Quotes from Gloria Steinem

Gender is the remaining caste system that still cuts deep enough, and spreads wide enough, to be confused with the laws of nature. To uncover the difference between what is and what could be, we may need the "Aha!" that comes from exchanging subject for object, the flash of recognition that starts with a smile, the moment of changed viewpoint that turns the world upside down.

Men would support us, we are told, if only we learned how to ask in the right way. It's a subtle and effective way of not only blaming the victim, but making the victim blame herself.

All of which is only to explain how I came by a piece of equipment that most writers have to acquire one way or another: an unusual tolerance, even a preference, for instability. Not that they don't suffer from being unsure of next year's plans or this month's rent. They do. But, unlike many people, they can live with it.

she is still better known than most living movie stars, most world leaders, and most television personalities. The surprise is that she rarely has been taken seriously enough to ask why that is so.

It is said that the biggest determinant of our lives is whether we see the world as welcoming or hostile. This becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

A journey - whether it's to the corner grocery or through life - is supposed to have a beginning, middle, and end, right? Well, the road is not like that at all. It's the very illogic and the juxtaposed differences of the road - combined with our search for meaning - that make travel so addictive.

Part of traveling over years means coming back to the same place and knowing it for the first time.

The more polarized the gender roles, the more violent the society. The less polarized the gender roles, the more peaceful the society.

The ultimate in parallel thinking is the Golden Rule—providing it is read both ways. The traditional sequence assumes a healthy self-esteem and asks for empathy: "Do unto others as you would have others do unto you." But for many people whose self-esteem has been suppressed, the revolution lies in reversing it: Do unto yourself as you would do unto others.

Laughter is a rescue.

People before paper; stories before statistics.

I soon developed myopia and a firm belief that people in books were not only more interesting but more real than people outside of books.