Voices of Inspiration: Quotes by Women

Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get = appointed as an assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get = as quickly promoted as a male schlemiel.

We are coming down from our pedestal and up from the laundry room. We = want an equal share in government and we mean to get it.

The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the = arrangement of your chromosomes.

Abigail Adams (American first lady and feminist, 1744-1818)

If particular care is not paid to the ladies, we are = determined to foment a rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by = any laws in which we have no voice, no representation.

I can not say that I think you are very generous to the Ladies, for = whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to Men, Emancipating all = Nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over Wives.

Nay why should your sex wish for such a disparity in those whom they one = day intend for companions and associates. Pardon me, sir, if I cannot = help sometimes suspecting that this neglect arises in some measure from = an ungenerous jealousy of rivals near the throne.

I regret the trifling narrow contracted education of the females of my = own country.

Partiotism in the female sex is the most disinterested of all virtues. = Excluded from honors and from offices, we cannot attach ourselves to the = State or Government from having held a place of eminence. Even in the = freest countries our property is subject to the control and disposal of = our partners, to whom the laws have given a sovereign authority. = Deprived of a voice in legislation, obliged to submit to those laws = which are impressed upon us, is it not sufficient to make us indifferent = to the public welfare? Yet all history and every age exhibit instances = of patriotic virtue in the female sex; which considering our situation = equals the most heroic of yours.

Jane Addams (American social worker, 1860-1935)

Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up = too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the = world.

The child becomes largely what it is taught; hence we must watch what we = teach it, and how we live before it.

Isabel Allende (Chilean author, 1942- )

How can one not speak about war, poverty, and inequality = when people who suffer from these afflictions don't have a voice to = speak?

Marian Anderson (American contralto, 1897-1993)

No matter how big a nation is, it is no stronger that its = weakest people, and as long as you keep a person down, some part of you = has to be down there to hold him down, so it means you cannot soar as = you might otherwise.

Maya Angelou (American writer and actor, 1928- )

We really are 15 countries, and it's remarkable that each of = us thinks we represent the real America. The Midwesterner in Kansas, the = black American in Durham - both are certain they are the real American.

The plague of racism is insidious, entering into our minds as smoothly = and quietly and invisibly as floating airborne microbes enter into our = bodies to find lifelong purchase in our bloodstreams.

The need for change bulldozed a road down the center of my = mind.

Susan B. Anthony (American suffragist, 1820-1906)

It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; not = yet we, the male citizens; but we the whole people who formed the Union.

The true Republic: men, their rights and nothing more; women, their = rights and nothing less.

Gloria Anzaldua (Tejana Chicana poet, 1942- )

I am visible -- see this Indian face -- yet I am invisible. = I both blind them with my beak nose and am their blind spot. But I = exist, we exist. They'd like to think I have melted in the pot. But I = haven't. We haven't.

I am playing with my Self, I am playing with the world's soul, I am the = dialogue between my Self and el espiritu del mundo. I change myself, I = change the world.

The struggle is inner: Chicano, indio, American Indian, mojado, = mexicano, immigrant Latino, Anglo in power, working class Anglo, Black, = Asian--our psyches resemble the bordertowns and are populated by the = same people. The struggle has always been inner, and is played out in = outer terrains. Awareness of our situation must come before inner = changes, which in turn come before changes in society. Nothing happens = in the "real" world unless it first happens in the images in our = heads.

B

You don't get to choose how you're going to die. Or when. = You can only decide how you're going to live. Now.

Pearl Bailey (American singer, actor, author, 1918-1990)

We look into mirrors but we only see the effects of our = times on us--not our effects on others.

Toni Cade Bambara (American writer and teacher, 1939- )

Revolution begins with the self, in the self.

The dream is real, my friends. The failure to make it work is the = unreality.

Alice Stone Blackwell (American suffragist and reformer, = 1857-1950)

Justice is better than chivalry if we cannot have = both.

Elizabeth Bowen (Irish novelist, 1899-1973)

If you look at life one way, there is always cause for = alarm.

Charlotte Bronte (English novelist, 1816-1855)

Prejudices, it is well known, are most difficult to = eradicate from the heart whose soil has never been loosened or = fertilized by education; they grow there, firm as weeds among = rocks.

Gwendolyn Brooks (American poet, 1917- )

It is brave to be involved
To be not fearful to be unresolved.

Nannie Burroughs (American educator, 1883-1961)

Anything that is as old as racism is in the blood line of = the nation. It's not any superficial thing--that attitude is in the = blood and we have to educate about it.

