Someone Who Knows You Disappears, Lose One Version, Salman Rushdie

“Whenever someone who knows you disappears, you lose one version of yourself. Yourself as you were seen, as you were judged to be. Lover or enemy, mother or friend, those who know us construct us, and their several knowings slant the different facets of our characters like diamond-cutter's tools. Each such loss is a step leading to the grave, where all versions blend and end.” ― Salman Rushdie, The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3299.Salman_Rushdie.

Women, Slaves, Men, Knaves, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“So long as women are slaves, men will be knaves.” - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the strapping spokeswoman for nineteenth-century suffragists.

Found in Wild Words from Wild Women: An Unbridled Collection of Candid Observations & Extremely Opinionated Bon Mots, Compiled by Autumn Stephens, page 12.

Bitterness, Coward's Revenge, Zora Neale Hurston

“Bitterness is the coward's revenge on the world for having been hurt.” ― Zora Neale Hurston

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/15151.Zora_Neale_Hurston.

Optimist, Prisoner of Hope, Cornel West

“I cannot be an optimist but I am a prisoner of hope.” ― Cornel West

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6176.Cornel_West.

One Thing, Afraid, Caricature, Michelle Obama

"The one thing they knew people were afraid of was the strength of a black woman. So they turned that into a caricature." - former First Lady Michelle Obama at the Essence Festival in New Orleans in Juyl, reflecting on the attacks she faced when her husband was in office.

From Ms. Magazine, Fall 2019 issue, page 6.

Sum Total, Everything, Salman Rushdie

“I am the sum total of everything that went before me, of all I have been seen done, of everything done-to-me. I am everyone everything whose being-in-the-world affected was affected by mine. I am anything that happens after I'm gone which would not have happened if I had not come.” ― Salman Rushdie, Midnight's Children

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3299.Salman_Rushdie.

Art, Interest My People, Museums, Elizabeth Catlee

“I try to do art that will interest my people. I'm not trying to impress art critics or to do art for museums. People who run museums are millionaires and they have a whole other idea bout art.” - Elizabeth Catlee, in Washington Post, May 5, 1993

Found in Contemporary Quotations in Black, compiled and edited by Anita King, page 36.

Knowing, Solitary, Art of Loving, Escape, Bell Hooks

“Knowing how to be solitary is central to the art of loving. When we can be alone, we can be with others without using them as a means of escape.” - Bell Hooks

Found on InspiringQuotes at https://www.inspiringquotes.us/author/1212-bell-hooks.

All Else Fails, Go to the Library, Stephen King

“When all else fails, give up and go to the library.” ― Stephen King, 11/22/63

Real Courage, You Know You're Licked, Begin Anyway, Atticus Finch, Harper Lee

“I wanted you to see what real courage is, instead of getting the idea that courage is a man with a gun in his hand. It's when you know you're licked before you begin, but you begin anyway and see it through no matter what." - (Atticus Finch) ― Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

Found on Goodreads, at https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/3275794-to-kill-a-mockingbird.

Not Be Offended, Your Problem, Don't Like a Book, Read Another Book, Salman Rushdie

“Nobody has the right to not be offended. That right doesn't exist in any declaration I have ever read.

"If you are offended it is your problem, and frankly lots of things offend lots of people.

"I can walk into a bookshop and point out a number of books that I find very unattractive in what they say. But it doesn't occur to me to burn the bookshop down. If you don't like a book, read another book. If you start reading a book and you decide you don't like it, nobody is telling you to finish it.

"To read a 600-page novel and then say that it has deeply offended you: well, you have done a lot of work to be offended.” ― Salman Rushdie

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3299.Salman_Rushdie.

Indulge, Vituperation, Suffering From Repression, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

“I think if women would indulge more freely in vituperation, they would enjoy ten times the health they do. It seems to me they are suffering from repression.” - Elizabeth Cady Stanton, the strapping spokeswoman for nineteenth-century suffragists.

Found in Wild Words from Wild Women: An Unbridled Collection of Candid Observations & Extremely Opinionated Bon Mots, Compiled by Autumn Stephens, page 12.

Biggest Disease, Unwanted, Mother Teresa

“The biggest disease today is not leprosy or tuberculosis, but rather the feeling of being unwanted.” - Mother Teresa

Found in Great Quotes from Great Leaders, by Peggy Anderson, page 97.

Let Suffering Speak, Hear the Truth, Cornel West

“You must let suffering speak, if you want to hear the truth” ― Cornel West

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6176.Cornel_West.

What We Do, Say, Believe, Bell Hooks

“What we do is more important than what we say or what we say we believe.” - Bell Hooks

Found on InspiringQuotes at https://www.inspiringquotes.us/author/1212-bell-hooks.

Remember the Ladies, Ancestors, Unlimited Power, Tyrants, Rebellion, Abigail Adams

“Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favorable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands. Remember all Men would be tyrants if they could. If particular care and attention is not paid to the Ladies we are determined to foment a Rebellion, and will not hold ourselves bound by an Laws in which we have no voice, or Representation.” - Abigail Adams, wife of the second president of the United States of America.

