Quotes from Gloria Steinem

Dreaming, after all, is a form of planning.

No one can give us power. If we aren't part of the process of taking it, we won't be strong enough to use it.

Most writers write to say something about other people - and it doesn't last. Good writers write to find out about themselves - and it lasts forever.

If you follow the voice inside you, it does give you guidance.

What we have been raised to think of as inevitable - division and hierarchy, monotheism and nation states - actually accounts for less than 10 percent of human history.

By the year 2000 we will, I hope, raise our children to believe in human potential, not God.

Hope is a very unruly emotion.

I have always employed humor, and I think it's absolutely crucial that we do because, among other things, humor is the only free emotion.

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

The purpose of feminism is to free the uniqueness of the individual and to understand that inside each of us is a unique human being who is a combination of heredity and environment.

The only thing I can't stand is discomfort.

We teach what we need to learn.

It is more rewarding to watch money change the world than watch it accumulate.

Obviously there is no such thing as race, and in many ways, sex is a continuum, not a binary. So it doesn't make sense to label people in that way.

The deepest change begins with men raising children as much as women do and women being equal actors in the world outside the home. There are many ways of supporting that, from something as simple as paid sick leave and flexible work hours to attributing an economic value to all caregiving and making that amount tax deductible.

Rich cultures, patriarchal cultures, value thin women, like ours; poor ones value fat women. But all patriarchal cultures value weak women. So for women to become physically strong is very profound.

Everything about aging in my experience so far has been a plus. Except the death part!

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

What happens at 50, more or less, you lose what you need to create another person, to sustain another person; you keep what you need to sustain yourself. And there's something wonderful about that.

In order to make a choice, you need the power to see there is one.

I think we all have the power to name ourselves. I try to call people what it is they wish to be called. But we can take the sting out of epithets and bad words by using them.

Whoever has power takes over the noun - and the norm - while the less powerful get an adjective.

Frequently people just vote for the party out of power because they're disappointed or angry at what is happening at the moment.

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