I have too many fantasies to be a housewife. I guess I am a fantasy.

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.

Women have a certain sexuality, and I think their bodies are beautiful, and I’m not embarrassed to explore that in a film. But there are things you get offered that are vulgar and violent – just like there’s a side of me that’s vulgar and violent.

Remember always that you not only have the right to be an individual, you have an obligation to be one.

The proper study of mankind is woman.

Women, like men, should try to do the impossible. And when they fail, their failure should be a challenge to others.

Her body calculated to a millimeter to suggest a bud yet guarantee a flower.

There are no constraints on the human mind, no walls around the human spirit, no barriers to our progress except those we ourselves erect.

A girl should be two things: classy and fabulous.

‚Born this Way‘ is about being yourself, and loving who you are and being proud.

My mother had a saying: ‚Kamala, you may be the first to do many things, but make sure you’re not the last.‘

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

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

Because your own strength is unequal to the task, do not assume that it is beyond the powers of man; but if anything is within the powers and province of man, believe that it is within your own compass also.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

We can never make ourselves better by trying… praying more or longer, studying more of the Word, performing good works, etc. Don’t get me wrong… it’s not bad to do any of these things. In fact, it’s good. It’s just that doing them in God’s power is the only way those things will have any real and lasting effect in our lives.

There is more to sex appeal than just measurements. I don’t need a bedroom to prove my womanliness. I can convey just as much sex appeal, picking apples off a tree or standing in the rain.

I am not afraid… I was born to do this.

I heard that when Christina Aguilera went back to her prom, people, like, booed her. I can’t imagine going through that. If you know that’s going to happen, why put yourself in that situation? I’d rather play for 20,000 screaming people, you know?

I find with most of my readers are kind of like me, sort of people who were a little bit naive in life and then learned the hard way that this is what’s going on, the political games and most of my readers write to me telling me that the book helped them open their eyes to what other people are doing to them.

Women should be obscene and not heard.

Although the circumstances of our lives may seem very disengaged, with me standing here as the First Lady of the United States of America and you just getting through school, I want you to know we have very much in common. For nothing in my life ever would have predicted that I would be standing here as the first African-American First Lady.

Freedom lies in being bold.

The people know their rights, and they are never slow to assert and maintain them when they are invaded.

There are 309 million people out there that are trying to improve their lot in life. And we’ve got a system that allows them to do it.

Early on in my life, I had a broken soul. I was abused by my father, abandoned by my mother and ended up in a destructive first marriage. By the time I was 23, I was broken in my soul. I didn’t know how to think right. I felt wrong about everything. But God stepped into my life, and I came out on the other side and didn’t even smell like smoke.

Courage is contagious. When a brave man takes a stand, the spines of others are often stiffened.

You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn’t wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain’t got no manhood left anyway.

Over the holidays, and even during filming, I realized that I actually like my body, even if it’s not perfect according to the book. I just feel sexy. For the first time, I don’t want to get rid of the curves. I just want to tone it up. My body is comfortable, and it’s not unhealthy, so I’m going to rock with it.

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.

No woman should ever be quite accurate about her age. It looks so calculating.

Feminism… I think the simplest explanation, and one that captures the idea, is a song that Marlo Thomas sang, ‚Free to be You and Me.‘

You’re just left with yourself all the time, whatever you do anyway. You’ve got to get down to your own God in your own temple. It’s all down to you, mate.

Housework never really bothered me… what bothered me about it later was that it was expected to be your life… when you’re a housewife, you are constantly interrupted. You have no space in your life. It isn’t the fact that you do the laundry.

Most people already know what they’re doing wrong. When I get them to church I want to tell them that you can change.

Workers of the world unite; you have nothing to lose but your chains.

I don’t worry about stress. I create it.

One’s past is what one is. It is the only way by which people should be judged.

The only tyrant I accept in this world is the still voice within.

I felt like, for so many years – and I still even feel it – as a girl, you can’t really expect to go on stage and dress like a boy and jump around and scream with the audience and mosh and stuff, and every time that happens, I feel really proud.

The people themselves, and not their servants, can safely reverse their own deliberate decisions.

I have only one counsel for you – be master.

Hair is about when you’re younger. I am my hair.

I am not some goddess that dropped down from the sky to sing pop music; I am not some extra-incredible human person that needs to be told how wonderful they are all day and kissed.

Above all, we must realize that no arsenal, or no weapon in the arsenals of the world, is so formidable as the will and moral courage of free men and women. It is a weapon our adversaries in today’s world do not have.

People should make up their own mind about what they think of me.

It took me quite a long time to develop a voice, and now that I have it, I am not going to be silent.

Let us be shy no longer. Let us go to our strength. Let us offer hope. Let us tell the world that a new age is not only possible but probable.

Either you’re the one erasing or you’re the one being erased.

I’m not going to change the world. You’re not going to change the world. But we can help – we can all help.

I’m trying to show everybody that I’m a girl, and I’m five foot four, and you can do anything you want, no matter your gender. It’s your world, too!

Women always excel men in that sort of wisdom which comes from experience. To be a woman is in itself a terrible experience.

Circumstances are beyond human control, but our conduct is in our own power.

A good objective of leadership is to help those who are doing poorly to do well and to help those who are doing well to do even better.

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

I say, ‚Yeah, Taylor Swift.‘ I think she is a smart, beautiful girl. I think she’s making all the right moves. She’s got a good head on her shoulders. She’s surrounded with wonderful people. Her songs are great. She keeps herself anchored. She knows who she is, and she’s living and standing by that.

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

Woman was God’s second mistake.

You may try but you can never imagine what it is to have a man’s form of genius in you, and to suffer the slavery of being a girl.

I will far rather see the race of man extinct than that we should become less than beasts by making the noblest of God’s creation, woman, the object of our lust.

The best government is that which teaches us to govern ourselves.