Quotes by Shirley Chisholm

“In the end antiblack, antifemale, and all forms of discrimination are equivalent to the same thing - antihumanism.”

“It is not heroin or cocaine that makes one an addict, it is the need to escape from a harsh reality. There are more television addicts, more baseball and football addicts, more movie addicts, and certainly more alcohol addicts in this country than there are narcotics addicts.”

“At present, our country needs womens idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.”

“Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.”

“Tremendous amounts of talent are lost to our society just because that talent wears a skirt”

“The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: Its a girl”

“I dont measure America by its achievement but by its potential”

“The liberals in the House strongly resemble liberals I have known through the last two decades in the civil rights conflict. When it comes time to show on which side they will be counted, they excuse themselves.”

“There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent, creative personality, for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.”

“Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life, and not something you do in your spare time.”

It is not female egotism to say that the future of mankind may very well be ours to determine. It is a fact.

No matter what men think, abortion is a fact of life. Women have always had them; they always have and they always will. Are they going to have good ones or bad ones? Will the good ones be reserved for the rich, while the poor women go to quacks?

When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.

Racism is so universal in this country, so widespread, and deep-seated, that it is invisible because it is so normal.

If they dont give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.

The emotional, sexual, and psychological stereotyping of females begins when the doctor says: Its a girl.

My God, what do we want? What does any human being want? Take away an accident of pigmentation of a thin layer of our outer skin and there is no difference between me and anyone else. All we want is for that trivial difference to make no difference. What can I say to a man who asks that? All I can do is try to explain to him why he asks the question. You have looked at us for years as different from you that you may never see us really. You don’t understand because you think of us as second-class humans. We have been passive and accommodating through so many years of your insults and delays that you think the way things used to be is normal. When the good-natured, spiritual-singing boys and girls rise up against the white man and demand to be treated like he is, you are bewildered. All we want is what you want, no less and no more. (Chapter 13).

Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.

There is little place in the political scheme of things for an independent creative personality for a fighter. Anyone who takes that role must pay a price.

Of my two handicaps being female put many more obstacles in my path than being black.