Doing What You Do, Something, Grace Paley

“You come to doing what you do by not being able to do something.” - Grace Paley, failed poet, acclaimed short story writer.

Found in Wild Words from Wild Women: An Unbridled Collection of Candid Observations & Extremely Opinionated Bon Mots, Compiled by Autumn Stephens, page 163.

Chubby Hubby Ice Cream, Can't Say No, Sidney Biddle Barrows

“Chubby Hubby ice cream – I can't say no anymore.” - Sidney Biddle Barrows, the erstwhile Mayflower Madam, on the subject of her sole remaining vice.

Found in Loose Cannons: Devastating Dish from the World's Wildest Women, complied by Autumn Stephens, page 21.

Wrong, Majority, Leo Tolstoy, A Confession

“Wrong does not cease to be wrong because the majority share in it.” ― Leo Tolstoy, A Confession

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

Carelessness, Incompetence, Deliberate, Department of Justice, Unsafe, Danielle Bensky

“I thought it was carelessness, and then I went to incompetence, and now it feels a bit deliberate. … I feel like the Department of Justice has really made us feel unsafe.” – Danielle Bensky, a former ballerina who met Jeffrey Epstein at 17, speaking to NBC News about the disclosure of victim-identifying information in the DOJ’s release of the Epstein files.

Found in Spring 2026 issue of Ms. Magazine, page 6.

Play Ostrich, Democracy, Liberty, Justice, Thurgood Marshall

“We cannot play ostrich. Democracy just cannot flourish amid fear. Liberty cannot bloom amid hate. Justice cannot take root amid rage. America must get to work. In the chill climate in which we live, we must go against the prevailing wind. We must dissent from the indifference. We must dissent from the apathy. We must dissent from the fear, the hatred and the mistrust. We must dissent from a nation that has buried its head in the sand, waiting in vain for the needs of its poor, its elderly, and its sick to disappear and just blow away. We must dissent from a government that has left its young without jobs, education or hope. We must dissent from the poverty of vision and the absence of moral leadership. We must dissent because America can do better, because America has no choice but to do better.” ― Thurgood Marshall

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/331989.Thurgood_Marshall.

Life, Anguish, Defend It, Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

“Life, although it may only be an accumulation of anguish, is dear to me, and I will defend it.” ― Mary Shelley, Frankenstein

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/11139.Mary_Wollstonecraft_Shelley.

Corruption, Regine, Extremists, Alexei Navalny

“When corruption is the very foundation of a regime, those who battle it are extremists.” ― Alexei Navalny, Patriot: A Memoir

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7149583.Alexei_Navalny.

Self-Defense, Defending, Gloria Steinem

“The best thing about self-defense is knowing there is a self worth defending.” - 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 20.

Want to Write, Create, Most Sublime Fool, Ray Bradbury

“If you want to write, if you want to create, you must be the most sublime fool that God ever turned out and sent rambling. You must write every single day of your life. You must read dreadful dumb books and glorious books, and let them wrestle in beautiful fights inside your head, vulgar one moment, brilliant the next. You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads. I wish you a wrestling match with your Creative Muse that will last a lifetime. I wish craziness and foolishness and madness upon you. May you live with hysteria, and out of it make fine stories — science fiction or otherwise. Which finally means, may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” ― Ray Bradbury

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1630.Ray_Bradbury.

Speak, Afraid, Silent, Audre Lorde

"When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak." - Audre Lorde

This is from Brainy Quote. Read more at: https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/a/audrelorde392663.html.

Child, Black, White, Goal Worth FIghting For, Thurgood Marshall

"A child born to a Black mother in a state like Mississippi... has exactly the same rights as a white baby born to the wealthiest person in the United States. It's not true, but I challenge anyone to say it is not a goal worth working for." - Thurgood Marshall

Found on BrainyQuote at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thurgood_marshall_135450.

Cautious, Careful People, Reform, Susan B. Anthony

“Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputations can never effect a reform.” - Susan B. Anthony

Found in Quotes for Nasty Women: Empowering Wisdom from Women Who Break the Rules, by Linda Picone, page 102.

