Leymah Gbowee famous quotes

03-28-2025

Leadership is standing with your people. People say you have to live to fight another day, but sometimes you have to show you are a true leader.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Fighting #People #Leader
Sometimes, people call my way of speaking ranting. Why are you always ranting and screaming, they ask. But hereâ€™s the thingâ€¦the reason why I rant is because I am a voice for many women that cannot speak out to heads of state, UN officials, and those that influence systems of oppression. And so I rant. And I will not stop ranting until my mission of equality of all girls is achieved.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Girl #Voice #People
When the guilty verdict was handed down, I walked outside and saw a rainbow encircling the sun. Everyone in Monrovia could see it. It was a hot day, 80 or 90 degrees. I don't remember seeing any raindrops fall. I thought, this is a sign.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Fall #Rainbow #Raindrops
We must continue to unite in sisterhood to turn our tears into triumph. There is no time to rest until our world achieves wholeness and balance, where all men and women are considered equal and free.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Sisterhood #Men #Our World
Itâ€™s time for women to stop being politely angry.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Being Polite #Angry
You can tell people of the need to struggle, but when the powerless start to see that they really can make a difference, nothing can quench the fire.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Positive #Struggle #Differences
'I wish for a better life. I wish for food for my children. I wish that sexual abuse and exploitation in schools would stop.' This is the dream of the African girl.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Girl #Dream #Children
When women gather, great things will happen.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Great Things
The one thing I have never been afraid of is standing before important people and speaking my mind. I represent women who may never have the opportunity to go to the UN or meet with a president. I'm never afraid to speak truth to power.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Opportunity #People #Mind
We go into rural communities, and all we do - like has been done in this room [at TED] - is create the space. When these girls sit ... you unlock great leaders.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Girl #Motivation #Inspiration
Activism is something that no one can fake. You get angry. You cry. But you never throw in your towel, because that anger is what is propelling you to further action.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Women #Fake #Towels
The world is upside down, it's going to take a lot of hands to turn it right side up.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#World #Upside Down
Don't wait for a Gandhi, don't wait for a King, don't wait for a Mandela. You are your own Mandela, you are your own Gandhi, you are your own King.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Kings #Waiting
I don't feel like I've done anything extraordinary but take my little light and shine it in darkness.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Light #Shining #Darkness
I always tell people, anger is like liquid. It's fluid, it's like water. You put it in a container and it takes the shape of that container. So many people you see in prison, unleashing war on their people, they are angry, and they take their anger and put it into a violent container.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#War #People #Water
If any changes were to be made in society it had to be by the mothers.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Mother #Made
Regardless of whom you pray to, during war our experiences as a community and as mothers are the same.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Mother #War #Community
Women are the ones that bear the greatest burden. We are also the ones who nurture societies.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Bears #Burden #Nurture
At 17, the first time I saw a dead body, I froze. By 31 it was a natural occurrence for me, and no group of people should live like that.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#People #Groups #Body
The world is waiting to hear from you.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Waiting #World
We have lived through fear all our lives, and when you have gone through a whole lot of fear, sometimes all you can do is resist the fear, and resistance comes in the form of courage.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Past #Gone #Resistance
Don't stop, echoes the older Liberian lady's voice. Don't ever stop. My answer to her: I never will.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Echoes #Voice #Answers
My courage comes from my faith. I have come to one conclusion: All that I am, all that I aspire to be, all that I was before, is by the grace of God. There are so many women in Africa, and outside Africa, who are more intelligent than I am.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Intelligent #Grace #Grace Of God
There is something in this world that every individual can do. God has created all of us with something unique to contribute.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Unique #World #Individual
I'm a serious optimist. I come from a country where you have little to be hopeful for, and so you have to always be an optimist.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Country #Hopeful #Littles
I'm now on a journey to fulfill the wish, in my tiny capacity, of little African girls.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Girl #Journey #Wish
You cannot say you've achieved equality until EVERYONE is equal and has equal opportunities!
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Opportunity #Equal #Equal Opportunity
If you are serving justice to one person, those who have been affected should also be served some form of justice.
-- Leymah Gbowee

#Justice #Form #Should

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