A curated register of quotes from under-represented voices.

“ Freeing yourself was one thing; claiming ownership of that freed self was another. ”

— Toni Morrison, 1987

“ To be pleasant, gentle, calm and self-possessed: this is the basis of good taste and charm in a woman. But women who are too vain and act pretentiously, to the extent that they make others feel uncomfortable, will themselves become the object of attention. ”

— Murasaki Shikibu, 1010

“ People will never forget how you made them feel. ”

— Maya Angelou

“ What is beautiful is good, and who is good will soon be beautiful. ”

— Sappho

“ There are years that ask questions and years that answer. ”

— Zora Neale Hurston, 1937

“ Mistakes are a fact of life. It is the response to the error that counts. ”

— Nikki Giovanni

“ A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction. ”

— Virginia Woolf, 1929

“ Your silence will not protect you. ”

— Audre Lorde, 1977

“ Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare. ”

— Audre Lorde, 1988

“ The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don't have any. ”

— Alice Walker

“ What I really aspire to do in the poem is to be able to use my words to envision a way in which our country can still come together and can still heal. ”

— Amanda Gorman, 2021

“ In a time of destruction, create something. ”

— Maxine Hong Kingston

“ Where there is a tree to plant, plant it yourself. ”

— Gabriela Mistral

“ Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced. ”

— James Baldwin, 1962

“ I have discovered in life that there are ways of getting almost anywhere you want to go, if you really want to go. ”

— Langston Hughes

“ A feminist is a person who believes in the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes. ”

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2012

“ The very heartbeat of racism is denial. ”

— Ibram X. Kendi, 2020

“ There is no greater agony than bearing an untold story inside you. ”

— Maya Angelou, 1969

“ I think to be racist is to support policies that are leading to inequality or injustice. ”

— Ibram X. Kendi, 2019

“ As we censor these really valuable stories, we are losing empathy in rapid levels throughout our country. ”

— Marley Dias

“ The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. ”

— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, 2009