U.S. Independence Day 2020
Our Independence Day is very much a celebration of white men — some good, some bad, all imperfect — much like our country. So this year no quotes from our founding fathers but from those who have changed and inspired our more perfect future.
“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 any laws in which we have no voice or representation.” ― Abigail Adams
“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.” — Alice Walker
“No matter what accomplishments you make, somebody helped you.” — Althea Gibson
“It is untrue that bravery can be measured by a lack of fear. It takes guts to tremble. It takes tremble to love.” — Andrea Gibson
“I’m no longer accepting the things I cannot change…I’m changing the things I cannot accept.” — Angela Davis
“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.” — Audre Lorde
“We are bringing women into politics to change the nature of politics, to change the vision, to change the institutions. Women are not wedded to the policies of the past. We didn’t craft them. They didn’t let us.” — Bella Abzug
“The establishment is made up of little men, very frightened.” — Bella Abzug
“Be bold. If you’re going to make an error, make a doozy, and don’t be afraid to hit the ball.” — Billie Jean King
“Don’t sit around and wait for the perfect opportunity to come along — find something and make it an opportunity.” ― Cecile Richards
“Struggle is a never ending process. Freedom is never really won, you earn it and win it in every generation.” — Coretta Scott King
“There’s only one thing in life, and that’s the continual renewal of inspiration.” — Diana Vreeland
“The world can only be grasped by action, not by contemplation. The hand is the cutting edge of the mind.” — Diane Arbus
“Do one thing every day that scares you.” — Eleanor Roosevelt
“I would have girls regard themselves not as adjectives but as nouns.” ― Elizabeth Cady Stanton
“Big corporations have money and power to make sure every rule breaks their way; people have voices and votes to push back.” — Elizabeth Warren
“I dwell in possibility” — Emily Dickinson
“Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, the wretched refuse of your teeming shore, send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed, to me: I lift my lamp beside the golden door.” — Emma Lazarus
“The door might not be opened to a woman again for a long, long time, and I had a kind of duty to other women to walk in and sit down on the chair that was offered, and so establish the right of others ….. to sit in the high seats.“ — Frances Perkins
“Some leaders are born women.” ― Geraldine Ferraro
“There’s nothing a man can do, that I can’t do better and in heels” ― Ginger Rogers
“Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.” ― Gloria Steinem
“Without leaps of imagination, or dreaming, we lose the excitement of possibilities. Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.” — Gloria Steinem
“Don’t be afraid to feel as angry or as loving as you can, because when you feel nothing, it’s just death.” — Lena Horne
“Women have been called queens for a long time, but the kingdom given them isn’t worth ruling.” — Louisa May Alcott
“History isn’t something you look back at and say it was inevitable, it happens because people make decisions that are sometimes very impulsive and of the moment, but those moments are cumulative realities.” — Marsha P. Johnson
“Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.” — Martha Graham
“Nothing is more revealing than movement” — Martha Graham
“I have a right to my anger, and I don’t want anybody telling me I shouldn’t be, that it’s not nice to be, and that something’s wrong with me because I get angry.” — Maxine Waters
“Prejudice is a burden that confuses the past, threatens the future and renders the present inaccessible.” — Maya Angelou
“….. you will not always be able to solve all of the world’s problems at once but don’t ever underestimate the importance you can have because history has shown us that courage can be contagious and hope can take on a life of its own.” — Michelle Obama
“Slavery has never been abolished from America’s way of thinking.” — Nina Simone
“When good people in any country cease their vigilance and struggle, then evil men prevail.” — Pearl S. Buck
“The success of every woman should be the inspiration to another. We should raise each other up. Make sure you’re very courageous: be strong, be extremely kind, and above all be humble.” — Serena Williams
“You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines, whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas.” ― Shirley Chisholm
“I don’t measure America by its achievement but by its potential.” ― Shirley Chisholm
“Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.” — Sojourner Truth
“Where I think historians can help preserve and actually restore democracy is to remind us of how we got it.” — Stacey Abrams
“…the women of this nation in 1876, have greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776.” ― Susan B. Anthony
“The only thing I fear more than change is no change. The business of being static makes me nuts.” — Twyla Tharp
“The way we fund campaigns is a feminist issue and a race issue. If you want more representation, you can’t say it’s going to be really expensive to run for office and you need a rolodex of billionaires.” — Zephyr Teachout
