Empowering quotes from famous women

Eleanor Roosevelt

“A woman is like a tea bag – you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.”

Ellen Degeneres

“We’re all supposed to be different. I want so badly to encourage everyone to say, ‘Who am I and how do I want to live my life?'”

Amy Poehler

“I just love bossy women. I could be around them all day. To me, bossy is not a pejorative term at all. It means someone’s passionate and engaged and ambitious and doesn’t mind learning.”

Charlotte Bronte

“If men could see us as we really are, they would be a little amazed.”

Maya Angelou

“I love to see a young girl go out and grab the world by the lapels. Life’s a bitch. You’ve got to go out and kick ass.”

Elisabeth Moss

Who dedicated her award at the 75th annual Golden Globe Awards to Margaret Atwood, author of The Handmaid’s Tale.

“Margaret Atwood, this is for you, and all of the women who came before you and after you who were brave enough to speak out against intolerance and injustice.”

Cara Delevingne

“You have this one life. How do you wanna spend it? Apologizing? Regretting? Questioning? Hating yourself? Dieting? Running after people who don’t see you? Be brave. Believe in yourself. Do what feels good. Take risks. You have this one life. Make yourself proud.”

Helen Clark

“It’s like we’ve always said – you’ve got to get mad and you’ve got to get organised.”

Malala Yousafzai

“I raise up my voice – not so I can shout but so that those without a voice can be heard… we cannot succeed when half of us are held back.”

Diana Vreeland

“You don’t have to be pretty. You don’t owe prettiness to anyone. Not to your boyfriend/spouse/partner, not to your co-workers, especially not to random men on the street. You don’t owe it to your mother, you don’t owe it to your children, you don’t owe it to civilisation in general. Prettiness is not a rent you pay for occupying a space marked ‘female’.”

Nora Ephron

“Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.”

Anne Hathaway

“A man told me that for a woman, I was very opinionated. I said, ‘for a man you’re kind of ignorant’.”

Diana Ross

“Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.”

Reese Witherspoon

“Like Elle Woods, I do not like to be underestimated.”

Meryl Streep

“Don’t waste so much time thinking about how much you weigh. There is no more mind-numbing, boring, idiotic, self-destructive diversion from the fun of living.”

Rebecca West

“I myself have never been able to find out precisely what feminism is: I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.”

Jacinda Ardern

“Some people have asked me if I’m a radical. My answer to that is very simple. I’m from Morrinsville.

Where I come from a radical is someone who chooses to drive a Toyota rather than a Holden or a Ford.

I am, though, a Social Democrat. I believe strongly in the values of human rights, social justice, equality democracy and the role of communities.”

Lupita Nyong’o

“I hope that my presence on your screen and my face in magazines may lead you, young girls, on a beautiful journey,” she said. “That you will feel the validation of your external beauty, but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful inside.”

Coco Chanel

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.”

Zooey Deschanel

“I’m a feminist because I’m a woman, and I think that if you’re a strong woman who wants to succeed, you have to be a feminist.”

Taylor Swift

“My hope for the future, not just in the music industry, but for every young girl I meet, is that they all realise their worth and ask for it.”

Virginia Woolf

“As a woman I have no country. As a woman I want no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.”

Michelle Obama

“There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish, whether that’s in politics or other fields.”

Sheryl Sandberg

“I’m a feminist because I believe in women… It’s a heavy word, feminism, but it’s not one I think we should run from. I’m proud to be a feminist.”

Angelina Jolie

“Figure out who you are separate from your family, and the man or woman you’re in a relationship with. Find who you are in this world and what you need to feel good alone. I think that’s the most important thing in life. Find a sense of self. With that, you can do anything else.”

Tina Fey

“Know what? Bitches get stuff done.”

Zendaya

“A feminist is a person who believes in the power of women just as much as they believe in the power of anyone else. It’s equality, it’s fairness and I think it’s a great thing to be a part of.”

Hillary Clinton

“Human rights are women’s rights and women’s rights are human rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely – and the right to be heard.”

Oprah Winfrey

“Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.”

Sarah Silverman

“We need to stop telling girls they can be anything they want when they grow up. Because it would have never occurred to them that they couldn’t.”

Lady Gaga

“When I say to you, there is nobody like me, and there never was, that is a statement I want every woman to feel and make about themselves.”

Audrey Hepburn

“Nothing is impossible. The word itself says ‘I’m possible!'”

Beyoncé

“We need to stop buying into the myth about gender equality. It isn’t a reality yet. Today, women make up half of the U.S. workforce, but the average working woman earns only 77 percent of what the average working man makes. But unless women and men both say this is unacceptable, things will not change. Men have to demand that their wives, daughters, mothers and sisters earn more—commensurate with their qualifications and not their gender. Equality will be achieved when men and women are granted equal pay and equal respect.”

Melinda Gates

“A woman with a voice is by definition a strong woman. But the search to find that voice can be remarkably difficult.”

Emma Watson

“I feel like young girls are told that they have to be a princess and fragile. It’s bullsh*t. I identify much more with being a warrior – a fighter.”

Via Grazia and the Now To Love team