30 Inspiring Gloria Steinem Quotes to Celebrate Mrs. America

‪”I never wanted to be a politician or elected person myself, so I loved to work for other women who did—and hope that more girls will do that. The problem is the feeling that we’re divided from politics, that our vote doesn’t count or what we do doesn’t count. In fact, everything we do counts.”

“So whatever you want to do, just do it…Making a damn fool of yourself is absolutely essential.”

‪”Don’t think about making women fit the world‬—‪think about making the world fit women.”‬

‪”Childbirth is more admirable than conquest, more amazing than self-defense, and as courageous as either one.”

“Feminism has never been about getting a job for one woman. It’s about making life more fair for women everywhere. It’s not about a piece of the existing pie; there are too many of us for that. It’s about baking a new pie.”

“Revolutions that last don’t happen from the top down. They happen from the bottom up.”

‪”The art of life is not controlling what happens to us, but using what happens to us.”‬

“When the past dies, there is mourning, but when the future dies our imaginations are compelled to carry it on.”

‪”I began to understand that self-esteem isn’t everything; it’s just that there’s nothing without it.”

“When unique voices are united in a common cause, they make history.”

“The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn. We are filled with popular wisdom of several centuries just past, and we are terrified to give it up.”

‪”The future depends entirely on what each of us does every day; a movement is only people moving.”‬

‪”Men should think twice before making widowhood women’s only path to power.”‬

‪”Women may be the one group that grows more radical with age.”‬

“Like art, revolutions come from combining what exists into what has never existed before.”

‪”The first resistance to social change is to say it’s not necessary.”‬

‪”If you say, I’m for equal pay, that’s a reform. But if you say, I’m a feminist, that’s a transformation of society.”

‪”From now on, no man can call himself liberal, or radical, or even a conservative advocate of fair play, if his work depends in any way on the unpaid or underpaid labor of women at home, or in the office.”

‪”We’ve begun to raise daughters more like sons…but few have the courage to raise our sons more like our daughters.”

‪”For women…bras, panties, bathing suits, and other stereotypical gear are visual reminders of a commercial, idealized feminine image that our real and diverse female bodies can’t possibly fit. Without these visual references, each individual woman’s body demands to be accepted on its own terms. We stop being comparatives. We begin to be unique.”

‪”We’ll never solve the feminization of power until we solve the masculinity of wealth.”‬

‪”Writing is the only thing that when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.”‬

‪”Planning ahead is a measure of class. The rich and even the middle class plan for future generations, but the poor can plan ahead only a few weeks or days.”

“I am the most proud of having survived my childhood, my high school years and the 1950s. None of you know how bad the ’50s were. That’s a constant source of amazement for me. In terms of regret, it would probably be around time. Because in a deep sense, time is all that there is. I know that I have wasted time repeating things I already knew what to do, or doing what I was told instead of what I hoped for or what I wanted. Since time is all there is, I would say wasting it is the biggest loss.”

“I assumed I had to get married. Everybody did. If you didn’t, you were crazy. But I kept putting it off: ‘I’m going to do it, but not right now.’ Until I was in my late 30s and the women’s movement came along, and I realized: I’m happy. Not everyone has to live the same way.”

“Being married is like having somebody permanently in your corner. It feels limitless, not limited.”

“The truth is that all our problems stem from the same sex based myths. We may appear before you as white radicals or the middle-aged middle class or black soul sisters, but we are all sisters in fighting against these outdated myths.”

“A belief in equality, without division by sex or race, is now held by a huge majority in public-opinion polls. But a stubborn minority of Americans feel deprived of the unearned privilege of that old hierarchy and are in revolt. The time of greatest danger comes after a victory, and that’s where we are now.”

“I’ve been using my torch to light other peoples’ torches. Because the whole idea that there’s only one torch is part of the reason why we’re so fucked up. Everybody needs a torch.”