When I was a girl, the West was still young, and the law of force, of physical force, was dominant.
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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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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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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There are many men – such as those often to be found among the Indians – who are refined until they have qualities often attributed to the female sex. Yet they are men, and strong ones.
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But there were years when, in search of what I thought was better, nobler things I denied these, my people, and my family.
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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.
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In the little hall leading to it was a rack holding various Socialist or radical newspapers, tracts, and pamphlets in very small print and on very bad paper.
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Subjection of any kind and in any place is beneath the dignity of man.
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I have loved and bitterness left me for that hour. But there are times when love itself is bitter.
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I have no objection to a man being a man, however masculine that may be.
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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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The highest joy is to fight by the side of those who for any reason of their own making or ours, are unable to develop to full human stature.
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Much that we read of Russia is imagination and desire only.
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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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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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It was a technical Marxist subject and I did not understand it nor did I know what questions to ask.
AGNES SMEDLEY