Quotes from Hazel Hawke

The Garden Was My Delight. I grew up with gardeners and I just love gardens. I was always very much aware that gardens were important and they were for sharing.

Wisdom is partly innate and partly developed and practised. It's about a lot more than just knowledge: experience, involvement, communication, interaction with people. Wisdom is a way of being.

It is very important that we look at what we CAN do, rather than what is impossible to do.

I don't think of compassion as sympathy but rather as empathy. An understanding of how people are feeling, which often translates into action.

One thing that never ceases to delight me about us women, is the friendship and support that we give each other.

One of the most important thing in families, both for children and spouses, is never to close off possibilities - particularly never to make demands or threats.

Women's networks are a necessary part of life. A mixture of empathy and brainstorming can move mountains.

I have had the experience common to many women, of needing to define myself and to find my self-esteem as a person, not simply as somebody's wife or mother.

Women, I believe, learn to think on their feet, to cope with change and survive.

The dialogue between women is a rich field, but change does not come without a lot of reading, asking, listening, risk-taking and hard work.

FIGHT FOR THE EARTH: The earth can't speak for itself, it will just slowly die if we don't fight for it.