C

In spite of the honestest efforts to annihilate my = I-ity, or merge it in what the world doubtless considers my = better half, I still find myself a self-subsisting and alas! = self-seeking me.

Instead of boiling up individuals into the species, I would draw a chalk = circle round every individuality, and preach to it to keep within that, = and preserve and cultivate its identity.

Carrie Chapman Catt (American suffragist, 1859-1947)

Everybody counts in applying democracy. And there will never = be a true democracy until every responsible and law-abiding adult in it, = without regard to race, sex, color or creed has his or her own = inalienable and unpurchasable voice in government.

Lydia Maria Child (American writer, = 1802-1880)

We first crush people to the earth, and then claim the right = of trampling on them forever, because they are prostrate.

They [slaves] have stabbed themselves for freedom--jumped into the waves = for freedom--starved for freedom--fought like very tigers for freedom! = But they have been hung, and burned, and shot--and their tyrants have = been their historians!

Woman stock is rising in the market. I shall not live to see women vote, = but I'll come and rap on the ballot box.

Yours for the unshackled exercise of every faculty by every human = being.

Shirley Chisholm (First black Congresswoman in the U.S., 1924- )

In the end antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of = discrimination are equivalent to the same thing -- antihumanism.

My God, what do we want? What does any human being want? Take away an = accident of pigmentation of a thin layer of our outer skin and there is = no difference between me and anyone else. All we want is for that = trivial difference to make no difference.

Most Americans have never seen the ignorance, degradation, hunger, = sickness, and futility in which many other Americans live. Until a = problem reaches their doorsteps, they're not going to understand.

One distressing thing is the way men react to women who assert their = equality: their ultimate weapon is to call them unfeminine. They think = she is anti-male; they even whisper that she's probably a = lesbian.

Lucille Clifton (American poet, 1936- )

I do not feel inhibited or bound by what I am. That does not = mean that I have never had bad scenes relating to being black and/or a = woman, it means that other people's craziness has not managed to make me = crazy.

I write from my knowledge not my lack, from my strength not my weakness. = I am not interested if anyone knows whether or not I am familiar with = big words, I am interested in trying to render big ideas in a simple = way. I am interested in being understood not admired.

Hillary Rodham Clinton (U.S. lawyer and First Lady, 1947- )

(at her 1969 college graduation speech) ...but we also know = that to be educated, the goal of it must be human liberation--liberation = enabling each of us to fulfill our capacity so as to be free to create = within and around ourselves.

Lucy N. Colman (American abolitionist, 1818-1906)

If your Bible is an argument for the degradation of women, = and the abuse by whipping of little children, I advise you to put it = away, and use your common sense instead.

Marie Curie (Polish-born French chemist, 1867-1934)

You cannot hope to build a better world without improving = the individuals. To that end each of us must work for his own = improvement, and at the same time share a general responsibility for all = humanity, our particular duty being to aid those to whom we think we can = be most useful.

D

The longer we listen to one another--with real = attention--the more commonality we will find in all our lives. That is, = if we are careful to exchange with one another life stories and not = simply opinions.=20

We learn best to listen to our own voices if we are listening at the = same time to other women--whose stories, for all our differences, turn = out, if we listen well, to be our stories also.

Andrea Dworkin (American feminist author, 1946- )

Men who want to support women in our struggle for freedom = and justice should understand that it is not terrifically important to = us that they learn to cry; it is important to us that they stop the = crimes of violence against us.

F

In place of equal respect, the nation offered women the Miss = America beauty pageant, established in 1920 -- the same year women won = the vote.

=20 Edna Ferber (American novelist and playwright, 1885-1968)

A closed mind is a dying mind.

I am not belittling the brave pioneer men, but the sunbonnet as well as = the sombrero has helped to settle this glorious land of = ours.

Dorothy Canfield Fisher (American writer, 1879-1958)

Freedom is not worth fighting for if it means no more than = license for everyone to get as much as he can for himself.

Anne Frank (German-Jewish diarist, 1929-1945)

...the final forming of a person's character lies in their = own hands.

Antonia Fraser (American author, 1932- )

Of course there's no such thing as a totally objective = person, except Almighty God, if she exists.

Betty Friedan (American feminist, 1921- )

Who knows what women can be when they are finally free to = become themselves?

The problem that has no name--which is simply the fact that American = women are kept from growing to their full human capacities--is taking a = far greater toll on the physical and mental health of our country than any known disease.

