Quotes by Patricia V. Davis

Two things I try to remember:My cultural, social, and financial environments formulate my view of the world. My age, sex, race, where I was born, who raised me, and who my inner circle is formulate my view of the world. My education, my exposure to new and different things, or lack thereof, formulate my view of the world. My view of the world formulates my opinions. But, if theres a missing piece from my world view, I cant have an informed, intelligent opinion on it. So, for example, if Ive never experienced the color purple, my only informed opinions can be on the other colors. Not purple. I can say, I dont like purple, or I like purple, but in either case, my opinion has no significance. The second thing I try to remember is that just because someone has a different opinion than I do, and he tells me so, it doesnt mean Im being persecuted. In actual fact, it might mean that Im about to learn something big.

I can be totally feminine and totally feminist. The two are not mutually exclusive.

If I had a daughter, heres what Id tell her: One day, when youve worked hard for what you want, when people see that you are confident and intelligent and that you recognize your own self-worth, when you take care of yourself, support yourself, and stand up for yourself, that is the day that the world will call you a cruel and selfish bitch. Its a tough title to earn and you should be and proud of it.

Become a parent. Lose your autonomy, but gain the wondrous superpower of The Magic Kiss that instantly dries tears and makes the pain of boo-boos disappear.

Its only young people who make giant, life-altering decisions based on what other people might think, and its because they dont see their own death looming. Their fear is, Will my family, friends and lovers admire me? whereas an older persons fear is that vision of themselves lying in a hospital bed, a breathing tube up their nose and the thought running through their heads, Why didnt I at least try to do what I wanted to do, while I had the chance?

The only thing you should be faking is confidence. If you dont have it yet, pretend that you do. Pretend youre not nervous, pretend youre not scared, and after a while, the pretend part disappears.

As women of the western world, we see our sisters in other lands being raped, maimed and even executed simply for trying to exercise the most basic freedoms, such as taking a bus alone or wearing a bright red sweater. And when we look at our own world, we see that it too still lacks equality for the sexes. Its a terrible thing to go through ones entire lifetime not getting to do all the things we dream of doing just because others say were not permitted to do them, and to know that they will hurt us if we try. But far, far worse than that is when theres not a thing or a person outside thats stopping us from living exactly as we wish, but we stop ourselves; internally we do not give ourselves permission, simply because were too scared of what will happen if we dare.