Sign-Up Post and Prompts for Femgenficathon VI

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

The rules are here. They will tell you when the stories are due, what kinds of stories are and are not permitted, and so on. DON'T SIGN UP WITHOUT READING THE RULES.

Now. Prompts.

Here is the list of numbers. Pick a number and get a quotation. I won't be closing the list until April 16--or until all the quotations have been chosen twice over. Whichever comes first. (Yes, you can choose a quotation that has already been chosen before all the quotations have been chosen once. They'll all be chosen twice ultimately--at least that's my goal--so it doesn't matter what order that happens in.)

If all the quotations are claimed twice over before April 16, I will hand out unused prompts from previous years to those still wanting to sign up.

ETA: Since it's April 14 and a lot of prompts have as yet gone unclaimed, I've decided that each participant can claim up to three prompts. You don't HAVE to claim three prompts. You can claim one, or two, or three. Whether you use them all to inspire one story, use them all to inspire multiple stories, write one story based on one prompt and one for another, write one story based one prompt and a second based on the second and third, or end up not using the prompts at all...well, that'll be up to you.

The first posting date is July 15. The last posting date--the final day of the deadline--is July 31.

This year, like last year, I researched who the women being quoted were in order to include some information about them with the quotations. I checked websites belonging to some of them, fansites about them and their work, sites on particular subjects (like early aviators, Nobel Prize winners, women scientists, ancient history and medieval history), art museums, online copies of medieval books, letters and operas, a plethora of quotation sites, Uppity Women of Medieval Times, Uppity Women of the Renaissance...and yes, Wikipedia and Wikiquotes.

To get these hundred and sixty-two quotations, I researched five hundred names, if not more. I learned a lot. I found women of every time, place, nationality and race, ranging from women of the twentieth and twenty-first century to Chinese artists, Japanese poets, Sufi saints and Sumerian priestesses. I found women I'd never heard of before, and I quoted them. I found whole histories that I'd never dreamed existed.

There are many women I would have liked to have included on the prompt list--like Fatima al-Firhi (d. 880), a Tunisian-born woman who, in 859, founded the oldest continuously-operating and the oldest degree-granting university in the world, the University of Al-Karaouine (or Al-Qarawiyyin) in Fez, Morocco (alas, she left no quotations); Nalo Hopkinson, a Jamaican-born science fiction and fantasy writer (she prefers not to be quoted without giving permission in writing first); Dorothe Engelbretsdotter (1634-1716), Norway's first recognized female writer and the first woman in the world to make a living as a writer (I could find little about her in translation); Sybilla Masters (d. 1720), the first female American inventor in recorded history (she left no quotations that I could find); Margaret Knight (1838-1914) , the "female Edison," as she was called (unfortunately, there is another Margaret Knight who is a psychologist--all quotations seem to be by her rather than the inventor); Merit Ptah (circa 2700 B.C.E.), Egyptian physician, the world's first physician recorded by name and the first woman known by name in the history of science (again, no quotations); and Iaia of Cyzicus (116-27 B.C.E.) , an ancient Roman painter and engraver of ivory, whose work survives but about whom almost nothing is known. It reminded me yet again of why I do this every year--so that women, whether real or fictional, will not be so easily pushed aside or forgotten.

Good luck.

***

1) Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign. But stories can also be used to empower, and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people. But stories can also repair that broken dignity. -- Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie (born September 15, 1977), Nigerian author of Igbo descent. Winner of the 2007 Orange Prize for Fiction. -- claimed by dragonclaws and trillianastra

2) Whatever fills the human mind with uncommon and honest delight is fitting for a human woman. -- Anna Maria von Schurman (1607-1678), 17th-century Dutch scholar, poet, linguist and artist. -- claimed by roh_wyn and ulkis

3) Nothing is more capable of troubling our reason, and consuming our health, than secret notions of jealousy in solitude. -- Aphra Behn (1640-1689), 17th-century English playwright and spy. -- claimed by used_songs

4) I was thought to be 'stuck up.' I wasn't. I was just sure of myself. This is and always has been an unforgivable quality to the unsure.--Bette Davis (1908-1989), Academy-Award-winning American actress, author, co-founder and president of the Hollywood Canteen, a WWII club offering free food, drink and entertainment to men and women in all branches of the armed forces and to service people of all allied countries, and first female president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. -- claimed by ariestess and metonomia

5) When you are unhappy, is there anything more maddening than to be told that you should be contented with your lot?--Kathleen Norris (1880-1966), American novelist and highest-paid female writer of her time. -- claimed by kellicat

6) Until you lose your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is.---Margaret Mitchell (1900 - 1949), Pulitzer Prize-winning American author. -- claimed by bantha_fodder and empressearwig

7) Children say that people are hanged sometimes for speaking the truth.--Joan of Arc (circa 1412-1431), 15th-century French visionary, warrior, saint and martyr. -- claimed by xahra99

8) Could I write all, the world would turn to stone.--Caterina Sforza (early 1463-1509), Italian warrior-ruler of Imola and Forli, in a letter to her professor, written from a prison cell in Rome. -- claimed by caramelsilver

9) Suddenly I laugh and at the same time cry/And in pleasure many a grief endure/My happiness wanes and yet it lasts unchanged/All at once I dry up and grow green. --Louise Labé (circa 1520/1522 - 1566), 16th-century French poet of the Renaissance. -- claimed by wendelah1 and klose

10) Humor distorts nothing, and only false gods are laughed off their pedestals.--Agnes Repplier (1855 - 1950), American essayist, humorist, biographer and historian. -- claimed by avalonestel

11) I might have been born in a hovel, but I am determined to travel with the wind and the stars.-- Jacqueline Cochran (1906-1980), pioneer American pilot, first woman to break the sound barrier, first woman to fly a jet across the Atlantic, first woman to fly a bomber across the Atlantic,first woman to land and take off from an aircraft carrier, the first woman to reach Mach 2, the only woman to ever be President of the Federation Aeronautique International (1958-1961), five-time winner of the Harmon Award as best aviator in the world, and supporter of the Mercury 13 program, which tested the ability of women to be astronauts. -- claimed by willowgreen and aranel_took

