I am an example of what is possible when girls from the very beginning of their lives are loved and nurtured by people around them. I was surrounded by extraordinary women in my life, who taught me about quiet, strength and dignity.

We need to reshape our own perception of how we view ourselves. We have to step up as women and take the lead.

I was raised to believe that excellence is the best deterrent to racism or sexism. And that’s how I operate my life.

I’m tough, I’m ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.

When a man gives his opinion, he’s a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she’s a bitch.

So here is the quick way of working out if you’re a feminist. Put your hand in your pants. a) Do you have a vagina? and b) Do you want to be in charge of it? If you said “yes” to both, then congratulations! You’re a feminist.

I suppose I could have stayed home and baked cookies and had teas, but what I decided to do, was to fulfil my profession, which I entered before my husband was in public life.

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.

Don’t compromise yourself. You are all you’ve got. There is no yesterday, no tomorrow, it’s all the same day.

I’m a feminist because I believe in women… It’s a heavy word, feminism, but it’s not one I think we should run from. I’m proud to be a feminist.

The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.

The thing women have yet to learn is nobody gives you power. You just take it.

Women have to harness their power – it’s absolutely true. It’s just learning not to take the first no. And if you can’t go straight ahead, you go around the corner.

If you think you’re too small to have an impact, try going to bed with a mosquito.

Instead of looking at the past, I put myself ahead twenty years and try to look at what I need to do now in order to get there then.

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.

A woman is like a tea bag – you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.

I am the American Dream. I am the epitome of what the American Dream basically said. It said, you could come from anywhere and be anything you want in this country. That’s exactly what I’ve done. I am where I am, because I believe in all possibilities.

If you obey all the rules, you miss all the fun.

Never dull your shine for somebody else.

The question isn’t who’s going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.

I, with a deeper instinct, choose a man who compels my strength, who makes enormous demands on me, who does not doubt my courage or my toughness, who does not believe me naïve or innocent, who has the courage to treat me like a woman.

Just don’t give up trying to do what you really want to do. Where there is love and inspiration, I don’t think you can go wrong.

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.

I myself have never been able to find out precisely what a feminist is. I only know that people call me a feminist whenever I express sentiments that differentiate me from a doormat.

The Ocean Health Index is like the thermometer of the ocean. It will allow us to take the temperature to know what is going on at the global level, trying to integrate different impacts, including overfishing, invasive species, coastal development, and climate change.

I don't want to be an art-house movie guy, where people who go to film school can discuss your work, but people who haven't studied cinema can't appreciate it. By the same token, I don't want to be the guy who's making this commercial pap that people lap up but that disappears the minute you leave the theater.

A ratio of failures is built into the process of writing. The wastebasket has evolved for a reason.

In chess, there are some extremely beautiful things in the domain of movement, but not in the visual domain. It's the imagining of the movement or of the gesture that makes the beauty in this case.

I went to college at University of South Carolina and dropped out of chemistry, and to fill a class, the only spot they had left was a theater class. It was so annoying, but I took it and then I thought it was the greatest thing; the most socially creative. I dropped out of school immediately and moved to New York to start acting. I was 19.

Graham Greene, as I understand it, was quite outspoken in his criticism of American foreign policy.

Mystical experiences (unlike scientific conclusions) cannot be communicated from one person to another. Philosophers and little children are continually amazed that we, unaccountably, find ourselves in a somewhat intelligible world.

The most valuable player is the one who makes the most players valuable.

I suffered a lot when there was like a birthday party and I was not invited. Not because I was ugly or stupid I was not invited because the parents would say to the kids Dont invite him because hes poor and he comes from the south of Italy and he cant give you nothing.

He was so terrible that he was no longer terrible, only dehumanized.

If all mankind were to disappear, the world would regenerate back to the rich state of equilibrium that existed ten thousand years ago. If insects were to vanish, the environment would collapse into chaos.

Experience is not what happens to you; it's what you do with what happens to you.

The word of man is the most durable of all material.

The Royal Navy of England hath ever been its greatest defense and ornament; it is its ancient and natural strength; the floating bulwark of the island.

Lying is not only a defense mechanism its also a coping mechanism and a survival technique.

Adaptation seems to be, to a substantial extent, a process of reallocating your attention.

A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life.

When faith and hope fail, as they do sometimes, we must try charity, which is love in action. We must speculate no more on our duty, but simply do it. When we have done it, however blindly, perhaps Heaven will show us why.

There are just some really beautiful people in the world. When you're walking down the street, or you're at a restaurant, someone catches your eye because they have their own look. It goes way beyond what they're wearing - into their mannerisms, the way they smile, or just the way they hold themselves.

I think women of our generation went through Cultural Revolution, went through hardship, coming from nowhere, and suddenly see China's amazing opportunity. So women just seized the opportunity.

I've been an important star and lived a full life, yet I only hve three close friends. I guess that's all anyone can expect.

In 2009, South Carolina was blessed to welcome a great American company that chose to stay in our country to continue to do business. That company was Boeing.