Words of wisdom and empowerment by notable women

1. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Words of Wisdom and Empowerment
Universal Peace Federation

2. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
People are like stained-glass
windows. They sparkle and
shine when the sun is out,
but when the darkness sets
in, their true beauty is revealed
only if there is a light from
within.
~ Elizabeth Kübler-
Ross, American psychiatrist

3. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
I'm not afraid of storms,
for I'm learning to sail my ship.
~ Louisa May Alcott, American
novelist

4. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
I've learned that people will
forget what you said, people will
forget what you did, but people
will never forget how you made
them feel.
~ Maya Angelou, American
author and poet

5. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Character cannot be developed
in ease and quiet. Only through
experience of trial and suffering
can the soul be strengthened,
vision cleared, ambition
inspired, and success achieved.
~ Helen Keller, American author,
activist, civil and women's rights
campaigner; blind and deaf

6. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Nothing could be worse than the
fear that one had given up too
soon, and left one unexpended
effort that might have saved the
world.
~ Jane Addams, American
leader in women’s suffrage and
world peace, awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1931 for her
efforts to bring World War I to
an end

7. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
A woman is like a tea bag – you
never know how strong she
is until she gets in hot water.
~ Eleanor Roosevelt, American
political leader, campaigner for
women, human rights, and
social justice; former First Lady

8. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
I had applied for a job [at
Imperial Chemical Industries] in
1948 and was called for a
personal interview. However I
failed to get selected. Many
years later, I succeeded in
finding out why I had been
rejected. The remarks written by
the selectors on my application
were: "This woman is
headstrong, obstinate and
dangerously self-opinionated!"
~ Rt. Hon. Margaret
Thatcher, first woman British
Prime Minister

9. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Great events make me quiet
and calm; it is only trifles that
irritate my nerves.
~ Queen Victoria, United
Kingdom

10. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
If the first woman God ever
made was strong enough to turn
the world upside down all
alone, these women together
ought to be able to turn it
back, and get it right side up
again!
~ Sojourner Truth, American
advocate for abolition, women's
rights, and temperance; she was
born a slave

11. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
We want to disarm human hearts
and human beings, one by
one, country by country.
We can choose to do this
individually, by seeking truth and
living our lives with as much
integrity as possible.
~ Mairead Maguire, Northern
Ireland, winner of the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1976, with Betty
Williams, for their extraordinary
actions to end the sectarian
violence in Northern Ireland

12. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Peace is not just the absence of war.
It’s a world with justice and equality.
It’s a world where the basic needs of
the majority of the people on our
planet are met. If we stop spending
money on war and the weapons of
war, we’d have more than enough to
invest in these basics of long-term
peace. People should have basic
housing, access to medical
care, education, and work. Everyone
should have clean drinking water
and food to eat every day.
~ Jody Williams, US, awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her
work to ban landmines through the
International Campaign to Ban
Landmines

13. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
We can work together for a
better world with men and
women of goodwill, those who
radiate the intrinsic goodness of
humankind. It's the little things
citizens do. That's what will
make the difference. My little
thing is planting trees.
~ Dr. Wangari Muta
Maathai, Kenya, awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 for
her actions to promote
sustainable
development, democracy and
peace.

14. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Regardless of whom you pray
to, during war our experiences
as a community and as mothers
are the same. If any changes
were to be made in society it
had to be by the mothers.
~ Leymah Gbowee, Liberia,
awarded the Nobel Peace Prize
in 2011 for organizing a peace
movement that brought an end
to the Second Liberian Civil War
in 2003

15. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Without a revolution of the spirit, the
forces which produced the iniquities
of the old order would continue to be
operative, posing a constant threat to
the process of reform and
regeneration. It is not enough merely
to call for freedom, democracy and
human rights. There has to be a
united determination to persevere in
the struggle, to make sacrifices in
the name of enduring truths, to resist
the corrupting influences of desire, ill
will, ignorance and fear.
~ Daw Aung San Suu
Kyi, Myanmar, awarded the Nobel
Peace Prize in 1991 in recognition of
her work in the nonviolent struggle
for democracy and human rights in
Burma

16. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
People are often
unreasonable, illogical and selfish.
Love them anyway. If you do
good, you can be accused for selfish
motivation. Do good anyhow.
Goodness you do today will be
forgotten tomorrow. Do good anyway.
Your sincerity and honesty will hurt
you. Be sincere and honest anyway.
Your help is truly needed, but people
attack you when you help. Help them
anyhow. You give to the world your
best and they break your teeth. Give
the world your best anyway. All of this
is not between you and them, but
between us and God
~ Mother Teresa of
Calcutta, Founder, Missionaries of
Charity, awarded the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1979 in recognition of her work
in bringing help to suffering humanity

17. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
To be a light to others you will need
a good dose of the spiritual life.
Because as my mother used to
say, if you are in a good
place, then you can help others.
But if you're not well, then go look
for somebody who is in a good
place who can help you.
~ Rigoberta Menchu
Tum, Guatemala, awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1992 in
recognition of her work for social
justice and ethno-cultural
reconciliation work based on
respect for the rights of indigenous
peoples in her native Guatemala

18. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Establishing lasting peace is the
work of education; all politics
can do is keep us out of war.
~ Maria Montessori, Italian
educator

19. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
Every great dream begins with a
dreamer. Always remember, you
have within you the strength, the
patience, and the passion to
reach for the stars to change the
world. I freed a thousand slaves.
I could have freed a thousand
more if only they knew they
were slaves.
~ Harriet Tubman, American
abolitionist and humanitarian;
escaped from slavery

20. INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY
History is calling for
peace, reconciliation, compassio
n, love, service and sacrifice. It
is an age in which the present
problems cannot be solved by
the masculine logic of power.
This is the age when the present
problems must be solved by the
more feminine logic of love, and
the direction of history must be
straightened out.
~ Dr. Hak Ja Han
Moon, Korea, Co-
Founder, Universal Federation
for World Peace

21. Compiled by the Universal Peace Federation
www.upf.org