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13) If the first woman God ever made was strong enough to turn the world upside down, these women together ought to be able to turn it right side up again.-- Sojourner Truth (1797 – November 26, 1883), African-American abolitionist, women's rights activist, advocate for prison reform, anti-capital punishment activist, lecturer and saint of the Episcopal Church. -- claimed by opheliet and chaila43

14) I rise in silence, steadfast in the elements/ with thought a smoke-blue veil drawn round me. -- Marilou Awiakta (born January 24, 1936), Cherokee author, poet and co-founder of what is now the Native American Intertribal Association. -- claimed by lanoyee

15) Some knowledge and some song and some beauty must be kept for those days before the world again plunges into darkness. --Marion Zimmer Bradley (1930-1999), American author of fantasy novels, short stories and anthologies, poet, composer, editor and co-founder of the Society for Creative Anachronism. -- claimed by fashi0n_mistake and 5essence

16) We cannot live in a world that is not our own, in a world that is interpreted for us by others. An interpreted world is not a home. Part of the terror is to take back our own listening, to use our own voice, to see our own light. -- Hildegard von Bingen (1098-1179), 12th-century German mystic, author, lyricist-composer, playwright, poet, botanist, healer and abbess. -- claimed by slowmercury and terrayn

17) The worst walls are never the ones you find in your way. The worst walls are the ones you put there--you build yourself. Those are the high ones, the thick ones, the ones with no doors in. --Ursula K. LeGuin (born October 21, 1929), present-day American author, particularly well-known in the science fiction and fantasy genres. --claimed by immortal_jedi and be_themoon

18) I am extraordinarily patient, provided I get my own way in the end. --Margaret Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (born October 13, 1925), first and so far only woman to lead the Conservative Party (1975-1990) and the first and so far only woman to be Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1979-1990). Lady of the Most Noble Order of the Garter (an order of knighthood which is limited to the Sovereign, the Prince of Wales and 24 members, the highest of all the honours granted in the United Kingdom); member of the Order of Merit; and Fellow of the Royal Society. --claimed by lareinenoire and alcyonev

19) I like to praise and reward loudly, to blame quietly. --Catherine II of Russia, also known as Catherine the Great (1729-1796), empress of Russia, author, patron of the arts, literature and education, and founder of the Smolny Institute, Russia's first educational institution for girls. -- claimed by domlandbubbles

20) A nomad I will remain for life, in love with distant and uncharted places. .-- Isabelle Eberhardt (1877-1904), Swiss-born explorer of North Africa and author. -- claimed by miss_morland and bazcat89

21) I've never understood why people consider youth a time of freedom and joy. It's probably because they have forgotten their own. -- Margaret Atwood (born November 18, 1939), Canadian author, poet, literary critic, operatic lyricist, feminist and environmental activist. She's a Companion of the Order of Canada, Canada's highest honor for civilians, and one of the most frequently honored authors of fiction in recent years. -- claimed by golden_d and beatrice_otter

22) The forbidden things were a great influence on my life. -- Amy Tan (born February 19, 1952), Chinese-American author and essayist. -- claimed by angevin2 and gehayi

23) You never conquer a mountain. You stand on the summit a few moments; then the wind blows your footprints away. --Arlene Blum (born 1945), biophysical chemist, mountaineer, author, and co-founder of the Green Science Policy Institute. In 1978, she led the first all-woman team up Annapurna I, a 26,200 ft mountain in the Himalayas, in what was the first successful American attempt. She also was deputy leader on the first all-women team climbing Mt. McKinley (20,320 feet) and was the first American woman to try to climb Mt. Everest (29,029 feet). -- claimed by tetleythesecond and weisquared

24) You can't erase who you are. You can't erase what you know. -- Sandra Cisneros (born December 20, 1954), Mexican-American writer of novels, poems and short stories, teacher, counselor, founder of the Macondo Foundation, a group of poets, novelists, journalists, performance artists, and creative writers of all genres who focus on strengthening their communities and changing the world through their writing, and founder of the Alfredo Cisneros Del Moral Foundation, which awards money to writers of exceptional talent and commitment who were born in Texas, are writing about Texas or who are living in Texas. She was the first female Mexican-American writer to have her work published by a mainstream publisher. -- claimed by delgaserasca and ladyvivien

25) Being an artist is not just about making art...It is about delivering the vision one is given...and about doing the right thing without sparing oneself. -- Lily Yeh (born 1941), Chinese-American artist, activist and founder of the Village of Arts and Humanities. -- claimed by iskodayinikwe

26) We can never go back again, that much is certain. The past is still too close to us. The things we have tried to forget and put behind us would stir again, and that sense of fear, of furtive unrest...might in some manner unforeseen become a living companion, as it had before. --Daphne Du Maurier (1907-1989), English author, biographer and playwright. -- claimed by noblealice and snorkackcatcher

27) Let us not fear the hidden. Or each other. --Muriel Rukeyser (1913-1980), poet, political activist, reporter, playwright, translator and president of the American branch of International PEN, a worldwide association of writers dedicated to freedom of expression and to opposing political censorship and speaking for writers who have been or are being silenced, harassed, attacked, arrested or killed for what they've written. -- claimed by gileonnen

28) The difference between weakness and wickedness is much less than people suppose; and the consequences are nearly always the same. --Marguerite Gardiner, Countess of Blessington (1789-1849), Irish novelist, writer of magazine articles, and editor. -- claimed by cherith and skieswideopen

29) Life is full of surprises, I try to capture these precious moments with wide eyes. -- Sofonisba Anguissola (c. 1532-1625), Italian painter of the Renaissance. -- claimed by runcible_spoom

30) Whenever you take a step forward you are bound to disturb something. You disturb the air as you go forward, you disturb the dust, the ground. -- Indira Gandhi (1917-1984), Prime Minister of India for three consecutive terms (1966-1977) and for a fourth term from 1980 to her assassination in 1984. First and to date only female Prime Minister of India. -- claimed by scrollgirl and hamimifk

31) Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over. --Gloria Naylor (born January 25th, 1950), African-American novelist and producer. -- claimed by wizefics and pellucid

