I never realized until lately that women were supposed to be the inferior sex.

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

I look like a woman, but I think like a man.

You might well remember that nothing can bring you success but yourself.

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.

There are a number of women who have brought about immense change in society.

The idea that women were oppressed throughout history is an appalling theory.

Behind every great man is a woman rolling her eyes.

What old people say you cannot do, you try and find that you can. Old deeds for old people, and new deeds for new.

On every front there are clear answers out there that can make this country stronger, but we’re going to break through the fear and the frustration people are feeling. Our job is to make sure that even as we make progress, that we are also giving people a sense of hope and vision for the future.

Black men don’t like to be called ‚boys,‘ but women accept being called ‚girls.‘

Give a boy address and accomplishments and you give him the mastery of palaces and fortunes where he goes.

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.

I encourage people not to be passive consumers of music and of culture in general. And feeling like, yeah, you can enjoy the products of professionals, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have to completely give up the reins and give up every connection to music or whatever it happens to be.

Never allow a person to tell you no who doesn’t have the power to say yes.

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

I don’t do drugs. I am drugs.

Get up, stand up, Stand up for your rights. Get up, stand up, Don’t give up the fight.

If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.

In the past, there was active discrimination against women in science. That has now gone, and although there are residual effects, these are not enough to account for the small numbers of women, particularly in mathematics and physics.

I just think overall there’s not as many female ministers than there are male ministers.

If I were a Negro, I’d be fighting, as Martin Luther King fought, for human recognition and justice. I’d rather go down with my flag flying. If you’re weak or crippled, or you can’t speak out or fight back in some way, then people don’t hesitate to treat you badly.

Government can provide opportunity. But opportunity means nothing unless people are prepared to seize it.

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

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

To penetrate and dissipate these clouds of darkness, the general mind must be strengthened by education.

Having been poor is no shame, but being ashamed of it, is.

The women of my generation and my daughter’s generation, they were very active in moving along the social change that would result in equal citizenship stature for men and women.

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.

So people are talking about revolution. What a revolution it would be to have a woman president.

A sex symbol becomes a thing. I just hate to be a thing.

I am not interested in picking up crumbs of compassion thrown from the table of someone who considers himself my master. I want the full menu of rights.

I am worrying about my country. I feel I have a responsibility as a novelist to do something.

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.

I do believe in self-help.

Certainly I’ll never be able to put myself in the situation that people growing up in the less developed countries are in. I’ve gotten a bit of a sense of it by being out there and meeting people and talking with them.

Generally speaking, men are held in great esteem in all parts of the world, so why shouldn’t women have their share? Soldiers and war heroes are honored and commemorated, explorers are granted immortal fame, martyrs are revered, but how many people look upon women too as soldiers?

If you want to cut your own throat, don’t come to me for a bandage.

Certainly in the next 50 years we shall see a woman president, perhaps sooner than you think. A woman can and should be able to do any political job that a man can do.

There are certainly a lot of things that still need to change when it comes to women in the workforce.

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.

I love women with attitude.

We do not need the empire to give us anything.

Let not him who is houseless pull down the house of another, but let him work diligently and build one for himself, thus by example assuring that his own shall be safe from violence when built.

We must open the doors of opportunity. But we must also equip our people to walk through those doors.

There are some women I definitely would not want to succeed me… but a man like David Souter, that would be great.

We have to confront ourselves. Do we like what we see in the mirror? And, according to our light, according to our understanding, according to our courage, we will have to say yea or nay – and rise!

Do we not realize that self respect comes with self reliance?

How fortunate I was to be alive and a lawyer when, for the first time in United States history, it became possible to urge, successfully, before legislatures and courts, the equal-citizenship stature of women and men as a fundamental constitutional principle.

Men weren’t always happy for me. It was very challenging to watch a woman be so successful.

It was really hard for them to intimidate me. They felt I was intimidating. One of the growers had a name for me: I think it was ‚dragon lady‘ or something like it.

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

Man can never be a woman’s equal in the spirit of selfless service with which nature has endowed her.

Real beauty knocks you a little bit off kilter.

Magic is believing in yourself, if you can do that, you can make anything happen.

The greatest good you can do for another is not just to share your riches but to reveal to him his own.

I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.

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

As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.

If a man empties his purse into his head, no one can take it from him.

The woman who is known only through a man is known wrong.