15 inspiring quotes about life from great women authors

Books can be very powerful when they resonate strongly with their readers.

Often, it can feel that the very stories that we're reading were in fact written just for us.

This is because the writer who penned the story often understands deeply the highs and lows of life - what it's like to fail and succeed and grow - and she deeply understands some universal truths about what it's like to be human.

Here are some brilliant quotes from women writers who empower us to think differently about our own lives and the world around us.

Enjoy!

“When we speak we are afraid our words will not be heard or welcomed. But when we are silent, we are still afraid. So it is better to speak.”

Audre Lorde

“Put your ear down close to your soul and listen hard.”

Anne Sexton 

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

Maya Angelou 

“An eye for an eye only leads to more blindness.”

Margaret Atwood

“The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.”

Alice Walker 

"Don’t ever think that just because you do things differently, you’re wrong."

Gail Tsukiyama 

“I do not see myself as a footnote to someone else’s life."

Martha Gellhorn

"Our histories cling to us. We are shaped by where we come from."

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

“It’s where we go, and what we do when we get there, that tells us who we really are.”

Joyce Carol Oates 

"You can do some rather extraordinary things if that's what you really believe."

Toni Morrison

“I will not have my life narrowed down. I will not bow down to somebody else’s whim or to someone else’s ignorance.”

bell hooks

“Beware; for I am fearless, and therefore powerful.”

Mary Shelley

“No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself."

Virginia Woolf

“I am no bird; and no net ensnares me: I am a free human being with an independent will.”

Charlotte Bronte

Inspired by the powerful words of these literary women?

Explore their writing further through reading their works - and discover their stories and the special characters who might in fact change the very way we see ourselves and the world around us.