INSPIRING QUOTES BY WOMEN

Out now! a new book of inspiring quotes from interviews by Marianne Schnall, founder of Feminist.com:Daring to Be Ourselves: Influential Women Share Insights on Courage, Happiness and Finding Your Own Voice.

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highestaspirations. I may not reach them, but Ican look up and see their beauty, believein them, and try to follow where they lead." —LouisaMay Alcott

"Cautious,careful people always casting about to preservetheir reputation or social standards nevercan bring about reform. Those who are reallyin earnest are willing to be anything ornothing in the world's estimation, and publiclyand privately, in season and out, avow theirsympathies with despised ideas and theiradvocates, and bear the consequences." —SusanB. Anthony

"Theday will come when men will recognize womanas his peer, not only at the fireside, butin councils of the nation. Then, and notuntil then, will there be the perfect comradeship,the ideal union between the sexes that shallresult in the highest development of therace." —SusanB. Anthony

"We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever." —Susan B. Anthony, Declaration of Rights for Women, July 1876

"There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers." —Susan B. Anthony

"In passing, also, I would like to say thatthe first time Adam had a chance he laidthe blame on a woman." —NancyAstor (British Politician)

"For what is done or learned by one classof women becomes, by virtue of their commonwomanhood, the property of all women." —Elizabeth Blackwell (The first woman in the U.S. to becomea physician)

"Westand now where two roads diverge. But unlikethe roads in Robert Frost's familiar poem,they are not equally fair. The road we havelong been traveling is deceptively easy,a smooth superhighway on which we progresswith great speed, but at its end lies disaster.The other fork of the road—the one"less traveled by"—offers our last,our only chance to reach a destination thatassures the preservation of the earth." — Rachel Carson

"The family unit plays a critical role inour society and in the training of the generationto come." —Sandra Day O'Connor

"We'vechosen the path to equality, don't let themturn us around." —Geraldine Ferraro (The first woman to be nominated as VicePresident of the United States)

"Youcan do one of two things; just shut up,which is something I don't find easy, orlearn an awful lot very fast, which is whatI tried to do." —JaneFonda

  "If you have knowledge, let others light their candles in it." —Margaret Fuller

  "Myaddress is like my shoes. It travels withme. I abide where there is a fight againstwrong." —Mother Jones

"Don'tcompromise yourself. You are all you'vegot." —Janis Joplin

"Many persons have a wrong idea of whatconstitutes true happiness. It is not attainedthrough self-gratification but through fidelityto a worthy purpose." —HelenKeller

"Ifwe are to achieve a richer culture, richin contrasting values, we must recognizethe whole gamut of human potentialities,and so weave a less arbitrary social fabric,one in which each diverse gift will finda fitting place." —Margaret Mead

"Neverdoubt that a small group of thoughtful committedcitizens can change the world. Indeed, itis the only thing that ever has." —MargaretMead

"I can honestly say that I was never affectedby the question of the success of an undertaking.If I felt it was the right thing to do,I was for it regardless of the possibleoutcome." —Golda Meir

"Somethingwhich we think is impossible now is notimpossible in another decade." — Constance Baker Motley(First Black Woman in the U.S. to becomea Federal Judge)

"Ithink the key is for women not to set anylimits."—Martina Navratilova

"Peoplethink at the end of the day that a man isthe only answer [to fulfillment]. Actuallya job is better for me." —Princess Diana

"Rememberno one can make you feel inferior withoutyour consent." —Eleanor Roosevelt

"Ithink it's very important for everyone inAmerica to realize right now the state ofour country, not just on this issue buton a lot of issues, that it is time to getactive again. People have just sat backand just sort of said, oh, let somebodyelse do it for a long time, and we're seeingwhat's happening to the country, even freedomof speech. It's not going well. So I thinkthis is a real opportunity for people tosee, yes, if you do get out and you do getactive, there are other people there. Youjust have to seek them out."—Mary Steenburgen

"Inmy heart, I think a woman has two choices:either she's a feminist or a masochist." —GloriaSteinem

"The first problem for all of us, men andwomen, is not to learn, but to unlearn." —GloriaSteinem

"Iam also very proud to be a liberal. Whyis that so terrible these days? The liberalswere liberators—they fought slavery,fought for women to have the right to vote,fought against Hitler, Stalin, fought toend segregation, fought to end apartheid.Liberals put an end to child labor and theygave us the five day work week! What's tobe ashamed of?"—Barbra Streisand

"Westill live in a world in which a significantfraction of people, including women, believethat a woman belongs and wants to belongexclusively in the home." —Rosalyn Sussman(Nobel Prize-winning medical physicist)

"Youcan tell how high a society is by how muchof its garbage is recycled." —Dhyani Ywahoo (Native American)

"It's so clear that you have to cherisheveryone. I think that's what I get fromthese older black women, that every soulis to be cherished, that every flower isto bloom." —Alice Walker

"I'velearned from experience that the greaterpart of our happiness or misery dependson our dispositions and not on our circumstances." —MarthaWashington

"As a woman I haveno country. As a woman my country is thewhole world." —VirginiaWoolf

EXCLUSIVE FEATURE! See our "WOMENOF WISDOM" COLUMN WITH ELAINE BERNSTEINPARTNOW, AUTHOR OF THE QUOTABLE WOMAN

Out now! a new book of inspiring quotes from interviews by Marianne Schnall, founder of Feminist.com:Daring to Be Ourselves: Influential Women Share Insights on Courage, Happiness and Finding Your Own Voice

Read excerpt: Finding Your Own Voice:Insightful Quotes from Uncommon Women