The Book of Gutsy Women Quotes

“While Marie always believed in the importance of X-rays and the healing properties of radium, both she and Pierre suffered radium burns during their experiments; indeed, sometimes the burns were purposeful parts of the experiments. Marie also often carried test tubes of radium in her pockets for convenience. Marie died in 1934 of aplastic anemia, a blood disease associated with radiation exposure. In 1956, Irène died of leukemia, likely from her decades of work with polonium. Frédéric died two years later of liver disease, also likely caused or exacerbated by his long work in radioactivity. The radiation experiments Marie conducted were so intense, and done without protective equipment (because no one yet knew how necessary it would be), that Marie’s notebooks and papers can still be viewed only by people wearing specially purposed protective gear”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“Everyone thinks women should be thrilled when we get crumbs, and I want women to have the cake, the icing, and the cherry on top, too.” —BILLIE JEAN KING”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood.” —MARIE CURIE”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“I don’t study to know more, but to ignore less
sor Juana Inés de la Cruz”
― Chelsea Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“There can be no divided democracy, no class government, no half-free county, under the constitution. Therefore, there can be no discrimination, no segregation, no separation of some citizens from the rights which belong to all.… We must gain full equality in education… in the franchise… in economic opportunity, and full equality in the abundance of life.” —MARY MCLEOD BETHUNE As”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“Throughout her life, she was often slotted into subcategories as writers wrote about her: A black writer. A civil rights activist. A women’s leader. Maybe that was the only way people could wrap their heads around who she was. In truth, she transcended all labels. There is, however, one that does stick. She could have been born anywhere in the world, but only in America could she have become who she did. Our country’s triumphs and progress over the past century are written all over her life. More than that—she helped write them. We’re a better country today because of her. She urged, demanded, and inspired millions of Americans to live kinder, braver, more honorable lives.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“Part of Maya’s magic was the fact that there wasn’t anyone else like her in the world, but somehow everyone could see something of themselves in her story, her aspirations, and the sheer scope of her life. You’re Italian? Maya spoke Italian. You’re a dancer? So was she. You’re from San Francisco? She conducted a streetcar there. She knew everyone, lived everywhere, read everything, and felt it all. The whole world was her home. All people were her people. There’s a scene in Thornton Wilder’s play Our Town that almost could have been describing Maya. Emily Webb is saying goodbye to the world one last time, and she asks the stage manager: “Do any human beings ever realize life while they live it?—every, every minute?” And he says, “No. The saints and poets, maybe—they do some.” That was Maya. She realized her life while she lived it. And not only that, she savored it—every single second.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“Her sage advice has resonated throughout the years: “When someone shows you who they are, believe them the first time.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“When I ran for president in 2008, Maya hosted me at Wake Forest University, where she first lectured in 1973. There’s a section in a poem she wrote about my campaign that stuck with me: “There is a world of difference between being a woman, and being an old female. If you’re born a girl, grow up and live long enough, you can become an old female. But to become a woman is a serious matter. A woman takes responsibility for the time she takes up and the space she occupies.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“Pretty women wonder where my secret lies. I’m not cute, or built to suit a fashion model’s size,” she began.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“She countered the critic’s ludicrous argument (as well as his time-worn caveat that he was, of course, being neither sexist nor beside the point) line by brilliantly written line.”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“Sara’s interest in Charlotte and Elizabeth prompted us to look for other women medical pioneers and heroes, leading us to Dr. Rebecca Lee Crumpler, the first black woman doctor in the United States. Born in Delaware in 1831, she grew up in Pennsylvania watching her aunt care for sick people in their community. Rebecca worked as a nurse until she was accepted to medical school. After she graduated in 1864 from the New England Female Medical College, she started her career as a physician caring for low-income women and children in Boston. When the Civil War ended, she moved to Virginia, where she worked for the Freedman’s Bureau to care for freed slaves”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“After Wangari earned her master’s in science from the University of Pittsburgh, she returned to Kenya to further her studies. She completed her PhD in veterinary anatomy at the University of Nairobi in 1971. This was a time when few women in the United States or in much of the world were studying science at a post-college level—in 1966, only about 15 percent of PhDs in biological and agricultural sciences in the U.S. were awarded to women. Wangari was the first woman in eastern and central Africa to earn a doctorate degree in any subject. If she had continued her studies in the United States, she would have been a pioneer here, too. But Wangari always knew she wanted to go home, to teach and to serve”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience

“We wanted to cheer and scream at the same time when Olympic athletes Alysia Montaño, Kara Goucher, and Allyson Felix broke their nondisclosure agreements to tell the New York Times about being paid less by their sponsor, Nike, after they gave birth. We only wanted to scream when white male legislators in Alabama and other states voted to effectively ban abortion. Thousands of women came forward in response to publicly share their own experiences of ending a pregnancy—but why should it fall to women to share their most personal stories in order to defend a right we’ve had in America for more than forty-five years? What’s more, why are legislators focused on limiting reproductive choices rather than solving the real challenges pregnant women confront?”
― Hillary Rodham Clinton, The Book of Gutsy Women: Favorite Stories of Courage and Resilience