Gloria Steinem Quotes

“The art of life is not controlling what happens to us, but using what happens to us”
― Gloria Steinem

“Feminism...is not 'women as victims' but women refusing to be victims.”
― Gloria Steinem, The Trouble With Rich Women

“Before she leaves, my new friend tells me to look out of the big picture window at the parking lot.

"See that purple Harley out there—that big gorgeous one? That's mine. I used to ride behind my husband, and never took the road on my own. Then after the kids were grown, I put my foot down. It was hard, but we finally got to be partners. Now he says he likes it better this way. He doesn't have to worry about his bike breaking down or getting a heart attach and totaling us both. I even put 'Ms.' on my license plate—and you should see my grandkids' faces when Grandma rides up on her purple Harley!"

On my own again, I look out at the barren sand and tortured rocks of the Badlands, stretching for miles. I've walked there, and I know that, close up, the barren sand reveals layers of pale rose and beige and cream, and the rocks turn out to have intricate womblike openings. Even in the distant cliffs, caves of rescue appear.

What seems to be one thing from a distance is very different close up.

I tell you this story because it's the kind of lesson that can be learned only on the road. And also because I've come to believe that, inside, each of us has a purple motorcycle.

We have only to discover it—and ride.”
― Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road

“I worshipped dead men for their strength, forgetting I was strong.”
― Vita Sackville-West

“Flo especially took me in hand. When I felt I had to prove the existence of discrimination with statistics, for instance, she pulled me aside. 'If you're lying in the ditch with a truck on your ankle,' she said patiently, 'you don't send someone to the library to find out how much the truck weighs. You get it off!”
― Gloria Steinem, My Life on the Road

“Famously, Gloria Steinem once advised women that they should strive to become like the men they had always wanted to marry. What I've only recently realized is that I not only have to become my own husband, but I need to be my own father, too.”
― Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

“Probably one should never feel such gaiety or such despair. Better to operate on an even keep like Friedan and Gloria and the others.”
― Kate Millett, Flying