Speaking Up Quotes - Page 2

• I have one thing in common with the emerging black nations of Africa: We both have voices, and we are discovering what we can do with them.

  Miriam Makeba

  Voice, Black, Common

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• No president stays in town. They all decamp. They all leave. They go back somewhere. But Obama is gonna stay there, and there's one reason why. He's not going to sit quietly by... Let's say there's a Republican elected president. He's not gonna sit quietly by and let whatever he thinks he's accomplished be unraveled. He's gonna be speaking up often about what he disagrees with, and he knows he's gonna have the media in his back pocket.

  Rush Limbaugh

  Thinking, Media, President

  Source: www.rushlimbaugh.com

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• We can't keep thinking of gay people as being ostracised; we can't keep thinking of Muslim people as being [ostracised] because of the fundamentalism that occurs in Islam. Muslim people have to do something about speaking up about it. We can't judge a book by its cover.

  Elton John

  Book, Gay, Thinking

  "When Elton met Jake". Interview with Jake Shears, www.theguardian.com. November 12, 2006.

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• Let others know when they have hurt or angered you. By not speaking up when someone insults or mistreats you, you are inadvertently giving permission for him or her to continue to treat you in the same way in the future.

  Beverly Engel

  Being Yourself, Hurt, Giving

  Beverly Engel (2011). “AARP The Nice Girl Syndrome: Stop Being Manipulated and Abused--and Start Standing Up for Yourself”, p.4, John Wiley & Sons

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• In order to create an alternative an oppressed group must at once shatter the self-reflecting world which encircles it and, at the same time, project its own image onto history.

  Sheila Rowbotham

  Self, Order, Groups

  Sheila Rowbotham (1999). “Threads Through Time: Writings on History and Autobiography”, Penguin (Non-Classics)

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• Every woman knows what I'm talking about. It’s the presumption that makes it hard, at times, for any woman in any field; that keeps women from speaking up and from being heard when they dare; that crushes young women into silence by indicating, the way harassment on the street does, that this is not their world. It trains us in self-doubt and self-limitation just as it exercises men’s unsupported overconfidence.

  Rebecca Solnit

  Crush, Exercise, Men

  "Tomgram: Rebecca Solnit, The Archipelago of Arrogance". www.tomdispatch.com. April 13, 2008.

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• Your projects can often demonstrative new and innovative approaches that can be supported and eventually replicated with greater support from the public sector. Showing up and speaking up at city council and state legislature hearings are essential, but so is the project work.

  Mark Winne

  Cities, Support, Hearing

  "Outlook: The Futility of Food Banks". Live chat, www.washingtonpost.com. November 19, 2007.

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• People in places many of us never heard of, whose names we can't pronounce or even spell, are speaking up for themselves. They speak in languages we once classified as exotic but whose mastery is now essential for our diplomats and businessmen. But what they say is very much the same the world over. They want a decent standard of living. They want human dignity and a voice in their own futures. They want their children to grow up strong and healthy and free.

  Hubert H. Humphrey

  Strong, Children, Growing Up

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• [To the bishop who suggested the widowed queen now consider herself 'as married to Christ':] That's what I call twaddle!

  Queen Victoria

  Queens, Bishops, Married

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• Stage actors are usually much more conscious of speaking up and making sure that everyone can hear in the back of the theatre; a film actor probably thinks of that a little less. Unfortunately, there's a style of acting going round, especially with the younger actors, where they talk without even moving their lip. Maybe it's because my hearing probably isn't what it was 40 years ago but I'm sitting there going "What did they say"?

  Clint Eastwood

  Moving, Thinking, Years

  Interview with Michael Parkinson, www.theguardian.com. October 6, 2003.

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• I guess just personally I've become a bolder person in my day-to-day. I think a lot of it came from moving to Brooklyn. I just sort of became an adult and started speaking up for myself and not apologising for myself.

  Fernando Torres

  Moving, Thinking, Adults

  Source: thequietus.com

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• As a kid growing up, this was sometimes a little bit intimidating to have a mom who was always, like, speaking up and always saying something that might be kind of controversial . . . . The thing I think that we got out of that that was really good was, like, we weren't afraid to make waves.

