In my videos, I always want to be a powerful woman. That’s my mission.

With realization of one’s own potential and self-confidence in one’s ability, one can build a better world.

If you have a family mission statement that clarifies what your purpose is, then you use that as the criterion by which you make the decisions.

I don’t want to be fake. I’m just being me. And I have the power to break stereotypes and whatever useless rules that society puts on us.

Most of us have far more courage than we ever dreamed we possessed.

I’m not afraid to look bad on the screen.

I have never been bewildered for long in any fight with our enemies – I was Armed with Insight.

I was set free because my greatest fear had been realized, and I still had a daughter who I adored, and I had an old typewriter and a big idea. And so rock bottom became a solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.

It’s every girl’s dream to be a cover girl!

There are old heads in the world who cannot help me by their example or advice to live worthily and satisfactorily to myself; but I believe that it is in my power to elevate myself this very hour above the common level of my life.

If we are not free, no one will respect us.

The more a person seeks security, the more that person gives up control over their life.

You always want your people to be proud of what you have accomplished.

I hated to be treated as a child. I thought it was the worst situation.

I believe that if you show people the problems and you show them the solutions they will be moved to act.

The body is meant to be seen, not all covered up.

I’m not one icon. I’m every icon. I’m an icon that is made out of all the colors on the palette at every time. I have no restrictions. No restrictions.

I was impressed with what someone like Karl Lagerfeld built and did and the house that he made, but there was never really a female figure I wanted to emulate.

Change does not roll in on the wheels of inevitability, but comes through continuous struggle. And so we must straighten our backs and work for our freedom. A man can’t ride you unless your back is bent.

You have to develop ways so that you can take up for yourself, and then you take up for someone else. And so sooner or later, you have enough courage to really stand up for the human race and say, ‚I’m a representative.‘

For a man to achieve all that is demanded of him he must regard himself as greater than he is.

I don’t tell people, ‚You’re okay the way that you are.‘ That’s not the right story. The right story is, ‚You’re way less than you could be.‘

Freedom is nothing but a chance to be better.

If you are a leader, you should never forget that everyone needs encouragement. And everyone who receives it – young or old, successful or less-than-successful, unknown or famous – is changed by it.

What spectacle can be more edifying or more seasonable, than that of Liberty and Learning, each leaning on the other for their mutual and surest support?

I just want people to be the best thems and live the happiest lives possible.

Glam really did plant seeds for a new identity. I think a lot of kids needed that – that sense of reinvention. Kids learned that however crazy you may think it is, there is a place for what you want to do and who you want to be.

I shall allow no man to belittle my soul by making me hate him.

I’m not a centerfold.

I was the first woman to burn my bra – it took the fire department four days to put it out.

If you want a thing done well, do it yourself.

I believe that God has put gifts and talents and ability on the inside of every one of us. When you develop that and you believe in yourself and you believe that you’re a person of influence and a person of purpose, I believe you can rise up out of any situation.

Nobody can tell me where I can and can’t go.

Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!

I was in a queer mood, thinking myself very old: but now I am a woman again – as I always am when I write.

The fact that the adult American Negro female emerges a formidable character is often met with amazement, distaste and even belligerance. It is seldom accepted as an inevitable outcome of the struggle won by survivors, and deserves respect if not enthusiastic acceptance.

Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.

I affirm to you the tremendous potential you have, not beyond anything you could ever imagine.

My advice to other disabled people would be, concentrate on things your disability doesn’t prevent you doing well, and don’t regret the things it interferes with. Don’t be disabled in spirit as well as physically.

How one life turns out is not dependent on what people do to us or what they don’t do for us.

How can any man be weak who dares to be at all?

I want to do a certain thing in the world, and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing: to set man free. I desire to free him from all cages, from all fears, and not to found religions, new sects, nor to establish new theories and new philosophies.

Let’s be very clear: Strong men – men who are truly role models – don’t need to put down women to make themselves feel powerful. People who are truly strong lift others up. People who are truly powerful bring others together.

Charity is injurious unless it helps the recipient to become independent of it.

A well-instructed people alone can be permanently a free people.

If you’re too big to fit into fashion, then you just have to do your own fashion.

Any man or institution that tries to rob me of my dignity will lose.

As a child of God, I am greater than anything that can happen to me.

Let us ask ourselves, ‚What kind of people do we think we are?‘ And let us answer, ‚Free people, worthy of freedom and determined not only to remain so but to help others gain their freedom as well.‘

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.

Find your voice and inspire others to find theirs.

There are a lot of good women in New York.

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

I think it’s so important for girls to love themselves and to treat their bodies respectfully.

Oh, you weak, beautiful people who give up with such grace. What you need is someone to take hold of you – gently, with love, and hand your life back to you.

God made you a masterpiece – be blessed, secure, disciplined and equipped.

I have the people behind me and the people are my strength.

Be the hunter, not the hunted.

I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.

I can express myself.

What we face may look insurmountable. But I learned something from all those years of training and competing. I learned something from all those sets and reps when I didn’t think I could lift another ounce of weight. What I learned is that we are always stronger than we know.