Found in Wild Words from Wild Women: An Unbridled Collection of Candid Observations & Extremely Opinionated Bon Mots, Compiled by Autumn Stephens, page 47.

Pray for the Dead, Fight Like Hell, Living, Mary Harris "Mother" Jones

"Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living." - Mary Harris "Mother" Jones. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/m/motherjone195568.html

Fiction Reveals the Truth, Reality Obscures, Jessamyn West

“Fiction reveals the truth that reality obscures.” - Jessamyn West, author

Found in Quotes to Live By: Words That Inspire Those Who Inspire Us, by F+W Media, Inc., page 75.

Best Protection, Courage, Elizabeth Cady Stanton

"The best protection any woman can have...is courage." — Elizabeth Cady Stanton, American abolitionist

Found at Beliefnet. View this online at http://www.beliefnet.com/inspiration/2010/01/inspiring-quotes-from-great-women-in-history.aspx?p=17.

Dance, Broken Open, Torn the Bandage Off, Perfectly Free, Rumi

“Dance, when you're broken open. Dance, if you've torn the bandage off. Dance in the middle of the fighting. Dance in your blood. Dance when you're perfectly free.” ― Rumi

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/875661.Rumi.

Deep Trouble, Serving Others, Courage to Question, Despair, Cornel West

“The country is in deep trouble. We've forgotten that a rich life consists fundamentally of serving others, trying to leave the world a little better than you found it. We need the courage to question the powers that be, the courage to be impatient with evil and patient with people, the courage to fight for social justice. In many instances we will be stepping out on nothing, and just hoping to land on something. But that's the struggle. To live is to wrestle with despair, yet never allow despair to have the last word.” ― Cornel West

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6176.Cornel_West.

Worse Words, Cuss-Words, Tillie Olsen

“There are worse words than cuss-words, there are words that hurt.” ― Tillie Olsen, Tell Me a Riddle

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/89863.Tillie_Olsen.

Forgiveness and Compassion, Wrongdoing, Capacity to be Transformed, Bell Hooks

“For me, forgiveness and compassion are always linked: how do we hold people accountable for wrongdoing and yet at the same time remain in touch with their humanity enough to believe in their capacity to be transformed?” - Bell Hooks

Found on InspiringQuotes at https://www.inspiringquotes.us/author/1212-bell-hooks.

Race, Equal Protection Problem, History, Traditions, Constitution, Founders, Equal, Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson

“I don’t think we can assume that just because race is taken into account, that that necessarily creates an equal protection problem. ...We looked at the history and traditions of the Constitution, at what the framers and the founders thought about. And when I drill down to that level of analysis, it became clear to me that the framers themselves adopted the Equal Protection Clause, the 14th, the 15th Amendment, in a race-conscious way. That we were, in fact, trying to ensure that people who had been discriminated against, the freedman, during the Reconstruction period, were actually brought equal to everyone else in society.” - Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, in a back-and-forth exchange with the Alabama solicitor general, who argued that the Equal Protection Clause prevents any consideration of race, even when such a consideration could remedy racial gerrymandering.

Found in Ms. Magazine, Winter 2023, page 6.

Marriage, Women, Men, Luxury, Not a Necessity, Susan B. Anthony

"Marriage, to women as to men, must be a luxury, not a necessity; an incident of life, not all of it." - Susan B. Anthony

Found on BrainyQuote at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/susan_b_anthony_765253.

Your Task, Seek for Love, Rumi

“Your task is not to seek for love, but merely to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it.” ― Rumi

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/875661.Rumi.

Trouble About Man, Learn Truths, Forgets Truths, Rebecca West

"The trouble about man is twofold. He cannot learn truths which are too complicated; he forgets truths which are too simple." - Rebecca West

Found on Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/rebecca_west_108172.

Any Woman, Marriage, Fifty-Fifty, Men, Percentages, Flo Kennedy

“Any woman who still thinks marriage is a fifty-fifty proposition is only proving that she doesn't understand either men or percentages.” - Flo Kennedy

Found in Women's Lip: Outrageous, Irreverent and Just Plain Hilarious Quotes, edited by Roz Warren, page 71.

Blind with Patriotism, Wrong is Wrong, Malcolm X

"You're not supposed to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who says it." - Malcolm X

Found on Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/malcolm_x_390503.

Organize, Agitate, Educate, Susan B. Anthony

"Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry." - Susan B. Anthony

Found on BrainyQuote at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/susan_b_anthony_401742.

Pipelines to Leadership, Society, Universities, Racially Diverse, Institutions, American Pluralism, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan

“These are the pipelines to leadership in our society. And if universities aren’t racially diverse, then all of those institutions are not going to be racially diverse either. ...I thought that part of what it meant to be an American and to believe in American pluralism is that actually our institutions are reflective of who we are as a people in all our variety.” - Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan,in oral arguments over the constitutionality of race-abased affirmative action in college admissions.

Found in Ms. Magazine, Winter 2023, page 6.