Master's Tools, Master's House, Audre Lorde

"The master's tools will never dismantle the master's house." - Audre Lorde

Found on Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/audrelorde357280.html

Deep Trouble, Serving Others, Courage, Struggle, 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.

Goebbels, Stalin, Free Speech, Noam Chomsky

“Goebbels was in favor of free speech for views he liked. So was Stalin. If you’re really in favor of free speech, then you’re in favor of freedom of speech for precisely the views you despise. Otherwise, you’re not in favor of free speech.” ― Noam Chomsky

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

Powerful Warriors, Patience, Time, Leo Tolstoy

“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.” ― Leo Tolstoy

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/128382.Leo_Tolstoy.

Do Something About That, Somebody, Lily Tomlin

“I always wondered why somebody doesn't do something about that. Then I realized that I was somebody.” - Lily Tomlin

Found in Quotes for Nasty Women: Empowering Wisdom from Women Who Break the Rules, by Linda Picone, page 68.

Cooking, Creative, Imaginative, Julia Child

“Cooking is just as creative and imaginative an activity as drawing, or wood carving, or music. And cooking draws upon your every talent – science, mathematics, energy, history, experience – and the more experience you have the less likely are your experiments to end in drivel and disaster. The more you know, the more you can create.” - Julia Child

Found in The Last Word: A Treasury of Women's Quotes, by Carolyn Warner, page 30.

Oppressors, Oppressed, Understanding, Audre Lorde, Black Scholar

“Oppressors always expect the oppressed to extend to them the understanding so lacking in themselves.” - Audre Lorde, Black Scholar, May – June 1979.

Found in Contemporary Quotations in Black, compiled and edited by Anita King, page 141.

Change, Waiting For, Barack Obama

“We are the change we have been waiting for.” ― Barack Obama

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

Freedom, Huge Corporations, Stalinism, Noam Chomsky

“It’s ridiculous to talk about freedom in a society dominated by huge corporations. What kind of freedom is there inside a corporation? They’re totalitarian institutions - you take orders from above and maybe give them to people below you. There’s about as much freedom as under Stalinism.” ― Noam Chomsky

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

Better, Lies, Deceit, Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

“Anything is better than lies and deceit!” ― Leo Tolstoy, Anna Karenina

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/128382.Leo_Tolstoy.

Substitute, Delete, Writing, Mark Twain

“Substitute 'damn' every time you're inclined to write 'very;' your editor will delete it and the writing will be just as it should be.” ― Mark Twain

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1244.Mark_Twain.

Wise, Brave Man, Tracks of History, Dwight D. Eisenhower

“Neither a wise nor a brave man lies down on the tracks of history to wait for the train of the future to run over him.” ― Dwight D. Eisenhower

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/23920.Dwight_D_Eisenhower.

Empathy, Hope, Cornel West

“Empathy is not simply a matter of trying to imagine what others are going through, but having the will to muster enough courage to do something about it. In a way, empathy is predicated upon hope.” ― Cornel West

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

Women, Depend upon the Protection, Susan B. Anthony

"Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself." - Susan B. Anthony, speech in San Francisco, Jul. 1871

Found on Notable Quotes at http://www.notable-quotes.com/a/anthony_susan_b.html.

Joy and Pain, Friendship, Loved Unselfishly, Living, Zora Neale Hurston

“I have known the joy and pain of friendship. I have served and been served. I have made some good enemies for which I am not a bit sorry. I have loved unselfishly, and I have fondled hatred with the red-hot tongs of Hell. That's living.” ― Zora Neale Hurston

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

Stop, Cease Your Work, Look Around, Leo Tolstoy

“In the name of God, stop a moment, cease your work, look around you.” ― Leo Tolstoy

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/128382.Leo_Tolstoy.

Conventional Doctrines, Neptune, Noam Chomsky, Propaganda and the Public Mind

“Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines that everybody else is saying,... [o]r else you say something which in fact is true, and it will sound like it's from Neptune.” ― Noam Chomsky, Propaganda and the Public Mind

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

Democracy, Racism, Feminist, Gloria Steinem

“There can be no true democracy with racism or without feminism.” - 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 25.

Lie, Travel, Truth, Mark Twain

“A lie can travel half way around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes.” ― Mark Twain

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1244.Mark_Twain.

Earnest, Willing, World's Estimation, Susan B. Anthony

“Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation.” - Susan B. Anthony, the formidable founding mother of 19th-century American feminism.

Found in Loose Cannons: Devastating Dish from the World's Wildest Women, complied by Autumn Stephens, page 66.

Being a Bitch, Hold On To, Stephen King

“Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman's got to hold on to.” ― Stephen King, Dolores Claiborne

Found on GoodReads. Read more here.

Freedom, Individual, Real Leadership, Dwight Eisenhower

"The freedom of the individual and his willingness to follow real leadership are at the core of America's strength." - Dwight Eisenhower, Address at Norwich University, Northfield, Vermont, 6/9/46

Found in Eisenhower library at https://www.eisenhowerlibrary.gov/eisenhowers/quotes.

Sorrow's Kitchen, Pots, Wrapped in Rainbows, Zora Neal Hurston

"I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands." - Zora Neale Hurston

Found on Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/zora_neale_hurston_399481.

Love, Union, Rules, Bell Hooks, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review

“In real love, real union, or communion there are now rules.” - bell hooks, Tricycle: The Buddhist Review, Fall 1992

Found in Contemporary Quotations in Black, compiled and edited by Anita King, page 97.

Loving Strongly, Great Sorrow, Leo Tolstoy

“Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.” ― Leo Tolstoy

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/128382.Leo_Tolstoy.

Dependent Children, Welfare, Gloria Steinem

“If they have dependent children, many women are one man away from welfare.” - 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 36.

Does Not Read, Cannot Read, Mark Twain

“The man who does not read has no advantage over the man who cannot read.” ― Mark Twain

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1244.Mark_Twain.

Obligation, Meaning to Life, Elie Wiesel

"Our obligation is to give meaning to life and in doing so to overcome the passive, indifferent life." - Elie Wiesel

Found at Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/e/eliewiesel386793.html.

Get Busy, Stephen King

“Get busy living or get busy dying.” ― Stephen King, Different Seasons

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

Enemy, Patriarchy, Toni Morrison

“The enemy is not men. The enemy is the concept of patriarchy, the concept of patriarchy as the way to run the world or do things.” – Toni Morrison

Found in the Summer 2025 issue of Ms. Magazine, page 6o.

Talk, Listen, Gloria Steinem

“Women have to learn how to talk as much as we listen. Men have to learn how to listen as much as they talk.” - 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 27.