32) Any coward can fight a battle when he's sure of winning, but give me the man who has pluck to fight when he's sure of losing. That's my way, sir; and there are many victories worse than defeat. -- George Eliot, a.k.a. Mary Ann Evans (1819-1880), English novelist. -- claimed by effaced

33) It is far harder to kill a phantom than a reality. -- Virginia Woolf (1882-1941), English novelist and essayist. -- claimed by skylar_inari

34) There is no comfort in numbers. Every unhappy person thinks her unhappiness is unique. -- Arlene J. Chai (born 1955), Filipino-Chinese-Australian award-winning author. -- claimed by tree

35) We were all developing the same stubborn pride, behind which our frightened selves hid, pretending everything was all right. -- Esmeralda Santiago (born May 17, 1948), Puerto Rican author, co-founder of film and media production company Cantomedia, producer-writer of documentary and educational films, and activist on behalf of libraries, teens and battered women. -- claimed by catsintheattic

36) ...indiscretion has its charms;/it's boring/to fit one's face to reputation. -- Sulpicia, Roman poet of the 1st century B.C.E. -- claimed by laleia and vermin_disciple

37) Someone will remember us/I say/even in another time -- Sappho, (born 630-612 B.C.E., died circa 570 B.C.E.), Greek poet. -- claimed by nam_jai and kellychambliss

38) Of course I realized there was a measure of danger. Obviously I faced the possibility of not returning when I first considered going. Once faced and settled there really wasn't any good reason to refer to it again. --Amelia Earhart (July 24, 1897 – missing July 2, 1937, declared dead January 5, 1939), American pilot and author; first woman pilot to fly across the Atlantic Ocean; first woman to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross. -- claimed by _thirty2flavors and hungrytiger11

39) The fact that I was a girl never damaged my ambition to be a pope or an emperor.--Willa Cather (1873-1947), Pulitzer-Prize-winning American author, essayist, biographer, and journalist. -- claimed by such_heights

40) There seems to be a kind of order in the universe, in the movement of the stars and the turning of the earth and the changing of the seasons, and even in the cycle of human life. But human life itself is almost pure chaos. Everyone takes his stance, asserts his own rights and feelings, mistaking the motives of others, and his own. --Katherine Anne Porter (1890-1980), Pulitzer-prize winning American author, journalist and political activist. -- claimed by magglenagall and telwyndubois

41) To be disesteemed by people you don’t have much respect for is not the worst fate.--Mary McCarthy (1912-1989), American author, critic, and and political activist. -- claimed by summerstorm

42) The discontent of the people is more dangerous to a monarch than all the might of his enemies on the battlefield. -- Isabella d'Este (1474-1539), Renaissance-era Italian marchesa of Mantua and patron of the arts. -- claimed by polaris_starz

43) More piercing, more unbearable than blame / Is to be understood. --Frances Cornford (1886-1960), English poet. -- claimed by tosca1390

44) By the time we are women, fear is as familiar to us as air; it is our element. We live in it, we inhale it, we exhale it, and most of the time we do not even notice it. Instead of "I am afraid," we say, "I don't want to," or "I don't know how," or "I can't." -- Andrea Dworkin (1946-2005), American radical feminist and author. -- claimed by cinaed

45) Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Helen Keller (1880-1968), deaf-blind American author, lecturer and political activist. She campaigned for women's suffrage, pacifism, people with disabilities, the Industrial Workers of the World (the IWW, or the "Wobblies"), socialism and birth control, and helped found the ACLU. -- claimed by brennanspeaks and tielan

46) I paint my own reality. The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to, and I paint whatever passes through my head without any other consideration. -- Frida Kahlo (1907-1954), Mexican artist. -- claimed by thinkatory

47) If you weigh well the strengths of our armies you will see that in this battle we must conquer or die. This is a woman's resolve. -- Boudica (also spelled Boudicca and Boadicea) (d. circa 60 or 61 A.D.), warrior-queen of the Iceni tribe who led a revolt against the Roman Empire. -- claimed by olaf47

48) One needs something to believe in, something for which one can have whole-hearted enthusiasm. One needs to feel that one's life has meaning, that one is needed in this world. --Hannah Senesh (or Chana Szenes) (1921-1944), Hungarian-born Palestinian Jew who volunteered to be trained by the British to be a rescue commando. She parachuted into Yugoslavia with the intent of crossing into Nazi-occupied Hungary and rescuing the Hungarian Jews who were about to be taken away to the death camp of Auschwitz. She was captured and tortured, but refused to tell anything about the remaining commandos. She was tried for treason and executed by firing squad. -- claimed by blueinkedpalm and bossladydewitt

49) Risk-taking, trust, and serendipity are key ingredients of joy. Without risk, nothing new ever happens. Without trust, fear creeps in. Without serendipity, there are no surprises. --Rita Golden Gelman (born July 2, 1937), American editor and writer of children's books. -- claimed by wirhalh

50) Some there are who are much more ashamed of confessing a sin than of committing it. -- Marguerite de Navarre (1492-1549), queen consort of Henry II of Navarre, author and patron of the arts. -- claimed by spikewriter

51) There are days when solitude, for someone my age, is a heady wine that intoxicates you with freedom, others when it is a bitter tonic, and still others when it is a poison that makes you beat your head against the wall. -- Colette (1873-1954), French novelist. -- claimed by cyloran

52) I have been in Sorrow's kitchen and licked out all the pots. Then I have stood on the peaky mountain wrapped in rainbows, with a harp and sword in my hands. -- Zora Neale Hurston (1891-1960), African-American dramatist, folklorist and author of the Harlem Renaissance. -- claimed by googlebrat

53) Moral cowardice that keeps us from speaking our minds is as dangerous to this country as irresponsible talk. The right way is not always the popular and easy way. Standing for right when it is unpopular is a true test of moral character. -- Margaret Chase Smith (1897-1995), long-time Republican U.S. Senator from Maine. First woman elected to both the House AND the Senate. First woman in Maine's history elected to either the U.S. House or the U.S. Senate. First woman nominated for the presidency at a major party's convention. First person in the Senate to oppose (in 1950) Senator Joe McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). -- claimed by lazy_neutrino

