Women have said and continue to say amazing brilliant things. I decided to compile some great quotes by strong women who have worked or continue to work to change the system. (Note: the highlighted ones are not any more or less important than the others, I highlighted them for some variance on the page). Enjoy.

“One is not born a woman, one becomes one.” -Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986)

“An actress can only play a woman. I’m an actor, I can play anything. -Whoopi Goldberg 

“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation.” -Susan B. Anthony, 1860.

“By and large, mothers and housewives are the only workers who do not have regular time off. They are the great vacationless class.” -Anne Morrow Lindbergh (1906-2001)

“I’ve yet to be on a campus where most women weren’t worrying about some aspect of combining marriage, children, and a career. I’ve yet to find one where many men were worrying about the same thing.” -Gloria Steinem

“To understand how any society functions you must understand the relationship between the men and the women.” -Angela Davis

“No written law has ever been more binding than unwritten custom supported by popular opinion.” -Carrie Chapman Catt (1859-1947)

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men and women are created equal.” -Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) Declaration of Sentiments, First Women’s Rights Convention, Seneca Falls, New York , July 19-20, 1848

“If the shoe doesn’t fit, must we change the foot?” -Gloria Steinem

“Oppression does not make for hearts as big as all outdoors. Oppression makes us big and small. Expressive and silenced. Deep and dead.” -Cherrie Moraga

“I decided it is better to scream. . . . Silence is the real crime against humanity.” -Nadezhda Mandelstam (1899-1980)

“You damn your own soul better than I ever could.” -Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony

“We have to talk about liberating minds as well as liberating society.” -Angela Davis

“Though we tremble before uncertain futures
may we meet illness, death and adversity with strength
may we dance in the face of our fears.” -Gloria Anzaldua 

“Hope is a very unruly emotion.” -Gloria Steinem

“I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement.” -Angela Davis

“A movement is only composed of people moving. To feel its warmth and motion around us is the end as well as the means.” -Gloria Steinem 

“But as long as you remember what you have seen, then nothing is gone. As long as you remember, it is part of this story we have together.” -Leslie Marmon Silko, from Ceremony