Collection of empowering quotes celebrating women and girls

This Women's Empowerment blog post is dedicated to the upcoming 2014 International Women's Day. Here are posts, quotes, artwork that honor, celebrate and empower women and girls. We hope you'll find one to inspire you and help you celebrate International Women's Day. Thank you to all the artists and organizations that contributed. 

Wishing everyone a Happy International Women's Day 2014! 

“You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it.” ~ Maya Angelou

"I can honestly say that I was never affected by the question of the success of an undertaking. If I felt it was the right thing to do, I was for it regardless of the possible outcome." ~ Golda Meir

"The most beautiful curve on a woman's body is her smile." ~ Bob Marley

“The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman is seen in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where love resides. True beauty in a woman is reflected in her soul. It's the caring that she lovingly gives, the passion that she shows & the beauty of a woman only grows with passing years.” 
~ Audrey Hepburn

“The most beautiful makeup of a woman is passion. But cosmetics are easier to buy.” 
~ Yves Saint-Laurent

"Women who seek to be equal with men lack ambition." ~ Timothy Leary

“I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint – and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.” 
~ Oprah Winfrey

“Always go with the choice that scares you the most, because that’s the one that is going to require the most from you.” ~ Caroline Myss

"The fastest way to change society is to mobilize the women of the world." ~ Charles Malik

"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." ~ Maya Angelou

"Be not ashamed women, … You are the gates of the body, and you are the gates of the soul." 
~ Walt Whitman

“Women are the real architects of society.” ~ Harriet Beecher Stowe

"It is past time for women to take their rightful place, side by side with men, in the rooms where the fates of peoples, where their children’s and grandchildren’s fates, are decided." ~ Hillary Clinton

Lady Freedom: E pluribus Unum - Out of many ONE.

Lady Liberty -
Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
by Emma Lazarus

"I know God will not give me anything I can't handle. I just wish that He didn't trust me so much." ~ Mother Theresa

"How important it is for us to recognize and celebrate our heroes and she-roes!" ~ Maya Angelou

"There is in every true woman's heart, a spark of heavenly fire, which lies dormant in the broad daylight of prosperity, but which kindles up and beams and blazes in the dark hour of adversity." 
~ Washington Irving

“Well-behaved women seldom make history.” ~ Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

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

“Women hold up half the sky.” ~ Chinese proverb

“For most of history, Anonymous was a woman.” ~ Virginia Woolf

“How wrong is it for a woman to expect the man to build the world she wants, rather than to create it herself?” ~ Anaïs Nin

"In too many instances, the march to globalization has also meant the marginalization of women and girls. And that must change." ~ Hillary Clinton

“The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.” ~ Ayn Rand

"Don't compromise yourself. You are all you've got." ~ Janis Joplin

“To be beautiful means to be yourself. You don’t need to be accepted by others. You need to accept yourself.” ~ Thich Nhat Hanh

“If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.” ~ Katharine Hepburn

"Modern dance isn't anything except one thing in my mind: the freedom of women in America."
~ Martha Graham

“Love is anterior to Life, Posterior to Death, Initial of Creation, and The Exponent of Earth.” 

~ Emily Dickinson

“I could not, at any age, be content to take my place by the fireside and simply look on. Life was meant to be lived. Curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.” ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

“We must believe that we are gifted for something, and that this thing, at whatever cost, must be attained.” ~ Marie Curie

“It takes a great deal of courage to stand up to your enemies, but even more to stand up to your friends.” ~  J. K. Rowling

“Men and boys, we show our manhood through the way we treat our women. Our wives, our sisters, our mothers.” ~ Archbishop Desmond Tutu

"My mother was the most beautiful woman I ever saw. All I am I owe to my mother. I attribute all my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education I received from her."
~ George Washington

“In the book Soldiers on the Home Front, I was greatly struck by the fact that in childbirth alone, women commonly suffer more pain, illness and misery than any war hero ever does. An what's her reward for enduring all that pain? She gets pushed aside when she's disfigured by birth, her children soon leave, hear beauty is gone. Women, who struggle and suffer pain to ensure the continuation of the human race, make much tougher and more courageous soldiers than all those big-mouthed freedom-fighting heroes put together.” ~ Anne Frank

"Do you really want to look back on your life and see how wonderful it could have been had you not been afraid to live it?" ~ Caroline Myss

"I think God made a woman to be strong and not to be trampled under the feet of men. I've always felt this way because my mother was a very strong woman, without a husband." ~ Little Richard

“One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman.” ~ Simone de Beauvoir

"This view that women are somehow inferior to men is not restricted to one religion or belief. Women are prevented from playing a full and equal role in many faiths. Nor, tragically, does its influence stop at the walls of the church, mosque, synagogue or temple. This discrimination, unjustifiably attributed to a Higher Authority, has provided a reason or excuse for the deprivation of women's equal rights across the world for centuries. At its most repugnant, the belief that women must be subjugated to the wishes of men excuses slavery, violence, forced prostitution, genital mutilation and national laws that omit rape as a crime. But it also costs many millions of girls and women control over their own bodies and lives, and continues to deny them fair access to education, health, employment and influence within their own communities.... The truth is that male religious leaders have had -- and still have -- an option to interpret holy teachings either to exalt or subjugate women. They have, for their own selfish ends, overwhelmingly chosen the latter." ~ Jimmy Carter

You can find more information about my Women's Empowerment Organization at:

Website Women's Empowerment: http://www.empowerment.ws/
Facebook https://www.facebook.com/EmpowermentWS?ref=hl
Poetry Musings Blog: http://speakyourart.blogspot.com

Thank you for honoring the feminine and thank you for visiting. Wishing you peace.
POI