54) We want things to be easy for our children, and we know from sad experience that the world can be unkind to girls who do not please, who speak out, who go their own way. But we know from experience, too, that the role of the good girl can be a hollow one, with nothing at the center except other people's expectations where your character might have been. -- Anna Quindlen (born July 8, 1952), American author, journalist and columnist for the New York Times. -- claimed by brennanspeaks and pellucid

55) The thing that makes you exceptional, if you are at all, is inevitably that which makes you lonely. -- Lorraine Hansberry (1930-1965), African-American playwright, essayist, writer of political speeches, activist on behalf of women and LGBT people, and memoirist, best known for the play A Raisin in the Sun. -- claimed by lady_sarai

56) There is nothing in the whole world so painful as feeling that one is not liked. It always seems to me that people who hate me must be suffering from some kind of lunacy. -- Sei Shonagon (circa 966-1017), Japanese author and court lady circa 10th to 11th centuries, best known for The Pillow Book. -- claimed by katharos_8

57) I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else's whim or to someone else's ignorance. -- bell hooks (born September 25, 1952), African-American author, teacher, lecturer, feminist, cultural critic and social activist. -- claimed by karrenia_rune and tielan

58) I had reasoned this out in my mind, there was one of two things I had a right to, liberty or death; if I could not have one, I would have the other. -- Harriet Tubman (born circa 1820 or 1821 - 1913), African-American liberator of slaves, abolitionist, and worker for women's suffrage. Served in the Union Army during the Civil War as a scout and a spy, and was the first woman to lead an armed incursion during that war--the Combahee River Raid which freed over 750 slaves. -- claimed by fly_to_dawn

59) The triumph can't be had without the struggle. -- Wilma Rudolph (1940-1994), African-American Olympian athlete. First American woman to win three gold medals in track and field...and she won while running on a sprained ankle. -- claimed by vjs2259

60) How can one not speak about war, poverty, and inequality when people who suffer from these afflictions don't have a voice to speak? -- Isabelle Allende (born August 2, 1942), Chilean "magic realist" novelist. One of the best known women authors in South America. -- claimed by dragovianknight

61) Nothing could be worse than the fear that one had given up too soon, and left one unexpended effort that might have saved the world. -- Jane Addams (1860-1935), founder of the settlement house movement in the United States. Laid the foundations for social work as it is now practiced. Her writings and speeches influenced the later shape of the United Nations. Second woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and the first American woman to win it. -- claimed by ctquill and vegablack62

62) I found I could say things with colors that I couldn't say in any other way -- things that I had no words for. -- Georgia O'Keeffe (1887-1986), American artist. -- claimed by [Bad username or site: <lj user= @ livejournal.com]

63) The difference between mad people and sane people... is that sane people have variety when they talk-story. Mad people have only one story that they talk over and over. -- Maxine Hong Kingston (born October 27, 1940), Chinese-American professor, non-fiction writer and novelist. -- claimed by lexie_b and sparkfrost

64) I have noticed that as soon as you have soldiers the story is called history. Before their arrival it is called myth, folktale, legend, fairy tale, oral poetry, ethnography. After the soldiers arrive, it is called history. -- Paula Gunn Allen (1939-2008), Laguna Pueblo/Sioux/Lebanese/Scottish-American novelist, poet, biographer, academic, literary critic and activist. -- claimed by nocoward_soul

65) I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind. -- Emily Bronte (1818-1848), English novelist. -- claimed by rosamund

66) The extravagant gesture is the very stuff of creation. After one extravagant gesture of creation in the first place, the universe has continued to deal exclusively in extravagances, flinging intricacies and colossi down aeons of emptiness, heaping profusions on profligacies with fresh vigor. The whole show has been on fire since the word go! -- Annie Dillard (born April 30, 1945), Pulitzer-prize winning author, poet, essayist and critic. -- claimed by kinky_kneazle

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68) Great doubt will eventually lead to great awakening. . -- Rabia al-Adawiya (circa 717-801), 8th-century Muslim Sufi saint. -- claimed by edenfalling

69) My wish is to ride the tempest, tame the waves, kill the sharks. I will not resign myself to the usual lot of women who bow their heads and become concubines. -- Trieu Thi Trinh (225-248), 3rd-century Vietnamese revolutionary who led a rebellion against Chinese invaders. Known as "the Vietnamese Joan of Arc." -- claimed by venturous1

70) Her wrath makes people tremble/ Her wrath is...a devastating flood / Which no one can withstand. Enheduenna (circa 2300-2225 B.C.E.), Sumerian priestess of Inanna, first recorded author and poet in world history. -- claimed by finnigan_geist and just_drifting_6

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72) Sometimes it's worse to win a fight than to lose. -- Billie Holiday (1915-1959), African-American jazz singer, lyricist and composer. -- claimed by ficcellent

73) Truth, like surgery, may hurt, but it cures. -- Han Suyin (born September 12, 1917), Chinese-born Eurasian physician and novelist, autobiographer, and author of works on Asian history, now living in France. -- claimed by queenfaithie and viennawaits

74) My dreams were all my own; I accounted for them to nobody; they were my refuge when annoyed -- my dearest pleasure when free. -- Mary Shelley (1797-1851), English novelist, short story writer, playwright,author of travelogues, biographer, translator, author of children's books, poet, editor and political reformer. -- claimed by klose

75) [J]ust the sight of this book, even though it was of no authority, made me wonder how it happened that so many different men– and learned men among them– have been and are so inclined to express, both in speaking and in their treatises and writings, so many devilish and wicked thoughts about women and their behavior. -- Christine de Pizan(or de Pisan) (1365-circa 1434), Venetian-born poet, scholar, author and protofeminist. Noted as Europe's first professional author. Author of the only contemporary writing about Joan of Arc that exists outside of the records of Joan's trial. The quotation comes from her most famous work, The Book of the City of Ladies. -- claimed by mrinalinee

76) I am fit for high positions, by God, and I am going my way with pride. --Wallada bint al-Mustakfi (994-1091), Arab Andalusian poet. -- claimed by taragel and grenadine

