Inspiring Words from some
Inspiring Women of Today's Generation

Inspiring words from these amazing and well-renowned women of this generation who conquered and succeeded over life’s most difficult struggles.

Mother Teresa
Founder of "Missionaries of Charity" that touched the lives of millions all over the world with genuine love and compassion

On faith:
“Prayer is not asking. Prayer is putting oneself in the hands of God, at His disposition, and listening to His voice in the depth of our hearts.” 
On loss:
"When you don't have anything, then you have everything."
On pain and suffering:
"Pain and suffering have come into your life, but remember pain, sorrow, suffering are but the kiss of Jesus - a sign that you have come so close to Him that He can kiss you.”
On loving others:“There is a terrible hunger for love. We all experience that in our lives - the pain, the loneliness. We must have the courage to recognize it. The poor you may have right in your own family. Find them. Love them.”
On giving to others:
"It is not how much we do, but how much love we put in the doing. It is not how much we give, but how much love is put in the giving.”
On humiliation:
“We learn humility through accepting humiliations cheerfully.” 

Liz Murray
Once homeless from the Bronx, now a Motivational Speaker from the  Washington's Speakers' Bureau & Author of "Breaking Night" 

On making critical life choices:
"I knew at that moment I had to make a choice... I could submit to everything and live a life of excuses, or I could push myself... I could push myself and make my life good..."
On moving forward:
"Instead, what I was beginning to understand was that however things unfolded from here on, whatever the next chapter was, my life could never be the sum of one circumstance. It would be determined, as it had always been, by my willingness to put one foot in front of the other, moving forward, come what may." 
On doing the best you can:
"I said to myself: what if I woke up, and every single day I did everything within my ability during that day to change my life. What could happen in just a month? A year?"

Jessica Cox
World's first armless pilot, Tae Kwon Do Double Blackbelter, Motivational Speaker & Advocate for the Alternately Abled 

On being born with disability:
"I am more driven by being alternately-abled. I don't think I would have accomplished as much if I had been born with arms."
On her advocacy:
"I want to advocate for the disabled, those who are not as privileged as me being born in the United States. I know that this can make a difference..."
On facing challenges in her life:
I have had my share of down moments. [though] Never to the point of [considering] suicide. I've relied on my faith and support from my friends and family."
On the power of believing:
"Never give up on a dream. If I can fly a plane, why can't you do?"

Diana Cooper
Spiritual scholar and world-renowned author of "A Little Light on Spiritual Laws"

On collaborative healing:
"The greatest healings take place when we listen to the other person. Sit and hear what they say to you without interruption or judgement, really trying to understand their reality. Then really accept and validate them."
On self-mastery:
"Know thyself and the Kingdom of Heaven is yours."
On Transformation:
"Transformation means standing in your integrity and acting from your heart.  It opens you up to joy, happiness, fun and love, so your light truly shines."
On Beliefs:
"Every single thing that happens to you is a result of your beliefs. "

Iyanla Vanzant
Inspirational speaker, Spiritual mentor and author of "Yesterday, I cried", "ForGIVEness", and many other books on inspiration. 

On self-esteem:
“Everything that happens to you is a reflection of what you believe about yourself. We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem. We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth.” 
On accepting yourself:
“One way to eliminate self negating thoughts and behavior is by gaining more understanding through realizing that you cannot force others to see that what you feel is real.” 
On mistakes and regrets:
“If you are afraid to take a chance, take one anyway. What you don't do can create the same regrets as the mistakes you make.” 
On starting over:
“The only way to get what you really want is to let go of what you don't want.”
On inspiring others;
“When you stand and share your story in an empowering way, your story will heal you and your story will heal somebody else.”
On the Purpose of Life:
“Everyone has a purpose because God is a purposeful God.” 

Bell Hooks
Feminist, Social activist and author of "Feminism is for Everybody."

On fear:
"When we drop fear, we can draw nearer to people, we can draw nearer to the earth, we can draw nearer to all the heavenly creatures that surround us." 
On communication:
"Honesty and openness is always the foundation of insightful dialogue." 
On optimism:
"There is light in darkness, you just have to find it." 
On loving others:
"To love well is the task in all meaningful relationships, not just romantic bonds." 
On self-love:
"The one person who will never leave us, whom we will never lose, is ourself. Learning to love our female selves is where our search for love must begin." 
On feminism:
"Feminism is a movement to end sexism, sexist exploitation, and oppression." 