  Susan Wojcicki

  Mom, Growing Up, Kids

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• The criminal misuse of time was pointing out the mistakes. Catching them―noticing them―that was essential. If you did not in your own mind distinguish between useful and erroneous information, then you were not learning at all, you were merely replacing ignorance with false belief, which was no improvement. The part of the man's statement that was true, however, was about the uselessness of speaking up. If I know that the teacher is wrong, and say nothing, then I remain the only one who knows, and that gives me an advantage over those who believe the teacher.

  Orson Scott Card

  Teacher, Mistake, Believe

  Orson Scott Card (2002). “Ender's Shadow”, p.79, Macmillan

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• It's a very scary time for a lot of people; they feel scared to speak up. There's so much controversy even speaking up about politics to begin with. People try to discredit you at every single corner, especially if you're a woman. So it's hard as an artist to really speak up about this kind of stuff when you're trying to be successful and have a career.

  Lauren Jauregui

  Successful, Artist, Careers

  Source: www.mtv.com

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• Wherever you find a wife and mother-in-law slugging it out, you'll find a son who's not speaking up to either his mother or his wife.

  Harriet Lerner

  Mother, Son, Law

  Harriet Lerner (2012). “Marriage Rules: A Manual for the Married and the Coupled Up”, p.145, Penguin

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• I am glad to see the wheels are moving at last toward comprehensive immigration reform after last year's election. I am glad that immigrants are speaking up.

  Andrew Lam

  Moving, Years, Reform

  "‘Birds of Paradise Lost’: A Conversation With Author Andrew Lam". Interview with Anna Challet, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 5, 2013.

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• I had a real feeling of being fated to be an actor and do my work, and I remember so much speaking up in a room full of people who authentically knew as much or more than me, and feeling like I was absolutely equal, and what I had to say was important.

  Zoe Kazan

  Real, People, Feelings

  Source: www.avclub.com

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• I did not have any problem with speaking up because my mother, my family, my grandmother, my aunt - I grew up in a family dominated by women - always encouraged me to do so. And if a girl is unafraid, then the world is her oyster.

  Ava DuVernay

  Girl, Mother, Aunt

  Source: www.glamour.com

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• I have often felt like I was the only one fighting against female genital mutilation. There is still a huge taboo surrounding the topic, because it involves the most private parts of the female´s body. But whenever I feel like this is too much for me to do, I read e-mails and messages I receive every day from people thanking me for speaking up for them, for giving them a voice. These messages let me know that I am not alone, and that what I do is worthwhile.

  Waris Dirie

  Fighting, Voice, People

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• I wouldn't call it a silver lining, but with more women speaking up, online harassment is beginning to be taken more seriously.

  Anita Sarkeesian

  Taken, Silver, Online

  Source: www.motherjones.com

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• [To the heckler who said, 'If you were my wife I'd poison you':] No, you wouldn't. I'd do it myself.

  Emmeline Pankhurst

  Wife, Poison, Hecklers

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• My seat has been the seat of kings, and I will have no rascal to succeed me.

  Elizabeth I

  Kings, Succeed, Rascals

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• For every time we regret keeping still, there are about ten times we regret speaking up.

  James Alexander Thom

  Regret, Stills, Ten

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• shall I, for fear of feeble man who shall die, hold my peace? Shall I for fear of scoffs and frowns, refrain my tongue? Ah, no!

  Maria W. Stewart

  Men, Tongue, Refrain

  Maria W. Stewart, Marilyn Richardson (1987). “Maria W. Stewart, America's First Black Woman Political Writer: Essays and Speeches”, p.30, Indiana University Press

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• More women speaking up and seizing the helm of power can create its own momentum. It can change the culture that helps perpetuate those external forces.

  Nancy Birdsall

  Momentum, Culture, World

  "Why I Want My Daughters — and Son — to Read Lean In" by Nancy Birdsall, www.huffingtonpost.com. March 12, 2013.

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