Quotes
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.
Marie Curie
We gain strength, and courage, and confidence by each experience in which we really stop to look fear in the face… we must do that which we think we cannot.
Eleanor Roosevelt
“You will be the teachers for each other. You will come together in circles and speak your truth to each other. The time has come for women to accept their spiritual responsibility for our planet.”
Will you help us? I ask the assembled patriarchs.
“We are your brothers,” they answer, and with that the entire room is flooded with an energy of indescribable kindness. I am absolutely confident in this moment that they are our brothers. I feel their love without any question. They say then, “We have initiated you and we give you our wholehearted blessings. But we no longer know the way. Our ways do not work anymore. You women must find a new way.”
Patricia Hopkins and Sherry Rochester The Feminine Face of God
Sex is difficult, yes. But they are difficult things with which we have been charged…If you only recognize this and manage out of yourself, out of your own nature and ways, out of your own experience and childhood and strength to achieve a relation to sex wholly your own (not influenced by convention and custom) then you need no longer be afraid of losing yourself and becoming unworthy of your best possession.
Rainer Maria Rilke Letters to a Young Poet
“My excitement for the Swagger project comes from its potential to redefine the meaning of “strength” or “power,” starting with women and extending to the rest of humanity. With this new kind of swagger, we can find a way to power that does not require any kind of destruction, discover strength that is great enough to encompass compassion and broad-mindedness as its central tenets. I am excited to witness thousands of women learning how to walk with this new kind of swagger, to see them confidently shaping the world according to the justice in their hearts and the ideas they are on the verge of bringing to light.”
Liz Wolfert, 27
“Work is a mess” encourages us to first recognize that we can never have a completely neat relationship with our livelihood. Treating work’s messiness as if it were a mistake or liability only creates further unnecessary distress and resentment. By developing the attitude that work is a mess, we can learn to relax and be curious about the surprises and interruptions. By engaging the messiness of work directly-appreciating both the advantages and disadvantages – we become fully equipped to engage such events in all their variations. We have the ingenuity, good humor, and curiosity to adapt and innovate – to be victorious, no matter what the circumstances.
from Awake at Work by Michael Carroll
I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community and as long as I live, it is my privilege to do for it whatsoever I can. Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment; and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.
George Bernard Shaw
Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so that they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then, do what you need to do, in order to have what want.
Margaret Young
This is what you shall do: love the earth and sun and the animals, despise riches, give alms to every one that asks, stand up for the stupid and crazy, devote your income and labor to others, hate tyrants, argue not concerning God, have patience and indulgence toward the people, take off your hat to nothing known or unknown or to any man or number of men, go freely with powerful uneducated persons and with the young and with the mothers of families, read these leaves in the open air every season of every year of your life,
re-examine all you have been told at school or church or in any book, dismiss whatever insults your own soul, and your very flesh shall be a great poem and have the richest fluency not only in its words but in the silent lines of its lips and face and between the lashes of your eyes and in every motion and joint of your body.
Walt Whitman from the introduction to “Leaves of Grass”
Girls who stay true to themselves manage to find some way to respect the parts of themselves that are spiritual. They work for the betterment of the world. Girls who act from their false selves are often cynical about making the world a better place. They have given up hope. Only when they reconnect with the parts of themselves that are alive and true will they again have the energy to take on the culture and fight to save the planet.
Mary Pipher Reviving Ophelia
They are not one jot less than I am,
They are tann’d in the face by shining suns and blowing winds,
Their flesh has the old divine suppleness and strength,
They know how to swim, row, ride, wrestle, shoot, run, strike, retreat, advance, resist, defend themselves,
They are ultimate in their own right – they are calm, clear, well-possess’d of themselves.
Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass
Please know that I am quite aware of the hazards. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others.
letter to her husband before her last flight - Amelia Earhart, d. 1937
I am only one; but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something. I will not refuse to do the something I can do.
Helen Keller
What does swagger look like? When I’m helping someone else – it looks like sunlight radiating from within me.
Swagger Survey
You’ve got to forget all about punishments and all about rewards and all about self-styled obligations and duties and responsibilities, and remember one thing only: that it’s you – nobody else – who determines your destiny and decides your fate. Nobody else can be alive for you, nor can you be alive for anybody else.
e.e. cummings, poet
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 door mat or a prostitute.
Rebecca West, “Mr Chesterton in Hysterics: A Study in Prejudice,” The Clarion, 14 Nov 1913, reprinted in The Young Rebecca, 1982
Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, “She doesn’t have what it takes.” They will say, “Women don’t have what it takes.”
Clare Boothe Luce
I guess I’d say I get most of my needs met. I have the advantage of knowing that if this doesn’t work out and it may not, then I can go somewhere else, do something else, figure it out again.
Kathy
If you ask me what I came into this life to do, I will tell you: I came to live out loud.
Emile Zola
I don’t take on anything that doesn’t belong to me. In my relationships with men I don’t apologize for truly being the strong independent woman men say they want and then immediately either run for cover or try to change you. I practice my religion( without fear or worrying about offending anyone who doesn’t understand.)
From the Swagger Survey
I visited your web site and saw your video. Love the notion of swagger. It made me want to get up and swagger with a shout…
EW, Friend of Swagger
Don’t let yourself be thrown away.
Continue on no matter what.
Continue to make a positive effort for the good.
Writing Coach Natalie Goldberg
“When you are in state of flow – more of yourself becomes available, it recruits more from the environment. When in your own power – the entire room shifts – everyone also occupies a larger part of themselves, it can spark extraordinary conversations.
Swagger – is a field – people in it benefit when the flow starts.”
Joan Borysenko, author of 16 books, including Fried: Why You Burn Out and How to Revive
“Swagger is the ability to express opinions/views/ideas with confidence, regardless of the audience. To know yourself and what you want out of life and have the confidence to pursue those needs. Swagger starts with knowing, liking, and respecting yourself and carrying that confidence and self-respect through all aspects of life. If you don’t respect and like yourself, how can you expect others to. If you don’t know what you want/need out of life, how can you creatively apply swagger to your goals and needs?”
Wendy
“I don’t often think of swagger as a verb. I prefer it as a noun, as a gift, as a goal. Maybe you have to swagger to get swagger. I think of Mother Teresa and Mae West, both wonderful women with swagger, but how different can they be?
Betsey
“Confident, sassy, sense of humor; give people a poke up the butt – about getting serious people to relax; don’t take yourself or others too seriously.”
Michelle
“Why are people so afraid of their own voice? They have probably been told that they are not important – to be seen and not heard. It is a sad reality.”
Tamara