Maya Angelou
Phenomenal American poet and author of "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings," "The Heart of a Woman" and many others

On Courage:
"Courage is the most important of all the virtues because without courage, you can't practice any other virtue consistently." 
On success:
"Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it." 
On love:
"I do not trust people who don't love themselves and yet tell me, 'I love you.' There is an African saying which is: Be careful when a naked person offers you a shirt." 
On resentments:
"Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean." 
On facing defeats:
"You may encounter many defeats, but you must not be defeated. In fact, it may be necessary to encounter the defeats, so you can know who you are, what you can rise from, how you can still come out of it." 
On hate:
"Hate, it has caused a lot of problems in the world, but has not solved one yet." 

Oprah Winfrey
Influential American TV personality, Media mogul and philantrophist

On forgiveness:
"True forgiveness is when you can say, "Thank you for that experience." 
On integrity:
"Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not." 
On facing challenges:
"Challenges are gifts that force us to search for a new center of gravity. Don't fight them. Just find a new way to stand." 
On failure:
"Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness." 
On self-esteem:
"Self-esteem comes from being able to define the world in your own terms and refusing to abide by the judgments of others." 
On learning life lessons;
"It makes no difference how many peaks you reach if there was no pleasure in the climb." 

Waris Dirie
International runway and print ad model, women's rights activist against female genital mutilation and author of "Desert Flower"

On women's suffering:
"Women’s loyalty has to be earned with trust and affection, rather than barbaric rituals. The time has come to leave the old ways of suffering behind" 
On truth:
I love the truth. Tell the truth and live the truth, because we've seen enough lies and look what it's doing.
On life:
I can enjoy anywhere, and I can leave it. Life is about moving on.
On the value of women:
Because women and girls are not valued equally as human beings, they are treated as less than such. Female genital mutilation is one example of this that has to be stopped.

Rickie Byars Beckwith
Transcendent musician and author of "Let my Soul Surrender: Grace Notes of a Journey"

On becoming soulful:
“…a soulful person may not necessarily be the one who dances well, but they may have a great appreciation for those who can! And in their love for it, they’re poised. Soulful people love; they have a connection to this greater love and to the divine."
On connectedness:
“When someone’s connected, when a person totally gets it, things come together. They’re not speaking from their intellect; they’re speaking from something greater. There’s something speaking through them that is it—that is beyond.”
On being Happy:
"I feel like when we can stay light at heart, we can be light on our feet. And if you can be light on your feet, you can be flexible. If you can be flexible, you can be happy.”

Shakti Gawain
Personal Development guru and author of "The Path of Transformation: How Healing ourselves can Change the World" and many others

On following the intuition:
"What I am actually saying is that we need to be willing to let our intuition guide us, and then be willing to follow that guidance directly and fearlessly." 
On appreciation:
"Whatever our individual troubles and challenges may be, it's important to pause every now and then to appreciate all that we have, on every level." 
On beliefs:
"We always attract into our lives whatever we think about most, believe most strongly, expect on the deepest level, and imagine most vividly." 
On believing in one's self:
"When I'm trusting and being myself as fully as possible, everything in my life reflects this by falling into place easily, often miraculously." 
On letting in light inside:
"The more light you allow within you, the brighter the world you live in will be." 
On being true to yourself:
"We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own and other's people's models, learn to be ourselves and allow our natural channel to open." 

J. K. Rowling
World-famous British Novelist and author of The Harry Potter Series, which she wrote after divorce and through financial troubles

On depression:
“It’s so difficult to describe depression to someone who’s never been there, because it’s not sadness. I know sadness. Sadness is to cry and to feel. But it’s that cold absence of feeling— that really hollowed-out feeling.” 
On happiness:
“Personal happiness lies in knowing that life is not a checklist of acquisition. Your qualifications are not your life.” 
On starting over:
“Rock bottom became the solid foundation on which I rebuilt my life.” 
On making the best of now:
“We have to remember, sometimes the most important history is the history we're making today.”