77) We too often bind ourselves by authorities rather than by the truth. -- Lucretia Mott (1793-1880), American abolitionist, advocate for women's rights and for women's participation in politics and social issue, social reformer, author, first president of the American Equal Rights Association and co-founder of Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania (1864). -- claimed by dayadhvam_triad

78) I have an almost complete disregard of precedent and a faith in the possibility of something better. It irritates me to be told how things always have been done....I defy the tyranny of precedent. I cannot afford the luxury of a closed mind. I go for anything new that might improve the past. - Clara Barton (1821-1912), American nurse, teacher, federal worker, activist for women's suffrage, black civil rights and abolition of slavery, and founder and organizer of the Red Cross. -- claimed by gehayi

79) [I] want to show the world, as much as I can in this profession of music, the vain error of men that they alone possess the gifts of intellect and artistry, and that such gifts are never given to women. -- Maddalena Casulana (c.1544-c.1590), 16th-century Italian composer, lutenist and singer. First woman composer in the history of Western music to have had music printed and published in her own name. -- claimed by fell_beast2

80) A touch of madness is, I think, almost always necessary for constructing a destiny. -- Marguerite Yourcenar (1903-1987), Belgian-born French novelist. First woman elected to the forty-member L'Académie française. -- claimed by iskodayinikwe and viennawaits

81) We have too many high-sounding words, and too few actions that correspond with them. -- Abigail Adams (1744-1818), second First Lady of the United States. -- claimed by littlegreen42

82) I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try. -- Nikki Giovanni (born June 7, 1943), African-American author and poet. -- claimed by bluflamingo

83) People always say that I didn't give up my seat because I was tired, but that isn't true. I was not tired physically, or no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day. I was not old, although some people have an image of me as being old then. I was forty-two. No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in. -- Rosa Parks (1913-2005), African-American civil rights activist. -- claimed by da_angel729

84) We are well advised to keep on nodding terms with the people we used to be, whether we find them attractive company or not. Otherwise they turn up unannounced and surprise us, come hammering on the mind's door at 4 a.m. of a bad night and demand to know who deserted them, who betrayed them, who is going to make amends. We forget all too soon the things we thought we could never forget. -- Joan Didion (born December 5, 1934), American novelist, essayist, screenwriter and playwright. --claimed by idea_of_sarcasm and bazcat89

85) I am one of those that deal in triffels [trifles], 'tho things of greater Consequence do not always escape me. -- Elizabeth Sandwith Drinker (1734-1807), American Quaker diarist and chronicler of urban Philadelphian life during the American Revolution. -- claimed by duh_i_read

86) You are about to begin the hero's journey. Travel well on the quest. A life of More is your birthright. Know the vast resources that reside in you and are provided for you in the world. You have raised the battle cry of There Must Be More Than This. -- Judith Wright (1915-2000), Australian poet, environmentalist, critic, and advocate of aboriginal land rights. -- claimed by annearchy

87) That's what I consider true generosity. You give your all, and yet you always feel as if it costs you nothing. -- Simone de Beauvoir(1908-1986), French author and existentialist philosopher. Author of one of the seminal books on feminism, The Second Sex. -- claimed by second_batgirl and fiatamanter

88) There is a place in God's sun for the youth 'farthest down' who has the vision, the determination, and the courage to reach it. -- Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955), African-American educator and civil rights activist; founder, in 1904, of a school for black girls which eventually became Bethune-Cookman University, a black university in Daytona Beach, Florida; adviser to Franklin Delano Roosevelt. -- claimed by tielan

89) One need not be a chamber to be haunted;/One need not be a house;/ The brain has corridors surpassing/Material place. -- Emily Dickinson (1830-1886), American poet and recluse. -- claimed by lareinenoire and londonspook

90) I worshiped dead men for their strength,/Forgetting I was strong. -- Vita Sackville-West (1892-1962), bisexual English poet, author, columnist, creator of the gardens of Sissinghurst Castle and member of the Order of the Companions of Honour. -- claimed by mercuriewords

91) An opinion, right or wrong can never constitute a moral offense, nor be in itself a moral obligation. It may be mistaken; it may involve an absurdity, or a contradiction. It is a truth, or it is an error; it can never be a crime or a virtue. -- Frances Wright (1795-1852), Scottish-born American lecturer, author and activist. -- claimed by osmalic

92)

93) The cure for anything is salt water: sweat, tears or the sea. -- Isak Dinesen [Baroness Karen von Blixen-Finecke] (1885-1962), Danish author and coffee planter. -- claimed by anotherdreamer5

94) Reserve your right to think, for even to think wrongly is better than not to think at all. -- Hypatia of Alexandria (370-415), Greek mathematician, scientist, philosopher, teacher and inventor. Credited with creating an instrument for measuring gravity or density of water, an instrument for distilling water, and an instrument for determining the positions of heavenly bodies; surveying; and deducing time based on latitude. -- claimed by normative_jean

95) Again the pressure pushes me in the chair, shuts my eyes. I notice the dark red tongues of the flame outside the windows. I'm trying to memorize, fix all the feelings, the peculiarities of this descending, to tell those, who will be conquering space after me. -- Valentina Tereshkova (born March 6, 1937), Russian cosmonaut, aerospace engineer and first woman in space. Orbited the Earth forty-eight times in three days in 1963. -- claimed by heather11483

96) I really, deeply believe that dreams do come true. Often, they might not come when you want them. They come in their own time. -- Diana Ross (born March 26, 1944) , African-American singer and actress of stage and screen. -- claimed by pellucid

97) The voice of conscience is so delicate that it is easy to stifle it; but it is also so clear that it is impossible to mistake it. -- Anne Louise Germaine Necker, Baronne de Stael-Holstein, commonly known as Madame de Stael (1766-1817), French-Swiss intellectual and controversial novelist. -- claimed by mako_lies

98)

99) My address is like my shoes. It travels with me. I abide where there is a fight against wrong. -- Mother Jones (1830 or 1837-1930), Irish-born American labor organizer, member of the Knights of Labor, deeply involved with the United Mine Workers, and organizer of a strike of children working in mills and mines. --claimed by elvenpiratelady