If divorce has increased by one thousand percent, don't blame the = women's movement. Blame the obsolete sex roles on which our marriages = were based.

Margaret Fuller (American author and critic, 1810-1850)

We would have every arbitrary barrier thrown down. We would = have every path laid open to women as freely as to men. If you ask me = what offices they may fill, I reply -- any. I do not care what case you = put; let them be sea captains, if you will.

G

It is the duty of youth to bring fresh new powers to bear on = Social progress. Each generation of young people should be to the world = like a vast reserve force to a tired army. They should lift the world = forward. That is what they are for.

Nikki Giovanni (American poet and writer, 1943- )

It is not who you attend school with, but who controls the = school you attend.

I'm glad I understand that while language is a gift, listening is a = responsibility.

Everything will change. The only question is growing up or = decaying.

Whoopi Goldberg (American actor, 1955- )

Normal is in the eye of the beholder.

Ellen Goodman (American columnist, 1941- )

I have never been especially impressed by the heroics of = people who are convinced they are about to change the world. I am more = awed by those who struggle to make one small difference after = another.

Sarah Grimké (American abolitionist and suffragist, = 1792-1873)=20

I ask no favors for my sex, I surrender not our claim to = equality. All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet = from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on the ground which = God has designed us to occupy.

H

Working with children is the easiest part of educating for = democracy, because children are still undefeated and have no stake in = being prejudiced.

Edith Hamilton (American educator and writer, 1867-1963)

So far, we do not seem appalled at the prospect of exactly = the same kind of education being applied to all the school children from = the Atlantic to the Pacific, but there is an uneasiness in the air, a = realization that the individual is growing less easy to find; an idea, = perhaps, of what standardization might become when the units are not = machines, but human beings.

Lillian Hellman (American playwright, 1905-1984)

No one can argue any longer about the rights of women. It's = like arguing about earthquakes.

Reverend I. Carter Heyward (American Episcopal priest and = professor)

In the Spirit which draws us into honest engagement with one = another, including those who may be very different from us in various = ways, God calls us to wake up and learn how to love and respect one = another, period.

If we are to live with our feet on the ground, in touch with reality, we = must help one another accept the fact that we who are christian are = heirs to a body-despising, woman-fearing, sexually repressive religious = tradition. If we are to continue as members of the church, we must = challenge and transform it at the root. What is required is more than = simply a "reformation." I am speaking of revolutionary transformation. = Nothing less will do.

Eva Hoffman (Polish-born American teacher and writer, 1945- )

While we allow the inhabitants of imaginary remote corners = the authenticity of savages or sufferers, we rarely suppose them to = possess the authenticity of complex, sophistocated = perceptions.

bell hooks (American educator and writer, 1952- )

Stereotypes abound when there is distance. They are an = invention, a pretense that one knows when the steps that would make real = knowing possible cannot be taken or are not allowed.

Zora Neale Hurston (American writer, 1903-1960)

Sometimes I feel discriminated against, but it does not make = me angry. It merely astonishes me. How can they deny themselves the = pleasure of my company? It's beyond me.

I am not tragically colored. There is no great sorrow dammed up in my = soul, nor lurking behind my eyes. I do not mind at all. I do not belong = to the sobbing school of Negrohood who hold that nature somehow has = given them a low-down dirty deal and whose feelings are all hurt about = it. Even in the helter-skelter skirmish that is my life, I have seen = that the world is to the strong regardless of a little pigmentation more = or less. No, I do not weep at the world -- I am too busy sharpening my = oyster knife.

Among the thousand white persons, I am a dark rock surged upon, and = overswept.

A great state is a well-blended mash of something of all the people and = all of none of the people. The liquor of statecraft is distilled from = the mash you got.

I

"We the people"; it is a very eloquent beginning. But when = the Constitution of the United States was completed on the seventeenth = of September, 1787, I was not included in the "We the people." I felt = for many years that somehow George Washington and Alexander Hamilton = just left me out by mistake.

June Jordan (American poet, journalist, activist, 1937- )

If we even tolerate any oppression of gay and lesbian = Americans, if we join those who would intrude upon the choices of our = hearts, then who among us shall be free?

Good poetry and successful revolution change our lives. And you cannot = compose a good poem or wage a revolution without changing consciousness = unless you attack the language that you share with your enemies and = invent a language that you share with your allies.

K

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding, I want = the understanding which bringeth peace.

Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy = for the worst of them all -- the apathy of human beings.

There is no king who has not had a slave among his ancestors, and no = slave who has not had a king among his.

