Ending of Democracy, Tyranny, White Supremacy, Patriarchy, Color, Justin Pearson, Gloria Johnson

“We can never normalize the ending of democracy. We can never normalize the tyranny of the way that these people in positions of power are operating due to white supremacy and … the patriarchy. That is what we’re up against.” - Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson (D), On being expelled from the Legislature by the House’s Republican supermajority for joining a chant with gun violence protesters in the capitol in late March, following a mass shooting at a Nashville School three days prior. Found in Ms. Magazine page 6, Summer 2023.

“It might have to do with the color of our skin.” - Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson (d), answering why she was spared from expulsion from the Legislature while Reps. Pearson and Justin Jones (D) were not. Found in Ms. Magazine page 6, Summer 2023.

Humor, Anger, Make-Up, Stephen King

“Humor is almost always anger with its make-up on.” ― Stephen King, Bag of Bones

Found on GoodReads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/3389.Stephen_King.

Right to Vote, Not Voting, Franklin D. Roosevelt

"Nobody will ever deprive the American people of the right to vote except the American people themselves and the only way they could do this is by not voting." - Franklin D. Roosevelt

Found on Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/franklin_d_roosevelt_403816.

Race, Taken Into Account, Constitution, 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.

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.

Freedom of Expression, Believe, Noam Chomsky

“If we don't believe in freedom of expression for people we despise, we don't believe in it at all.” ― Noam Chomsky

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2476.Noam_Chomsky.

Fear, I Dissent, Justice Sonia Sotomayor

“With fear for our democracy, I dissent.” - Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s foreboding response to the Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. United States the presidents cannot be prosecuted for criminal actions related to their office..

Found in Ms. Magazine, Fall 2024, page 6.

No Man, Above the Law, Below It, Theodore Roosevelt

“No man is above the law and no man below it.” - Theodore Roosevelt

Found in Great Quotes from Great Leaders, by Peggy Anderson, page 10.

Truth, Justice, For or Against, Malcolm X

"I'm for truth, no matter who tells it. I'm for justice, no matter who it's for or against." - Malcolm X

Found on Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/malcolm_x_385966.

Real Courage, Gun, Know You're Licked, Begin Anyway, Atticus Finch, Harper Lee, To Kill a Mockingbird

“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.

Censorship, Thought Control, Secrecy and Darkness, Pat Frank, Alas Babylon

“Censorship and thought control can exist only in secrecy and darkness.” ― Pat Frank, Alas, Babylon

Found on Goodreads. Read more here.

Life is Very Short, Have To Do, Audre Lorde

"Life is very short and what we have to do must be done in the now." - Audre Lorde

Found on Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/audrelorde383487.html.

Years, Ask Questions, Answer, Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

“There are years that ask questions and years that answer.” ― Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God

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

Warmth of Summer, Cold of Winter, John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

“What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.” ― John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/585.John_Steinbeck.

Powerful, Crimes, Noam Chomsky

“For the powerful, crimes are those that others commit.” ― Noam Chomsky, Imperial Ambitions: Conversations on the Post-9/11 World

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2476.Noam_Chomsky.

Only Thing Worse, Failing, Not Having Tried, Gloria Steinem

“The only thing worse than failing is not having tried. You will walk around forever thinking, What if?” - Gloria Steinem

Found in The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off: Thoughts on Life, Love, and Rebellion, by Gloria Steinem, page 75.

Can't Forget, Half a Trillion Dollars, Medicare, Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez, People, Die, Sen. Raphael Warnock

“We can’t forget that [Republicans] just voted to take almost half a trillion dollars from Medicare.” – Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D – N.M.)

Found in Ms. Magazine, Fall 2025, page 1.

“If you cut $900 Billion out of Medicaid, people are going to die, plain and simple.” – Sen. Raphael Warnock (D – GA.)

Found in Ms. Magazine, Fall 2025, page 29.

Darker Periods, Pendulum Will Swing Back, Delay Justice, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker

“This country has survived darker periods than the one that we are going through right now, and eventually, the pendulum will swing back, maybe even next year. … You can delay justice for a time, but history shows you cannot prevent it from finding you eventually. … As Dr. [Martin Luther] King [Jr.} once said, ‘The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.’ Humbly I would add, it doesn’t bend on its own. History tells us we often have to apply force needed to make sure that the arc gets where it needs to go. This is one of those times.” – Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker (D), Aug. 25, 2025, responding to reports that President Donald Trump planned to send National Guard troops to Chicago.

