by Talia Lang

Ten Inspiring Quotes to Get You Through Dark Days

In today’s world of constant crisis, self-care pays dividends. Here are 10 quotes from Jewish women whom we love that should give you hope, inspire you to action, and spur us all to think differently about compassion.

“The history of progress is written in the blood of men and women who have dared to espouse an unpopular cause, as, for instance, the black man’s right to his body, or woman’s right to her soul.” – Emma Goldman

“..this is the life many women lead: Two paths diverge in a wood, and we get to take them both. It’s another of the nicest things about being women; we can do that. Did I say it was hard? Yes, but let me say it again so that none of you can ever say the words, nobody said it was so hard. But it’s also incredibly interesting….Whatever you choose, however many roads you travel, I hope that you choose not to be a lady. I hope you will find some way to break the rules and make a little trouble out there. And I also hope that you will choose to make some of that trouble on behalf of women.” – Nora Ephron

“My deepest impulses are optimistic, an attitude that seems to me as spiritually necessary and proper as it is intellectually suspect.” – Ellen Willis

“I always thought that there was nothing an antifeminist would want more than to have women only in women’s organizations, in their own little corner empathizing with each other and not touching a man’s world. If you’re going to change things, you have to be with the people who hold the levers.” – Ruth Bader Ginsburg

“It’s critical that women realize that this is a game-changing moment – or rather that it can be – if we choose to make it so.” – Gloria Feldt

“People often have a misguided perception that local work and global work are entirely disconnected. In reality, the work we do locally, including whom we elect to public office and the policies for which we advocate, have a profound impact on the lives of people who live millions of miles away.” – Ruth Messinger

“I think people get really overwhelmed, when they think about social change. They’re like, “This is such a big intractable problem. I’m just a person.” And in reality social change happens at the granular level. It just takes a lot of grains.” – Jaclyn Friedman

“It’s exhilarating to be alive in a time of awakening consciousness; it can also be confusing, disorienting, and painful.” – Adrienne Rich

“Compassion is an unstable emotion. It needs to be translated into action, or it withers. The question is what to do with the feelings that have been aroused, the knowledge that has been communicated. People don’t become inured to what they are shown — if that’s the right way to describe what happens — because of the quantity of images dumped on them. It is passivity that dulls feeling.” – Susan Sontag

“How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.” – Anne Frank