Famous Quotes by Women from American History

America's history is filled with famous quotes by women who helped shape our great nation. America has a history of strong women who contributed in the founding of our country, and quotes by famous women from our history still inspire us today.

When I read famous quotes by women in American history, I can't help but imagine what it must have been like for them. Many of these women lived during times where women were thought of as second class citizens, without even the right to vote.

Even under trying circumstances, America has produced so many strong, independent women that there is no end of famous quotes by women to enjoy. These women ran farms and worked in factories while their husbands were at war, raised children, ran the household without modern conveniences and played such a strong role in America's growth. Enjoy these famous quotes by women from American history!

If you have your own favorite famous quotes by women, please use the form at the bottom of the page to submit it.

Look for books called "Great Quotes From Great Women" and "Women Know Everything!: 3,241 Quips, Quotes, and Brilliant Remarks" and "famous quotes by women" on Amazon. Quote books would make great gifts!

"Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work." - Susan B. Anthony

"Remember the Ladies, and be more generous and favourable to them than your ancestors. Do not put such unlimited power into the hands of the Husbands." - Abigail Adams

"I do not demand equal pay for any women save those who do equal work in value. Scorn to be coddled by your employers; make them understand that you are in their service as workers, not as women." - Susan B. Anthony

"I wish most sincerely there was not a slave in this province. It always appeared a most iniquitous scheme to me - to fight ourselves for what we are daily robbing and plundering from those who have as good a right to freedom as we have." - Abigail Adams

"Woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself." - Susan B. Anthony

"The woman who can create her own job is the woman who will win fame and fortune." - Amelia Earhart

"I had no idea when I refused to give up my seat on that Montgomery bus that my small action would help put an end to the segregation laws in the south. I only knew that I was tired of being pushed around. I was a regular person, just as good as anybody else." - Rosa Parks

"If you walk the footsteps of a stranger, you'll learn things you never knew you never knew." - Pocahontas

"The only man who makes no mistakes is the man who never does anything." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"They're our next-door neighbors, and you can actually see Russia from land here in Alaska, from an island in Alaska" - Sarah Palin (the REAL quote - not the one that is falsely attributed to her but was actually said by Saturday Night Live's Tina Fey

"And I can see Russia from my house." - Tina Fey (impersonating Sarah Palin on Saturday Night Live)

"Great minds discuss ideas; Average minds discuss events; Small minds discuss people" - Eleanor Roosevelt

"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think you are facing a contradiction, check your premises. You will find that one of them is wrong." - Ayn Rand

"A happy life consists not in the absence, but in the mastery of hardships." - Helen Keller

"Whilst you are proclaiming peace and good will to men, emancipating all nations, you insist upon retaining an absolute power over wives. But you must remember that arbitrary power is like most other things which are very hard, very liable to be broken — and notwithstanding all your wise laws and maxims we have it in our power not only to free ourselves but to subdue our masters, and without violence throw both your natural and legal authority at our feet." - Abigail Adams

"I like to help women help themselves, as that is, in my opinion, the best way to settle the woman question. Whatever we can do and do well we have a right to, and I don't think any one will deny us." - Louisa May Alcott

"It takes a village to raise a child, in interdependent world." - Hillary Clinton

"They say women talk too much. If you have worked in Congress, you know that the filibuster was invented by men." - Clare Boothe Luce

"I am confirmed in my division of human energies. Ambitious people climb, but faithful people build." - Julia Ward Howe

"Drama is very important in life: You have to come on with a bang. You never want to go out with a whimper." - Julia Child

"Modern life is confusing - no "Ms take" about it." - Geraldine Ferraro

"All honor to the noble women that have devoted earnest lives to the intellectual needs of mankind!" - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

"It is the sweet, simple things of life which are the real ones after all." - Laura Ingalls Wilder

"There are two sides to every issue: one side is right and the other is wrong, but the middle is always evil." - Ayn Rand

"If any of my children had come to me as teenagers and asked for an unlimited credit card I would have said, "no", without a single reservation. But, Congress has an unlimited credit card taken out in the name of the American Taxpayer." - Michele Bachmann

"In the long run, we shape our lives, and we shape ourselves. The process never ends until we die. And the choices we make are ultimately our own responsibility." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"No matter what the motive, love of ease, or a desire to save from suffering the unborn innocent, the woman is awfully guilty who commits the deed. It will burden her conscience in life, it will burden her soul in death, but oh, thrice guilty is he who, for selfish gratification, heedless of her prayers, indifferent to her fate, drove her to the desperation that impelled her to the crime!" - Susan B. Anthony

"Here, in the first paragraph of the Declaration, is the assertion of the natural right of all to the ballot; for how can "the consent of the governed" be given, if the right to vote be denied?" - Susan B. Anthony

"When you get into a tight place, and everything goes against you till it seems as if you couldn't hold on a minute longer, never give up then, for that 's just the place and time that the tide'll turn." - Harriet Beecher Stowe

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." - Helen Keller

"Even, under such circumstances, a commoner of England, tried before a jury of Lords, would have far less cause to complain than should I, a woman, tried before a jury of men." - Susan B. Anthony

"The most difficult thing is the decision to act, the rest is merely tenacity. The fears are paper tigers. You can do anything you decide to do. You can act to change and control your life; and the procedure, the process is its own reward." - Amelia Earhart

"If you bungle raising your children, I don't think whatever else you do matters very much." - Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis

"The hardest thing to explain is the glaringly evident which everybody had decided not to see." - Ayn Rand

"It is not easy to be a pioneer -- but oh, it is fascinating! I would not trade one moment, even the worst moment, for all the riches in the world." - Elizabeth Blackwell (first women in U.S. to earn a medical degree)

"Hate is too great a burden to bear. It injures the hater more than it injures the hated." - Coretta Scott King

"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition." - Martha Washington

"And now, dear sister, I must leave this house or the retreating army will make me a prisoner in it by filling up the road I am directed to take." - Dolley Madison

Read on below for more famous quotes by women...

"The trouble with organizing a thing is that pretty soon folks get to paying more attention to the organization than to what they're organized for." - Laura Ingalls Wilder

"I did not get on the bus to get arrested I got on the bus to go home." - Rosa Parks

"We have to face the fact that either all of us are going to die together or we are going to learn to live together and if we are to live together we have to talk." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"No matter how much women prefer to lean, to be protected and supported, nor how much men desire to have them do so, they must make the voyage of life alone, and for safety in an emergency they must know something of the laws of navigation." - Elizabeth Cady Stanton

"The family unit plays a critical role in our society and in the training of the generation to come." - Sandra Day O'Connor

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

"It is one of my sources of happiness never to desire a knowledge of other people's business." - Dolley Madison

"Segregation was wrong when it was forced by white people, and I believe it is still wrong when it is requested by black people." - Coretta Scott King

"It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union." - Susan B. Anthony

"Most mothers are instinctive philosophers." - Harriet Beecher Stowe

"Remember no one can make you feel inferior without your consent." - Eleanor Roosevelt

"I've learned from experience that the greater part of our happiness or misery depends on our dispositions and not on our circumstances." - Martha Washington

"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." - Harriet Tubman

"The question isn't who is going to let me; it's who is going to stop me." - Ayn Rand

If you have enjoyed these famous quotes by women from American history, please visit our Quotes by Famous People page.