“Families are nothing other than the idolatry of duty.”

My mother, was perfectly horrified when I began shooting and tried to keep me in school, but I would run away and go quail shooting in the woods or trim my dresses with wreaths of wildflowers.

I would like to see every woman know how to handle guns as naturally as they know how to handle babies.

I ain’t afraid to love a man.

A crowned queen was never treated with more reverence than I was by those whole-souled western boys, And for seventeen long years I was just their little sister, sharing both their news of joy and sorrow from home.

Even in the best and most peacefully civilized countries many occasions arise when a woman versed in the knowledge and use of fire arms may find that information and skill of great importance.

After traveling through fourteen foreign countries and appearing before all the royalty and nobility I have only one wish today. That is that when my eyes are closed in death that they will bury me back in that quiet little farm land where I was born.

Clearly, society has a tremendous stake in insisting on a woman’s natural fitness for the career of mother: the alternatives are all too expensive.

[On Sitting Bull] The contents of his pockets were often emptied into the hands of small, ragged little boys, nor could he understand how so much wealth should go brushing by, unmindful of the poor.

Aim at a high mark and you will hit it.

Being a good mother does not call for the same qualities as being a good housewife; a dedication to keeping children clean and tidy may override an interest in their separate development as individuals.

I ain’t afraid to love a man. I ain’t afraid to shoot him either.

Any woman who does not thoroughly enjoy tramping across the country on a clear frosty morning with a good gun and a pair of dogs does not know how to enjoy life.

Any woman who does not thoroughly enjoy tramping across the country on a clear frosty morning with a good gun and a pair of dogs does not know how to enjoy life.

There are always women who will take men on their own terms. If I were a man I wouldn’t bother to change while there are women like that around.

Housework is work directly opposed to the possibility of human self-actualization.

For me, sitting still is harder than any kind of work.

We have now sunk to a depth at which restatement of the obvious is the first duty of intelligent men.

Men exist for the sake of one another.

Painting is a faith, and it imposes the duty to disregard public opinion.

One painful duty fulfilled makes the next plainer and easier.

Only enemies speak the truth; friends and lovers lie endlessly, caught in the web of duty.

When injustice becomes law, resistance becomes duty.

To persevere in one’s duty, and be silent is the best answer to calumny.

I have a duty to speak the truth as I see it and share not just my triumphs, not just the things that felt good, but the pain, the intense, often unmitigated pain. It is important to share how I know survival is survival and not just a walk throught the rain.