Father, Ignorant, Learned, Mark Twain

“When I was a boy of 14, my father was so ignorant I could hardly stand to have the old man around. But when I got to be 21, I was astonished at how much the old man had learned in seven years.” ― Mark Twain

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

Tell the Truth, Weapon, Alexei Navalny

“We must do what they fear--tell the truth, spread the truth. This is the most power weapon against this regime of liars, thieves, and hypocrites. Everyone has this weapon. So make use of it.” ― Alexei Navalny, Patriot: A Memoir

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/7149583.Alexei_Navalny.

Nation of Sheep, Government of Wolves, Freedom, Edward R. Murrow

"A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves." - Edward R. Murrow

"We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home." - Edward R. Murrow

Both of these can be found at Goodreads, specifically at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/178884.Edward_R_Murrow.

Painful, Sudden Change, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

“Nothing is so painful to the human mind as a great and sudden change.” ― Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, Frankenstein

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/11139.Mary_Wollstonecraft_Shelley.

Country's Greatness, Retain Compassion, Thurgood Marshall

“The measure of a country's greatness is its ability to retain compassion in times of crisis.” ― Thurgood Marshall

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/331989.Thurgood_Marshall.

Can, Should, Will, Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

“You can, you should, and if you’re brave enough to start, you will.” ― Stephen King, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft

Found on Goodreads. Read more at https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/search?utf8=✓&q=Stephen+King&commit=Search

Leave Something Behind, Child, Book, Garden, Ray Bradbury

“Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.

"It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.” ― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

Found on GoodReads. Click here to see this and other Ray Bradbury quotes.

Oppressors, 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.

Require Many Words, Speak the Truth, Chief Joseph

“It does not require many words to speak the truth.” – Chief Joseph (1840-1904) was a leader of the Wal-lam-wat-kain (Wallowa) band of Nez Perce, a tribe from the interior Pacific Northwest.

Found at "15 Inspiring Quotes from Indigenous Peoples" at https://www.humanrightscareers.com/issues/inspiring-quotes-from-indigenous-peoples/.

Legitimate, Validate, Existence, Giving Away Her Power, Bell Hooks

“If any female feels she needs anything beyond herself to legitimate and validate her existence, she is already giving away her power.” - 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 156.

Think, Question Authority, Timothy Leary

“Think for yourself. Question authority.” ― Timothy Leary

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/47718.Timothy_Leary.

Wanting Clean Drinking Water, Activist, Destroy Water, Terrorist, Winona LaDuke

"Someone needs to explain to me why wanting clean drinking water makes you an activist, and why proposing to destroy water with chemical warfare doesnt make a corporation a terrorist." - Winona LaDuke

Found on AZ Quotes and https://www.azquotes.com/quote/819146.

Busy Living, Busy Dying, Stephen King, Different Seasons

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

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

Individual, Pick Your Own Goals, Blind Follower, Thurgood Marshall

"Each of you, as an individual, must pick your own goals. Listen to others, but do not become a blind follower." - Thurgood Marshall

Found on BrainyQuote at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/thurgood_marshall_821972.

Life, Short, Now, 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.

Journalist, Politics, Walter Cronkite

"A journalist covering politics, most of us are aware of the necessity to try to be sure we're unbiased in our reporting. That's one of the fundamentals of good journalism." - Walter Cronkite

Found on BrainyQuote at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/walter_cronkite_804694

You Must Write, Lurk in Libraries, Remake a World, Ray Bradbury

“You must write every single day of your life... You must lurk in libraries and climb the stacks like ladders to sniff books like perfumes and wear books like hats upon your crazy heads... may you be in love every day for the next 20,000 days. And out of that love, remake a world.” ― Ray Bradbury

From GoodReads. Read more Ray Bradbury quotes here.

Problem, Consumption, Unsustainable, Winona LaDuke

“The essence of the problem is about consumption, recognizing that a society that consumes one-third of the world's resources is unsustainable. This level of consumption requires constant intervention into other people's lands. That's what's going on.” ― Winona LaDuke

Found on Goodreads at https://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/107298.Winona_LaDuke.