A gender line… helps to keep women not on a pedestal, but in a cage.

I defy gravity.

My protest about the post exchange seating bore some results. More seats were allocated for blacks, but there were still separate sections for blacks and for whites. At least I had made my men realize that something could be accomplished by speaking out, and I hoped they would be less resigned to unjust conditions.

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

I separated from the Southern Baptists when they adopted the discriminatory attitude towards women, because I believe what Paul taught in Galatians that there is no distinction in God’s eyes between men and women, slaves and masters, Jews and non-Jews – everybody is created equally in the eyes of God.

I don’t even know how to speak up for myself, because I don’t really have a father who would give me the confidence or advice.

I think women want freedom. They want to be empowered. They want hope. They want love; they want all the things that I want, and I’m not afraid to say those things and act on them, and I think that’s why they identify with me.

I want to represent… to the kids to draw strength from me. So they can see that everybody goes through something, but you can rise up and do your best. Just try.

I’m so tough and so bad, I can be humble and lift another guy up.

I believe there is complete equality between men and women. And I believe those passages in the New Testament, not by Jesus, but by Paul, that say women should not adorn themselves, they should always wear hats or color their hair in church – things like that – I think they are signs of the times and should not apply to modern-day life.

I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life who taught me about quiet strength and dignity.

Fashion is here to help make people look very important. If they have good taste and choose what suits them, I give them options on how they can do that. It’s always sexy, and it’s always with the same result: making women look fantastic.

A smart girl leaves before she is left.

Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‚I’m possible‘!

We’ve come a long way from the days where there was state-enforced segregation. But we still have a way to go.

Women fight for democracy and engage in the world. But they shouldn’t try and be copying men and be masculine; they should anchor on the home and build on those fundamentals.

There is no man on Earth or devil in Hell who can keep you from the very best God put in you.

The only thing that white people have that black people need, or should want, is power-and no one holds power forever.

I’m not convinced that women have the education or the sense of their own history enough or that they understand the cruelty of which men are capable and the delight that many men will take in seeing you choose to chain yourself – then they get to say ‚See, you did it yourself.‘

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

We cannot teach people anything; we can only help them discover it within themselves.

We have to find a way to make the aspects of capitalism that serve wealthier people serve poorer people as well.

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

It is our duty as men and women to proceed as though the limits of our abilities do not exist.

Blessed are the hearts that can bend; they shall never be broken.

You have power over your mind – not outside events. Realize this, and you will find strength.

But for me to have the opportunity to stand in front of a bunch of executives and present myself, I had to hustle in my own way. I can’t tell you how frustrating it was that they didn’t get that. No joke – I’d leave meetings crying all the time.

Maybe if everybody in leadership was a woman, you might not get into the conflicts in the first place. But if you watch the women who have made it to the top, they haven’t exactly been non-aggressive – including me.

I want the world to see my body.

I am impelled, not to squeak like a grateful and apologetic mouse, but to roar like a lion out of pride in my profession.

Sometimes if you want to get rid of the gun, you have to pick the gun up.

In business for yourself, not by yourself.

When rich people fight wars with one another, poor people are the ones to die.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.

We have to work harder to develop a profound theology of women within the church. The feminine genius is needed wherever we make important decisions.

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.

Slavery takes hold of few, but many take hold of slavery.

All men are by nature equal, made all of the same earth by one Workman; and however we deceive ourselves, as dear unto God is the poor peasant as the mighty prince.

Any religion that professes to be concerned about the souls of men and is not concerned about the slums that damn them, the economic conditions that strangle them and the social conditions that cripple them is a spiritually moribund religion awaiting burial.

I believe that a child going without an education is a crime.

When I get up and work out, I’m working out just as much for my girls as I am for me, because I want them to see a mother who loves them dearly, who invests in them, but who also invests in herself. It’s just as much about letting them know as young women that it is okay to put yourself a little higher on your priority list.

To deny people their human rights is to challenge their very humanity.

In terms of my involvement in ‚don’t ask, don’t tell‘ and marriage equality and anti-bullying and social emotional learning in schools – these are all things that arise out of my relationship with the world and with my fans.

If you insist upon fighting to protect me, or ‚our‘ country, let it be understood soberly and rationally between us that you are fighting to gratify a sex instinct which I cannot share; to procure benefits where I have not shared and probably will not share.

Neither sex, without some fertilization of the complimentary characters of the other, is capable of the highest reaches of human endeavor.

If we help an educated man’s daughter to go to Cambridge are we not forcing her to think not about education but about war? – not how she can learn, but how she can fight in order that she might win the same advantages as her brothers?

I have said this many times, that there seems to be enough room in the world for mediocre men, but not for mediocre women, and we really have to work very, very hard.

I am a strong believer that without justice, there is no peace. No lasting peace, anyway.

In the duel of sex woman fights from a dreadnought and man from an open raft.

I never had that feeling that I had to carry the weight of somebody’s ignorance around with me. And that was true for racists who wanted to use the ‚n‘ word when talking about me or about my people, or the stupidity of people who really wanted to belittle other folks because they weren’t pretty or they weren’t rich or they weren’t clever.

I should tie myself to no particular system of society other than of socialism.

And frankly, I don’t understand – I mean, I’m obviously a card-carrying Democrat – but I can’t understand why any woman would want to vote for Mitt Romney, except maybe Mrs. Romney.

Contraceptive protection is something every woman must have access to, to control her own destiny.

It would make everything I worked for meaningless if baseball is integrated but political parties were segregated.

The battle for women’s rights has been largely won.

I was raised to be an independent woman, not the victim of anything.

Take off your bedroom slippers. Put on your marching shoes,‘ he said, his voice rising as applause and cheers mounted. ‚Shake it off. Stop complainin‘. Stop grumblin‘. Stop cryin‘. We are going to press on. We have work to do.

Above all, always be capable of feeling deeply any injustice committed against anyone, anywhere in the world. This is the most beautiful quality in a revolutionary.

History does not long entrust the care of freedom to the weak or the timid.

Me only have one ambition, y’know. I only have one thing I really like to see happen. I like to see mankind live together – black, white, Chinese, everyone – that’s all.

All the reasonings of men are not worth one sentiment of women.