Debra Kent (American writer, 1948- )

Though people with disabilities have become more vocal in = recent years, we still constitute a very small minority. Yet the = Beautiful People - the slender, fair and perfect ones - form a minority = that may be even smaller.

Maxine Hong Kingston (American writer, 1940- )

Chinese Americans, when you try to understand what things in = you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to = poverty, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing = with stories, from what is Chinese? What is Chinese tradition and what = is the movies?

L

The revolutionists did not succeed in establishing human = freedom; they poured the new wine of belief in equal rights for all men = into the old bottle of privilege for some; and it soured.

Most people, no doubt, when they espouse human rights, make their own = mental reservations about the proper application of the word = "human."

Belva Lockwood (American lawyer and reformer, 1830-1917)

I do not believe in sex distinction in literature, law, = politics, or trade--or that modesty and virtue are more becoming to = women than to men, but wish we had more of it everywhere.

Audre Lorde (American poet, 1934-1992)

If I cannot air this pain and alter it, I will surely die of = it. That's the beginning of social protest.

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other = people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.

Clare Boothe Luce (American diplomat and writer, 1903-1987)

Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to = succeed. If I fail, no one will say, 'She doesn't have what it takes.' = They will say, 'Women don't have what it takes.'

I am for lifting everyone off the social bottom. In fact, I am for doing = away with the social bottom altogether.

M

Unity and victory are synonymous.

Winnie Mandela (South African anti-apartheid activist, 1934- )

Together, hand in hand, with our matches and our necklaces, = we shall liberate this country.

Martha Manning (American psychotherapist)

People say, "I have heart disease," not "I am heart = disease." Somehow the presumption of a person's individuality is not = compromised by those diagnostic labels. All the labels tell us is that = the person has a specific challenge with which he or she struggles in a = highly diverse life. But call someone "a schizophrenic" or "a = borderline" and the shorthand has a way of closing the chapter on the = person. It reduces a multifaceted human being to a diagnosis and lulls = us into a false sense that those words tell us who the person is, rather = than only telling us how the person suffers.

Hariet Marineau (English writer, 1802-1876)

All women should inform themselves of the condition of their = sex and of their own position. It must necessarily follow that the = noblest of them will, sooner or later, put forth a moral power which = shall prostrate cant, and burst asunder the bonds (silken to some but = cold iron to others) of feudal prejudice and usages. In the meantime is = it to be understood that the principles of the Declaration of = Independence bear no relation to half of the human race? If so, what is = the ground of this limitation?

Mary McCarthy (American novelist, 1912-1989)

A good deal of education consists of unlearning--the = breaking of bad habits as with a tennis serve.

Margaret Mead (American anthropolgist, 1901- )

If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting = values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and = so weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human = gift will find a fitting place.

Golda Meir (Israeli politician, 1898-1978)

Whether women are better than men I cannot say--but I can = say they are certainly no worse.

Kelly Miller (American educator, 1863-1938)

Civilization is not a spontaneous generation with any race = or nation known to history, but the torch to be handed from race to race = from age to age.

Patsy T. Mink (U.S. Congresswoman, 1927- )

The problem with our education system is not that parents do = not have a choice. The problem is that inequities continue to = exist.

Maria Montessori (Italian physician and educator, 1870-1952)

If education is always to be conceived along the same = antiquated lines of a mere transmission of knowledge, there is little to = be hoped from it in the bettering of a man's future. For what is the use = of transmitting knowledge if the individual's total development lags = behind?

The greatest sign of success for a teacher is to be able to say, 'The = children are now working as if I did not exist.'

Robin Morgan (American editor, 1941- )

Women are not inherently passive or peaceful. We're not = inherently anything but human.

Toni Morrison (American novelist and writer, 1931- )

If you're going to hold someone down you're going to have to = hold on by the other end of the chain. You are confined by your own = repression.

The function of freedom is to free somebody else.

Lucretia Mott (American abolitionist and suffragist, 1793-1880)

The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous = nation, because in the degradation of women, the very fountains of life = are poisoned at their source.

I have no idea of submitting tamely to injustice inflicted either on me = or on the slave. I will oppose it with all the moral powers with which I = am endowed. I am no advocate of passivity.

Let woman then go on--not asking favors, but claiming as a right the = removal of all hindrances to her elevation in the scale of being--let = her receive encouragement for the proper cultivation of all her powers, = so that she may enter profitably into the active business of = life.

N

The freer that women become, the freer men will be. Because = when you enslave someone, you are enslaved.

