Adonis Diaries

Quotes by “famous” women? Part 2

Katia Chapoutier published a French book on 100 “Unforgivable women”. I am interested in the few quotes of famous women.

Pearl Buck (1892-1973):  “Everything is possible as long as it was not proven to be otherwise. Even in this case, what is impossible is just temporary.  If there is no other life after death, this life gave me the opportunity to be born as a human being.”  Pearl Buck receive the Nobel Prize of literature in 1938.  Have you read “The Chinese Land”, “East wind, west wind”…?

Anais Nin (1903-1977): “Eroticism is one of the bases for self-knowledge, as indispensable as poetry.” Her diary of 15,000 pages was published integrally in 1986.  She was elected member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters.

Anna de Noailles (1876-1933):  “Dream and love are the only real elements. A sleeping remembrance ceases of being guilty as long as it keeps a stable face: Lie is a noble secret.”  Anna founded the Fermi Prize in 1904 (exclusive to women authors) and was a model for the famous sculptor Rodin.

Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962): “Little spirits discuss of people, average spirits discuss of events, and great spirits discuss of ideas. The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams.”  Wife of President Franklin Roosevelt, she was the dynamo in the first session of the UN in San Francisco of 1946, and read the universal declaration of human rights in 1948.  She headed the presidential commission on the status of women in 1961.

Hattie McDaniel (1895-1952):  “I prefer being paid $700 a week playing house servant rather than receiving $7 per day as a real servant” said this black actress who got the Oscar in 1940 for her role in “Gone with the wind”.  Hattie acted in Show Boat in 1936 and in the radio program “The Beulah Show” (1947 to 1951)

Greta Garbo (1905-1990): “I was pretty naive to think that I could travel without being discovered and followed up close. Why can we not live without supervision?  People love Anna Karenina, Anna Christie, Queen Christine and not this Garbo that you are currently seeing.”  Greta received an Oscar for life achievement in 1954.  Have you seen “The Torrent”, “The legend of Gosta Berling”…?

Mother Teresa (1910-1997): “Poor people need us, but we need the poor even more.  The biggest poverty is for feeling not being loved.”  Mother Teresa created 610 missions in 123 States. (My own quote: “I decided to be consistent in my life.  My life was emotionally poor; should work to be materially poor as well”

Hannah Arendt (1906-1975): “It is in the void of the thought that evil is inscribed. If you manage to appear the way you wish to be viewed, that is all that judges require of you.”  Have read “The origin of totalitarianism”, “The condition of modern man”…?

Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962): “I know that I will never be a big artist. I can with hard work be a good one.”

Grace Kelly (1929-1982): “I didn’t like Hollywood.  It is a heartless city. I am not aware of any other location in the world where so many people suffer nervous depression and alcoholism.  There is no happiness in Hollywood.”  Grace married Prince Rainier of Monaco in 1956, a prince Estate crumbling under heavy debts.  Have you seen the Hitchcock movie “The crime was almost perfect”, “Window on courtyard”, “A suburb girl” for which she received an Oscar in 1955?

Romy Schneider (1938-1982): “Talent is a question of love.  I always had in horror the word “Star” and the noise generated around it. A life has to be overflowing with passion.  Life is too short to feel contented of living but one life”   Have you seen “White Lilac”, “Sissi”, “Le proces”, “The importance is to love”…

Brigitte Bardot (1934-): “And my ass? Do you love my ass?” One of the replies in the movie “Le Mepris”.  Bardot said: “I am not one to faking. I do not compose. Never. If I have to say something, I just let it out.  With me, there are no surprises: You know who I love and who I don’t like…” Bardot created the Foundation for animal defense.  Have you seen “Le Trou Normand”, And God created the woman”…? She filmed 48 movies and 80 songs within a 20-year career.  Bardot withdrew from the celebrity scene in 1973.

Edith Piaf (1915-1961): “Even as we lost our lover, love that we have known keeps the taste of honey.  Love is eternal”  Have you listened to “Non, je ne regrette rien”, “Les Momes de la cloche”, “C’est la rose l’ important”, “La vie en rose”…? The French boxer Marcel Cerdan was her life love.

Jane Fonda (1937-): “Man can feel pleasure all the seasons in life, woman only in springtime”

Francoise Giroud (1916-2003): “A woman will be really the equal to man, if one day, an incompetent woman is designated to an important position.”

Wangari Maathai (1940-): “If we want to safeguard nature, we better start safeguarding mankind: They constitute part of the biodiversity.” She founded the “Green Belt Movement” in 1977 and received the Nobel Prize of Peace in 2004.

Aung San Suu Kyi (1945-): “It is not power that corrupt, but fear: Fear of losing the power by those who exercise power, and fear of being beaten for those that the power-to-be oppress.  Truth and justice are the sole defenses against heartless power…”  Aung received the Nobel Prize of Peace in 1991.

Rigoberta Menchu (1959-): “Man is far worth than his diplomas.  I want to remain a student all my life.”  Rigoberta published her autobiography “Yo Rigoberta” in 1983.  She defended the autochtone (indigenous) minorities and safeguarded their rights in Latin America and Guatemala.  She received the Nobel prize of Peace in 1992.

Margherita Hack (1922-): “We all have a common origin: We are the product of the universe evolution and of the stars. The stars are democratic: they are accessible and the show is free to all. Nature is the utmost liberal: Nature never oppose your will to know and your intellectual faculties. Why seek miracles and dwell on superstition, while there are so many poems and fascination outside?”  She founded the magazine Astronomy in 1979 and discovered an asteroid that carries her name in 1995.

(Margherita Hack said it all poetically.  I had written: “Is one eternity not good enough for us?  We are all, animate subjects and inanimate objects, constituted of the same fundamental basic elements.  We are constantly transformed in this vast universe”)

Note: Link to first part: https://adonis49.wordpress.com/2011/07/15/quotes-by-famous-women/