100) The world is a severe schoolmaster, for its frowns are less dangerous than its smiles and flatteries, and it is a difficult task to keep in the path of wisdom. -- Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784), African-American slave poet and first published African-American author. -- claimed by queenfaithie

101) My good friend, enough of cruelty, enough;/ let brutal jealousy no more torment you,/nor let low fears your mind's peace countermand/ with foolish fantasies, with empty signs -- Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1651-1695), Mexican nun, scholar, poet and Baroque author. -- claimed by odessie

102)

103) Sometimes being a friend means mastering the art of timing. There is a time for silence. A time to let go and allow people to hurl themselves into their own destiny. And a time to prepare to pick up the pieces when it's all over. -- Octavia Butler (1947-2006), African-American science fiction author. -- claimed by emei

104)

105) Maybe I wanted to hear it so badly that my ears betrayed my mind in order to secure my heart. -- Margaret Cho (born December 5, 1968), Korean-American comedian, fashion designer, actress, author, recording artist and activist for LGBT rights. -- claimed by squirrelarmy

106) Talent is like electricity. We don't understand electricity. We use it. You can plug into it and light up a lamp, keep a heart pump going, light a cathedral, or you can electrocute a person with it. -- Maya Angelou (born April 4, 1928), African-American poet, playwright, author of fiction and of memoirs, actress, producer and civil rights activist. -- claimed by thinkatory

107) I have begun to feel/ That it is dreams, not reality,/On which I can rely. -- Ono no Komachi(c. 825 — c. 900), 9th-century Japanese poet. -- claimed by glinda_penguin

108) I don't want to change people, they must change for themselves. --Oodgeroo Noonuccal [born Kath Walker] (1920-1993), Aboriginal Australian poet, non-fiction writer, author of a children's book, activist, member of the Australian Women's Army Service in WWII, artist, promoter of better education for teachers, and teacher. First Aboriginal Australian to publish a book of verse. Key figure in the campaign to reform the Australian constitution to grant aboriginal peoples the right to be counted in censuses (which had a positive impact on health programs in areas where aborigines lived) and allowed laws to be made granting aborigines loans, access to housing, education allowances, forbidding that damage be done to their relics, etc. -- claimed by seta_suzume

109)

110) Speak. Shatter the silence. Question everything. Redefine. Reimagine patriotism. Reimagine hatred and take back the language. -- Terry Tempest Williams (born September 8, 1955), American author, teacher, naturalist and environmental activist. -- claimed by nextian

111) Life need not be easy, provided only that it is not empty. -- Lise Meitner (1878-1968), Austrian-born Swedish physicist, discoverer of the Auger effect and the chain reaction in nuclear fission, winner of the Enrico Fermi Award and the Max Planck Medal. Element 109, meitnerium, is named for her. -- claimed by faynia

112)

113) ...do authors who write Indian romances love the nation they endeavour successfully or unsuccessfully to describe? Do they, like Tecumseh, say, "And I, who love your nation, which is just, when deeds deserve it," or is the Indian introduced into literature but to lend a dash of vivid colouring to an otherwise tame and somber picture of colonial life? It looks suspiciously like the latter reason, or why should the Indian always get beaten in the battles of romance, or the Indian girl get inevitably the cold shoulder in the wars of love? -- Pauline Johnson (Tekahionwake--literally "double life" ) (1861-1913) Mohawk Canadian poet, short story writer, journalist and performer. -- claimed by lls_mutant

114) Something which we think is impossible now is not impossible in another decade. -- Constance Baker Motley (1921-2005), African-American civil rights activist and lawyer. First black woman elected to the New York State Senate; first woman chosen as Manhattan Borough President; first African-American woman to argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court; first black woman in the U.S. to become a federal judge. -- claimed by vermin_disciple and minkhollow

115) Cautious, careful people always casting about to preserve their reputation or social standards never can bring about reform. Those who are really in earnest are willing to be anything or nothing in the world's estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathies with despised ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences. -- Susan B. Anthony (1820-1906), American civil rights leader, leader in the 19th-century women's rights movement, and leader in the movement to gain American women the vote. -- claimed by fenna_girl

116) After the verb 'to Love,' 'to Help' is the most beautiful verb in the world. -- Bertha von Suttner (1843-1914), Austrian novelist, pacifist and first woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize (1905). -- claimed by _thirty2flavors

117) Wherever fate demands me...I will go. -- Gertrudis Gómez de Avellaneda y Arteaga (1814-1873), 19th-century Cuban author. -- claimed by xenokattz

118)

119) I'm not alone, I'm free. I no longer have to be a credit, I don't have to be a symbol to anybody; I don't have to be a first to anybody. -- Lena Horne (born June 30, 1917), African-American singer and actress. -- claimed by allothi

120) You and I
Have so much love,
That it
Burns like a fire,
In which we bake a lump of clay
Molded into a figure of you
And a figure of me.
Then we take both of them,
And break them into pieces,
And mix the pieces with water,
And mold again a figure of you,
And a figure of me.
I am in your clay.
You are in my clay. -- Kuan Tao-Sheng (1262-1319), Chinese painter, calligrapher and poet of the Yuan Dynasty. -- claimed by mrinalinee, chaila43 and wendelah1 (Normally triple claims would not be allowed, but I received two notifications of claims from two people at almost the same moment.)

