Thousands of women are crushed and made inarticulate by that system and never develop as their natures would force them to develop were they in a decent environment.
AGNES SMEDLEYGambling in the mark has been the great indoor sport of the capitalists for months, and consequently food has increased by 25 to 100 per cent.
More Agnes Smedley Quotes
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I was learning that books and diagrams can be evil things if they deaden the mind of man and make him blind or cynical before subjection of any kind.
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I forgot the songs they sung – and most of those songs are now dead; I erased their dialect from my tongue.
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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.
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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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Like all my family and class, I considered it a sign of weakness to show affection; to have been caught kissing my mother would have been a disgrace, and to have shown affection for my father would have been a disaster.
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Subjection of any kind and in any place is beneath the dignity of 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.
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Always before I had felt like a person, an individual, hopeful that I could mold my life according to some desire of my own.
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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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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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When I was a girl, the West was still young, and the law of force, of physical force, was dominant.
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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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It was a technical Marxist subject and I did not understand it nor did I know what questions to ask.
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I have always detested the belief that sex is the chief bond between man and woman.
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But here in New York I was ignorant, insignificant, unimportant–one in millions whose destiny concerned no one. New York did not even know of my existence. Nor did it care.
AGNES SMEDLEY