“Women are not inherently passive or peaceful. We’re not inherently anything but human.”
“You have got to know what it is you want, or someone is going to sell you a bill of goods somewhere along the line that can do irreparable damage to your self-esteem, your sense of worth, and your stewardship of the talents that God gave you.”
“It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.”
“Being human is difficult. Becoming human is a lifelong process. To be truly human is a gift.”
“This capacity to shape a vision of what can be achieved, and to share the vision with others so that it becomes their own, is one of the most important elements of leadership.”
“Where … do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home—so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere.”
“To love. To be loved.
To never forget your own insignificance.
To never get used to the unspeakable violence and the vulgar disparity of life around you.
To seek joy in the saddest places.
To pursue beauty to its lair.
To never simplify what is complicated or complicate what is simple.
To respect strength, never power.
Above all, to watch.
To try and understand.
To never look away.
And never, never to forget.”
“Women and girls hardly ever fight the world’s wars, but they often suffer the most. Increasingly, they are the direct targets of fighting, when sexual violence is deliberately used as a tactic of warfare. And yet fewer than 10 percent of the people who negotiate peace deals are women, and only about three dozen individuals have been convicted and jailed by international war crimes tribunals for committing or commanding widespread sexual violence. Sexual violence in conflict is NOT inevitable. It can be stopped.”
“Politicians have a responsibility not to inflame division or misrepresent the facts, and to show leadership to counter views that would demonise asylum seekers or abrogate Australia’s international obligations…The facts are that Australia’s current refugee intake of about 13,750 a year is small by international standards and forms less than 10% of our total permanent migration intake. Boat arrivals deemed to be refugees make up an even smaller proportion of that – less than 2% of all migrants to Australia.”
“We must never cease our exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to return to the place where we first began and to truly know that place for the first time.”