to-being

## More from this book

> Got to give it all up, the pain, the hurt, the anger and make room for lovely things to rush in and fill you full.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-cade-bambara/the-salt-eaters/got-to-give.md)

> Then the silence. A whole generation silent

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-cade-bambara/the-salt-eaters/then-the-silence.md)

> She would not break her discipline to comfort herself in a shallow way. Would no more break discipline with her Self than she would her covenant with God.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/toni-cade-bambara/the-salt-eaters/she-would-not.md)