Quotes About Independence

Needing approval is a female cultural disease, and often a sign of doing the wrong thing.

At my age, in this still hierarchical time, people often ask me if I'm "passing the torch." I explain that I'm keeping my torch, thank you very much—and I'm using it to light the torches of others.

For women, the only alternative to being a feminist is being a masochist.

My father did not have to trade dying alone for the joys of the road. My mother did not have to give up a journey of her own to have a home. Neither do I. Neither do you.

I can go on the road - because I can come home. I come home - because I'm free to leave. Each way of being is more valued in the presence of the other. This balance between making camp and following the seasons is both very ancient and very new. We all need both.

It's time to leave. There is so much out there to do and say and listen to. I can go on the road, because I can come home. I come home, because I am free to leave.

the most revolutionary act for a woman will be a self-willed journey—and to be welcomed when she comes home.

That's why male adults, and some females too, experience the presence of a strong woman as a dangerous regression to a time of their own vulnerability and dependence.

As Zapata rides to his destiny, his wife hangs on to his boot, dragging in the dust, imploring him to stay home. Since I couldn't yet admit to myself that I was more interested in going to sea and the revolution than in staying home as the mother or the wife, I just vowed silently that I would never become an obstacle to any man's freedom.

If feminism means anything, it means taking responsibility for ourselves: for our own lives and actions. It is not "women as victims" but women refusing to be victims. What we need, as adults or children, is just one person who has confidence in us, so we can have confidence in ourselves.

The best thing about self-defense is knowing there is a self worth defending.

We are the women our parents warned us about - and we are proud!

As Vita Sackville-West wrote: I worshipped dead men for their strength, Forgetting I was strong.

Needing approval is a female cultural disease

In the words of so many daughters who don't yet know that a female fate is not a personal fault, I told myself: I'm not going to be anything like my mother.

The best thing about self-defense is knowing there is a self

I was more interested in going to sea and the revolution than in staying home as the mother or the wife.

safety. As Elizabeth Cady Stanton wrote, "When the slave leaves bondage, his first act is to name himself.

I'm beginning to realize the pleasure of being a nothing-to-lose, take-no-shit older woman.

Like so many daughters who don't yet know that a female fate is not a personal fault, I told myself as a young woman, "I'm not going to be anything like my mother".

If I had one piece of advice to give to young girls, I would say, "Don't listen to my advice. Listen to the voice inside." It's not important that they know who I am, it's important that they know who they are.

Every woman knows there is a big difference between help that is designed to keep you dependent, and help that is designed to make you independent.

Marilyn supplied sex so that she would be allowed to work, but not so that she wouldn't have to work.

Now when I'm asked with condescension why I don't drive, I just say: Beacause adventure starts the moment I leave my door.