10 Powerful Quotes from Feminist Authors

With headlines saturated with reports of prejudice, it can feel disheartening for women in pursuit of gender equality. To combat that negativity, Paste has created a more positive article, meant less to inform than to uplift. The following list is a series of quotes brimming with female empowerment. Encouraged by these exemplary authors, a future of love and compassion seems possible.

“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.”
—Virginia Woolf, A Room of One’s Own

“You may write me down in history
With your bitter, twisted lies,
You may trod me in the very dirt
But still, like dust, I’ll rise.”
—Maya Angelou, “Still I Rise”

“I want to be respected in all of my femaleness because I deserve to be.”
—Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, We Should All Be Feminists

“I hate to hear you talk about all women as if they were fine ladies instead of rational creatures. None of us want to be in calm waters all our lives.”
—Jane Austen, Persuasion

“I want to apologize to all the women I have called beautiful
Before I’ve called them intelligent or brave…
From now on I will say things like
You are resilient, or you are extraordinary
Not because I don’t think you’re beautiful
But because I need you to know
You are more than that.”
—Rupi Kaur, Milk and Honey