121) ...the tale of history forms a very strong bulwark against the stream of time, and checks in some measure its irresistible flow, so that, of all things done in it, as many as history has taken over, it secures and binds together, and does not allow them to slip away into the abyss of oblivion. -- Anna Comnena (1083-1153), Byzantine princess, scholar and historian. Most noted as author of The Alexiad--not only is she one of the first Western women historians, but she provides the only eyewitness account of the First Crusade from a Hellenic point of view. -- claimed by summerstorm and attempt_unique

122) ...it is useless to talk with those who do not understand one and troublesome to talk with those who criticize from a feeling of superiority. One-sided people are particularly annoying. Few are accomplished in many arts and most cling narrowly to their own opinion. -- Murasaki Shikibu (c. 973–c. 1014 or 1025), Japanese courtesan, diarist, author and poet. Her book The Tale of Genji was published in the early eleventh century, and is considered by many to be the oldest novel in the world. -- claimed by redsnake05

123) As long as I live, I will have control over my being. -- Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1651/1653), 17th-century Italian Baroque painter. -- claimed by nopejr and mrinalinee

124) I caress the withered flower/Fondle the fragrant petals/Trying to bring back the lost time. -- Li Qingzhao (formerly called Li Ching Chao) (born circa 1083 - died circa 1151), Chinese antiquarian, author, poet and book collector of the Sung dynasty, regarded by some as the foremost poet in the Chinese language. -- claimed by rosethornli

125) I want you to bow to experience, which I trust by itself far more than all the reasons produced by the whole class of philosophers. -- Tullia d'Aragona (circa 1510-1566), 16th-century Florentine courtesan, poet and author. -- claimed by chantefable

126) Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring. -- Catherine of Siena (1347-1380), 14th-century Italian mystic, philosopher, theologian, saint and Doctor of the Church. -- claimed by igrockspock

127) To reach something good, it is very useful to have gone astray, and thus acquire experience. -- Teresa of Avila (1515-1582), 16th-century Spanish mystic, reformer of the Carmelite Order, saint and Doctor of the Church. -- claimed by chantefable

128) Go to school and fight, fight. Fight in the courts, fight in the law. -- Mary Brave Bird (born 1953), Sicangu Oyate author and activist. -- claimed by joyfulfeather

129) They have our bundles split open in museums/our dresses & shirts at auctions/our languages on tape/our stories in locked rare book libraries/our dances on film/The only part of us they can't steal/is what we know. -- Chrystos (born November 7, 1946), Menominee author, poet, artist, gay activist and Native land and treaty rights activist. -- claimed by iskodayinikwe

130)

131) Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices...rather than to root them out. -- Mary Woolstonecraft (1759-1797), English author, philosopher and proto-feminist, best known for A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792). -- claimed by entwashian

132) Nothing in life is to be feared. It is only to be understood. -- Marie Curie (1867-1934), physicist and chemist (Polish by birth, French by citizenship), co-winner of the 1903 Nobel Prize for Physics and winner of the 1911 Nobel Prize for Chemistry. -- claimed by londonspook

133) Sometimes I have a sense of what I'm seeing being a small fraction of what's there. Not always there, but probably more often than I realize. Something will come up, and I'll realize I'm thinking about the world a little differently than my friends. -- Lisa Randall (born June 18, 1962), American theoretical physicist. First tenured woman in Princeton's physics department; first tenured woman theoretical physicist at both MIT and Harvard. -- claimed by joking

134) The excitement of learning separates youth from old age. As long as you're learning you're not old. -- Rosalyn Sussman Yalow (born July 12, 1921), American medical physicist and second woman to win the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine (1977). -- claimed by beccastareyes

135)

136) Ask yourself three questions and you will know who you are. Ask 'What do you believe in?' 'What do you hope for?' But most important - ask 'What do you love?' -- Paullina Simons (born 1963), Russian-born American novelist, journalist and translator. -- claimed by kellychambliss and hungrytiger11

137) Most people, after accomplishing something, use it over and over again like a gramophone record till it cracks, forgetting that the past is just the stuff with which to make more future. -- Freya Stark (1893-1993), British adventurer, explorer and author of numerous books about her journeys. -- claimed by thinkatory

138) We want to explore. We're curious people. Look back over history, people have put their lives at stake to go out and explore ... We believe in what we're doing. Now it's time to go. -- Eileen Collins (born November 19, 1956), retired Air Force colonel, the first female pilot of a space shuttle and the first female commander of a United States spacecraft. Winner of the Defense Superior Service Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the Air Force Meritorious Service Medal with one oak leaf cluster, the Air Force Commendation Medal with one oak leaf cluster, the Armed Forces Expeditionary Medal for service in Grenada (Operation Urgent Fury, October 1983), the French Legion of Honor, NASA Outstanding Leadership Medal, NASA Space Flight Medals, the Free Spirit Award, and the National Space Trophy. -- claimed by katharos_8

139) Don't let anyone rob you of your imagination, your creativity, or your curiosity. It's your place in the world; it's your life. Go on and do all you can with it, and make it the life you want to live. -- Mae Jemison (born 1956), first African-American woman astronaut, physician, chemical engineer, Peace Corps volunteer, professor, owner-operator of a technology firm, BioSentient Corp, whose major product allows for mobile monitoring of the autonomic nervous system, and founder of The Jemison Group, Inc., a group focusing on integrating understanding of science and technology into daily life. Winner of the 1993 Kilby International Award for outstanding contributions to science, member of the National Women's Hall of Fame, and member of the International Space Hall of Fame. She is also the first real astronaut to appear in any of the Star Trek shows (she appeared as transporter operator Lieutenant Palmer in the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "Second Chances"). -- claimed by tanaquilotr

140)

141) I got myself a start by giving myself a start. -- Sarah Breedlove Walker, better known as Madame C.J. Walker (1867-1919), African-American entrepreneur and philanthropist. She is listed in Guinness as the first woman self-made millionaire. She is a member of the National Business Hall of Fame, the National Women's Hall of Fame, the American Health and Beauty Aids Institute Hall of Fame in Chicago. -- claimed by botherd

142) It seems to me that the poet has only to perceive that which others do not perceive, to look deeper than others look. And the mathematician must do the same thing. -- Sofya Kovalevskaya (1850-1891), first major Russian female mathematician, first woman to hold a full professorship in a northern European university, writer of memoirs and novelist. Known for the Cauchy-Kowalewski theorem. The lunar crater Kovalevskaya is named after her. -- claimed by _thirty2flavors and marinarusalka

