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 SMEDLEYAnd 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.
More Agnes Smedley Quotes
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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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So I had to be the doctor to these wounded men until we could remove them to the hospital.
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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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I have loved and bitterness left me for that hour. But there are times when love itself is bitter.
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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.
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My mother listened to all the news from the camp during the strike.
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Yet it is awful to love a person who is a torture to you. And a fascinating person who loves you and won’t hear of anything but your loving him and living right by his side through all eternity!
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But settled things were enemies to me and soon lost their newness and color. The unknown called.
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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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New York was a new and strange world. Vast, impersonal, merciless.
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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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I feel like a person living on the brink of a volcano crater.
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Much that we read of Russia is imagination and desire only.
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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 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.
AGNES SMEDLEY