Ann Northrop (American gay rights activist)

Don't tolerate me as different. Accept me as part of the = spectrum of normalcy.

O

Ability is sexless.

Emmeline Pankhurst (English suffragist, 1858-1928)

It always seems to me when the anti-suffrage members of the = Government criticize militancy in women that it is very like beasts of prey reproaching = gentler animals who turn in desperate resistance when at the point of = death.

Rosa Parks (American civil rights activist, 1913- )

All I was trying to do was get home from work.

Marge Piercy (American writer, 1936- )

A strong woman is a woman at work, cleaning out the cesspool = of the ages, and while she shovels, she talks about how she doesn't mind = crying, it opens the ducts of the eyes, and throwing up develops the = stomach muscles, and she goes on shoveling with tears in her = nose.

Q

Ever since the Evil Empire turned out to be a collection of = third-world countries, Americans aligned on the far right have tried to = cast gay men and lesbians as the new enemy, calculating deviants = seducing the nation's young, anti-Avon ladies selling sodomy = door-to-door. This simply won't wash. Just as seeing the Russians up = close and personal on television humanized them, so seeing the lesbian grandmother of two little girls wearing her gold = medal with pride makes the notion of otherness, much less deviance, = silly and ignorant.

The pursuit of otherness, the sense that we are somehow different than = our brothers and sisters, no matter where we find them, allows for all = the other great evils: racism, sexism, homophobia, violence against gay = people and against women.

R

We're half the people; we should be half the Congress.

As a woman I can't go to war, and I refuse to send anyone = else.

Maureen Reagan (American political activist, 1941- )

I will feel equality has arrived when we can elect to office = women who are as incompetent as some of the men who are already = there.

Helen Reddy (Australian-born American singer, 1941- )

The most exciting thing about women's liberation is that = this century will be able to take advantage of talent and potential = genius that have been wasted because of taboos.

Ann Richards (American politician, 1933- )

Teaching was the hardest work I had ever done, and it = remains the hardest work I have done to date.

Beah Richards (American poet, playwright,and actress, 1926- )

Both class and race survive education, and neither should. = What is education then? If it doesn't help a human being to recognize = that humanity is humanity, what is it for? So you can make a bigger = salary than other people?

Mary Robinson (Irish labor politician, 1944- )

In a society where the rights and potential of women are = constrained, no man can be truly free. He may have power, but he will = not have freedom.

Anita Roddick (English retail entrepreneur, 1943- )

Women want to be free to choose from the same range of = options that men take for granted. In our quest for equal pay, equal = access to education and opportunities, we have made great strides. But = until women can move freely and think freely in their homes, on the = streets, in the workplace without the fear of violence, there can be no = real freedom.

Eleanor Roosevelt (American humanitarian and lecturer, 1884-1962)

The trouble is that not enough people have come together = with the firm determination to live the things which they say they = believe.

Freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being. With freedom = comes responsibility. For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the = person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening = prospect.

Democracy cannot be static. Whatever is static is dead.

Paula Rothenberg (American feminist writer and scholar)

Racism and sexism are not "problems" or "topics." They are = ways of defining reality and living our lives that most of us learned = along with learning how to tie our shoes and how to drink from a = cup.

Jill Ruckelshaus (American lawyer and feminist, 1937- )=20

It occured to me when I was thirteen and wearing white = gloves and Mary Janes and going to dancing school, that no one should = have to dance backward all their lives.

Women's rights in essence is really a movement for freedom, a movement = for equality, for the dignity of all women, for those who work outside = the home and those who dedicate themselves with more altruism than any profession I know to being wives and mothers, cooks = and chauffeurs, and child psychologists and loving human = beings.

S

Sex prejudice is so ingrained in our society that many who = practice it are simply unaware that they are hurting. It is the last = socially acceptable prejudice.

Margaret Sanger (American social activist, 1879-1966)

Woman must not accept; she must challenge. She must not be = awed by that which has been built up around her; she must reverence that = woman in her which struggles for expression.

Anne Wilson Schaef (American psychotherapist and activist, 1934- = )

Differences challenge assumptions.

Patricia Schroeder (American lawyer and politician, 1940- )

I have a brain and a uterus, and I use both.

When men talk about defense, they always claim to be protecting women = and children, but they never ask the women and children what they = think.

Gail Sheehy (American writer and journalist, 1937- )

If we don't change, we don't grow. If we don't grow, we = aren't really living.

