I have always detested the belief that sex is the chief bond between man and woman.
AGNES SMEDLEYNo one yet knows what a man’s province is, and how far that province, as conceived of today, is artificial.
More Agnes Smedley Quotes
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More and more do I see that only a successful revolution in India can break England’s back forever and free Europe itself.
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It is not a national question concerning India any longer; it is purely international.
AGNES SMEDLEY -
But settled things were enemies to me and soon lost their newness and color. The unknown called.
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I believe only in money, not in love or tenderness. Love and tenderness meant only pain and suffering and defeat.
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When I was a girl, the West was still young, and the law of force, of physical force, was dominant.
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And the woman who could win the respect of man was often the woman who could knock him down with her bare fists and sit on him until he yelled for help.
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I have loved and bitterness left me for that hour. But there are times when love itself is bitter.
AGNES SMEDLEY -
Now, being a girl, I was ashamed of my body and my lack of strength. So I tried to be a man.
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But I see no reason why a woman should not grow and develop in all those outlets which are suited to her nature, it matters not at all what they may be.
AGNES SMEDLEY -
It was a technical Marxist subject and I did not understand it nor did I know what questions to ask.
AGNES SMEDLEY -
I was ashamed of them and their ways of life. But now – yes, I love them; they are a part of my blood; they, with all their virtues and their faults, played a great part in forming my way of looking at life.
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Professors could silence me then; they had figures, diagrams, maps, books.
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She said little, especially when my father or the men who worked for him were about I remember her instinctive and unhesitating sympathy for the miners.
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New York was a new and strange world. Vast, impersonal, merciless.
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I joined another circle and the leader gave us a little leaflet in very small print, asking us to read it carefully and then come prepared to ask questions.
AGNES SMEDLEY