143) I hadn't been aware that there were doors closed to me until I started knocking on them. -- Gertrude B. Elion, American biochemist, pharmacologist and winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Medicine (with George Hitchings and Sir James Black). First woman inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Winner of the National Medal of Science for Chemistry in 1991. Winner of the Lemelson-MIT Lifetime Achievement Award in 1997. Among the drugs she developed were: 6-mercaptopurine, the first effective drug to fight leukemia; azathioprine, the first immuno-suppressant, and used in organ transplants and autoimmune diseases (such as Crohn's, multiple sclerosis, autoimmune hepatitis, etc.); and pyrimethamine, a drug used to combat malaria and also used to treat immunocompromised individuals, such as those with HIV. -- claimed by lanoyee

144) There is small disproportion betwixt a fool who useth not wit because he hath it not and him that useth it not when it should avail him. -- Elizabeth I of England (1533-1603), queen of England. -- claimed by cygna_hime

145) Besides learning to see, there is another art to be learned -- not to see what is not. -- Maria Mitchell (1818-1889), American astronomer and professor. Second woman to discover a comet. First woman member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (1848) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1850), and the first person appointed to the faculty of Dartmouth College. -- claimed by tjs_whatnot

146)

147) I hate wars and violence, but if they come then I don’t see why we women should just wave our men a proud goodbye and then knit them balaclavas. -- Nancy Wake (born August 13, 1912), English-French-Maori New Zealand-born Australian spy and Resistance fighter, the most decorated servicewoman of World War II and the person most wanted by the Gestapo. Nicknamed "the White Mouse" by the Nazis because she was so elusive. Winner of the George Medal (granted to British and Commonwealth civilians for acts of great bravery), the 1939-45 Star, the France and Germany Star, the Defence Medal, the British War Medal 1939-45, the French Croix de Guerre with Star and two Palms, the U.S. Medal for Freedom with Palm, and the Medaille de la Resistance. She is a French Chevalier of the Legion of Honour. -- claimed by animus_wyrmis

148) The peculiar drama of my life has placed me in a world that by and large thinks it would be better if people like me did not exist. -- Harriet McBryde Johnson, American author, attorney, and advocate for the rights of the disabled. -- claimed by lisa_bee

149) The more hidden the venom, the more dangerous it is. -- Marguerite de Valois(1553-1615), queen of Navarre and of France, and author of scandalous memoirs. -- claimed by magentabear

150) Of things I'd rather keep in silence, I must sing. -- Beatritz or Beatriz de Dia (born circa 1140 - flourished circa 1175), trobairitz (female troubadour), probably from a town in what is now southeastern France. Her song, A chantar m'er de so qu'ieu non volria, which is the source of this quotation, is the only song by a trobairitz which has come down to us with both lyrics and music. -- claimed by aphrodite_mine

151) The pain that rises in my breast brings forth a little shoot/it spreads its thick trunk of despair in my soft heart/puts out lovely branches made of the rumors in the town. -- Auvaiyar, also called Avvaiyar and Avvai, (circa before 300 B.C.E.), Tamil bard, war poet and diplomat. -- claimed by kaydeefalls

152) I hate silence when it is a time for speaking. I hate the one who conforms to all ways. -- Kassia (born circa 810 - died before 867), Byzantine poet, lyricist-composer of hymns and secular songs, and abbess. -- claimed by isilrandir

153) When we too are armed and trained, we can convince men that we have hands, feet, and a heart like yours. -- Veronica Franco (1546-1591), Venetian courtesan, poet and literary adviser. -- claimed by rosamund and viennawaits

154)

155) Come on, let's wake up, and claim back our freedom, and the honor and dignity that they have usurped from us for so long. -- Moderata Fonte (Modesta Pozzo) (1555 - 1592), Venetian protofeminist and author of chivalric romance, narrative religious poetry, and dramatic dialogues. -- claimed by venefica_aura

156) ...thinking back, I saw that I had never been really calm and sure of myself. Perhaps, then, the fault was in fact mine: I had expected too much. -- Michitsuna no haha (c.935-995), Japanese poet and diarist. -- claimed by seta_suzume

157) Anyone who intends to present a new story must approach the problem in a new way and speak so persuasively that the tale brings pleasure to people. -- Marie de France (12th century), French-born poet, fabulist, hagiographer and translator. -- claimed by meddow

158) Wretch that I am, I can do everything I do not want, and that which I want most I cannot do. -- Clemence of Barking (late 1100s), Anglo-Norman nun, hagiographer and translator. -- claimed by k_e_p

159) I have never found a human friend to whom I would dare tell all I know; the human heart is too small to bear it. -- Gertrud of Helfta (c.1256-1302), German nun, author and translator. -- claimed by jlsigman

160) [S]ome people are so deceived that they judge the natural feeling and pain one experiences from suffering as impatience, and they call dissembling and feigned happiness in hardships patience. This is as contrary to the truth as it is tiresome and annoying to the suffering. -- Teresa de Cartagena (born circa 1423 to 1425 - death date unknown), deaf conversa (Christian of Spanish Jewish lineage) author and nun. Her first work, Grove of the Infirm, is Teresa's description of losing her hearing and the resultant problems with communication and with the hearing who don't understand the challenges she's facing, as well as her attempt to find meaning and purpose in deafness. She is regarded as Spain's first feminist writer. -- claimed by a_t_rain

161) I want to be remembered as the person who helped us restore faith in ourselves. -- Wilma Mankiller (1945-2010), Cherokee activist for Native America rights and women's rights, fund raiser and author of fiction. Best known as the first woman to be elected chief of the Cherokee Nation in her own right (1987 to 1995). -- claimed by ssquirrel_fic

162) And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see -- or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read. -- Alice Walker (born February 9, 1944) , Pulitzer-prize-winning African-American novelist, short-story writer and poet. First black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize for Literature. First black woman to win the National Book Award. (Both awards were in 1983 for The Color Purple.) -- claimed by gehayi

Comments

[seldearslj.livejournal.com]

#88, thanks!

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

88) There is a place in God's sun for the youth 'farthest down' who has the vision, the determination, and the courage to reach it. -- Mary McLeod Bethune (1875-1955), African-American educator and civil rights activist; founder, in 1904, of a school for black girls which eventually became Bethune-Cookman University, a black university in Daytona Beach, Florida; adviser to Franklin Delano Roosevelt.