Compiled by Melanie Montoya

It isn't privilege or pity
That I seek
It isn't reverence or safety
Quick happiness or purity, but
The power to be what I am / a woman
Holding my beads in my hand.
Yemanji - mother goddess African Myth

...a woman trying to translate pulsations into images
Adrienne Rich Planetarium

I am a woman in the prime of life...
With nerves of a panther.
...feeling the fullness of her powers.
Adrienne Rich I Dream I'm the Death of

...Power is a great aphrodisiac,
and I'm a very powerful person.
Madonna

And I, a smiling woman...
Sylvia Plath Lady Lazarus

My strength flows ever on
I am so perfect so divine so ethereal so surreal
Nikki Giovanni Ego Tripping

I am coming into my form
My born body new and gravid
With musical sensuality
Strong and proud from deep inside

I will sing my ripe real me out loud
With body and heart and brain
All beating against each other in a heightening passion
I am the naked light inside.
Natasha Le Bel Boxing the Female

Now you understand
Just why my head's not bowed.

I don't shout or jump about
Or have to talk real loud
When you see me passing
It ought to make you proud.
Maya Angelou Phenomenal Woman

Does my sexiness upset you?
Does it come as a surprise
That I dance like I've got diamonds
At the meeting of my thighs?
Maya Angelou Still I Rise

Nobody can stop a woman from feelin'
That she has to rise up like the sun.
Naomi Littlebear

Hunger only for a taste of justice
Hunger only for a world of truth
'cause all that you have is your soul
Tracy Chapman All That You Have

The Soul selects her own Society
Emily Dickenson

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent
Eleanor Roosevelt

Many persons have a wrong idea
Of what constitutes true happiness.
It is not attained through self-gratification
But through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
Helen Keller

Happiness is not a state to arrive at
But a manner of traveling.
Margaret Lee Runbeck

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
Happiness will bring you strength.
Countess of Bessington

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.
Rebecca West

Sometimes, I feel discriminated against, but it doesn't make me angry,
It merely astonishes me. How can any deny themselves
The pleasure of my company?
Zora Neale Hurston

Let me listen to me and not them.
Gertrude Stein

...teach her to develop all of her selves.
The courageous ones.
The smart ones
The dreaming ones
The fast ones.
...that she has an army inside her
That can save her life.
...that her skin is the most beautiful dress she will ever wear.
Nicole Blackman Daughter

Remember your birth, how your mother struggled to give you form and breath.
You are evidence of her life, and her mother's and hers.
Remember the moon knows who she is.
Remember the dance language is, that life is.
Jo Harjo Remember

Do not become an island of political correctness unto yourself.
Wynona LaDuke

Don't compromise yourself.
Betty Ford

Each person makes her own path.
Lady Bird Johnson

Tell me, what is it you plan to do
With your one wild and precious life?
Mary Oliver The Summer Day

You don't have to be a super model to do the animal thing
You don't have to be a super genius to open up your face and sing.
Ani De Franco Face Up and Sing

Be wicked, be brave, be drunk, be reckless, be dissolute..
Be an anarchist, be a religious fanatic, ... be anything you like
But for pity's sake be it to the top of your bent
Live - live fully, live passionately, live disastrously.
Violet Trefusis

The more you live the less you die.
Janis Joplin

She who has chosen her Self, who defines her Self,
By choice, neither in relation to children nor men,
Who is Self-identified, is a Spinster
A whirling dervish spinning in a new time/space.
Mary Daly

So girl(s)
You jus keep on makin the sunset procrastinate
Givin the rainbows a complex
You a silk earthquake
You a velvet hurricane
N girl you so woman
I be damn
If you don't put a full moon to shame.
Ruth Forman You So Woman