Found in Ms. Magazine, Fall 2025, page 56.

Official Power, Opression, Dolores Huerta

“We know how important it is for women to take official power. The oppression of women takes so many forms, and the only way to overcome is by taking power.” - Activist Dolores Huerta, accepting the Young Elected Officials Network's inaugural Lifetime Achievement Award.

Found in Ms. Magazine, page 6, Spring 2019.

Change, Ordinary People, Extraordinary Things, Barack Obama

“A change is brought about because ordinary people do extraordinary things.” ― Barack Obama

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/6356.Barack_Obama.

Black Woman Writer, Woman Writer, Written Enough, Bell Hooks

“No black woman writer in this culture can write 'too much.' Indeed, no woman writer can write 'too much.'...No woman has ever written enough.” - Bell Hooks

Found in The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off: Thoughts on Life, Love, and Rebellion, by Gloria Steinem, page 53.

Pleasure, Nothing-to-Lose, Woman, Gloria Steinem

“I'm beginning to realize the pleasure of being a nothing-to-lose, take-no-shit older woman.” - Gloria Steinem

Found in The Truth Will Set You Free, But First It Will Piss You Off: Thoughts on Life, Love, and Rebellion, by Gloria Steinem, page 49.

I Write, Do Not Speak, Respect Fear, Silence, Audre Lorde

"I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We've been taught that silence would save us, but it won't." - Audre Lorde

Found on Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/audrelorde409007.html.

The Things We Admire, Those Traits We Detest, John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

“It has always seemed strange to me...The things we admire in men, kindness and generosity, openness, honesty, understanding and feeling, are the concomitants of failure in our system. And those traits we detest, sharpness, greed, acquisitiveness, meanness, egotism and self-interest, are the traits of success. And while men admire the quality of the first they love the produce of the second.” ― John Steinbeck, Cannery Row

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/585.John_Steinbeck.

Responsibility of Intellectuals, Speak the Truth, Noam Chomsky

“It is the responsibility of intellectuals to speak the truth and expose lies.” ― Noam Chomsky

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/2476.Noam_Chomsky.

Marched, Human Rights, Social Justice, Dolores Huerta

"We've already marched many thousands of miles in our struggle for human rights and social justice, and tomorrow we march again. We must do this. We can do this. Si se puede!" - Dolores Huerta, Co-Founder, United Farm Workers, in the Special Elections 2016 issue of Ms. Magazine.

Social Justice Movement, Small Groups, Gloria Steinem

"Every social justice movement that I know of has come out of people sitting in small groups, telling their life stories, and discovering that other people have shared similar experiences." - Gloria Steinem

Found on Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/g/gloriastei690613.html.

Keep Fightin', Freedom, Justice, Have Fun, Molly Ivins

“So keep fightin' for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't you forget to have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous, ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can produce.” - Molly Ivins

Found in Quotes for Nasty Women: Empowering Wisdom from Women Who Break the Rules, by Linda Picone, page 34.

Success, Mediocre World, Lily Tomlin

“Sometimes I worry about being a success in a mediocre world.” - Lily Tomlin

Found in Women's Lip: Outrageous, Irreverent and Just Plain Hilarious Quotes, edited by Roz Warren, page 90.

Fool Some of the People, Can't Fool Yourself, Maya Angelou

“I found out that you can fool some of the people some of the time, but you can't fool yourself.” - Maya Angelou, in Conversations with Maya Angelou (1989)

Found in Contemporary Quotations in Black, compiled and edited by Anita King, page 10.

Saint, Sinner, Nelson Mandela

“I am not a saint, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying.” - Nelson Mandela

Found in Parade Magazine at https://parade.com/1074913/kelseypelzer/nelson-mandela-quotes/.

Disallow, Medical Care, Torture, Zooey Zephyr

“If you disallow the use of medical care that is accepted by every major medical association … the only therapy left is either A) meaningless or B) conversion therapy, which is torture. If you are forcing a trans child to go through puberty when they are trans, that is tantamount to torture. And this body should be ashamed.” - Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr (D), the first openly transgender woman elected to the Legislature; after her forceful remaks concernings a bill (now law) that prohibits gender-affirming care for minors, she was banned from the House floor by her colleagues for the remainder of the session.

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