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (American suffragist, 1815-1902)

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and = women are created equal.

Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to = themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.

We demand in the Reconstruction suffrage for all the citizens of the = Republic. I would not talk of Negroes or women, but of = citizens.

Gloria Steinem (American feminist writer, 1934- )

Clearly no one knows what leadership has gone undiscovered = in women of all races, and in black and other minority men.

The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to = unlearn.

America is an enormous frosted cupcake in the middle of millions of = starving people.

Today a woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle.

It still may take some explaining, but many more women are keeping their = birth names (and not calling them maiden names, with all = the sexual double standards that implies).

Even when educators survey grade school texts and create new = bibliographies to help teachers include Asians, Eskimos, and other = Americans, females in and out of those groups may be down-played or = forgotten.

No man can call himself liberal, or radical, or even a conservative = advocate of fair play, if his work depends in any way on unpaid or = underpaid labor of women at home, or in the office.

Deborah Prothrow-Stith (American public health leader, 1954- )

We cannot silence the voices that we do not like hearing. We = can, however, do everything in our power to make certain that other = voices are heard.

Barbara Streisand (American singer and actress, 1942- )

Just imagine how boring life would be if we were all the = same. My idea of a perfect world is one in which we really appreciated = each other's differences: Short, tall; Democrat, Republican; black, = white; gay, straight -- a world in which all of us are equal, but = definitely not the same.

Anna Louise Strong (American journalist, 1885-1970)

They say the Pharaohs built the pyramids Do you think one = Pharaoh dropped one bead of sweat? We built the pyramids for the = Pharaohs and we're building for them yet.

T

We all know we are unique individuals, but we tend to see = others as representatives of groups.

Teresa of Avila (Spanish nun, 1515-1582)

Seldom or never is a poor man honored by the world; = however worthy of honor he may be, he is apt rather to be despised by = it.

Dorothy Thompson (American journalist, 1894-1961)

Passitivity and quietism are invitations to war.

Can one preach at home inequality of races and nations and advocate = abroad good-will towards all men?

Sojourner Truth (Evangelist and abolitionist, 1797-1883)

That man over there says that women need to be helped into = carriages, and lifted over ditches, and to have the best place = everywhere. Nobody ever helps me into carriages, or over mud puddles, or = gives me any best place! And ain't I a woman?

That little man says women can't have as much rights as men because = Christ wasn't a woman. Where did your Christ come from? Where did your = Christ come from? From God and a woman! Man had nothing to do with = him.

Harriet Tubman (American abolitionist, c. 1823-1913)

When I found I had crossed that line, I looked at my hands = to see if I was the same person. There was such a glory over = everything.

U

In order to be able to live at all in America I must be = unafraid to live anywhere in it, and I must be able to live in the = fashion and with whom I choose.

No person is your friend who demands your silence, or denies your right = to grow.

It's essential that we understand that taking care of the planet will be = done as we take care of ourselves. You know that you can't really make = much of a difference in things until you change yourself.

The protection of evil must be the most self-destructive = job.

Lou Ann Walker (American author and sign language interpreter, = 1952- )

Theories and goals of education don't mean a whit if you = don't consider your students to be human beings.

Rebecca West (British journalist and novelist, 1892-1983)

People call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that = differentiate me from a doormat or a prostitute.

It is a great pity that every human being does not, at an early stage of = his life, have to write a historical work. He would then realize that = the human race is in quite a jam about truth.

Faith Whittlesey (American ambassador, 1939- )

Remember, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but = she did it backwards and in high heels.

Jeanette Winterson (English author, 1959- )

Any measurement must take into account the position of the = observer. There is no such thing as measurement absolute, there is only = measurement relative.

Mary Wollstonecraft (English novelist, 1759-1797)

Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify = prejudices...rather than to root them out.

Only that education deserves emphatically to be termed cultivation of = the mind which teaches young people how to begin to think.

Nothing, I am sure, calls forth the faculties so much as the being = obliged to struggle with the world.

Till women are more rationally educated, the progress in human virtue = and improvement in knowledge must receive continual checks.

Women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions = which men think it manly to pay to the sex, when, in fact, men are = insultingly supporting their own superiority.

It would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses, cares, = and sorrows into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that = they were created rather to feel than reason, and that all the power = they obtain must be obtained by their charms and weaknesses.

It is justice, not charity, that is wanting in the world.

The endeavor to keep alive any hoary establishment beyond its natural = date is often pernicious and always useless.

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Created with Love and Inspiration by
Paul Cameron Gorski