Bella Abzug

“I spend all day figuring out how to beat the machine and knock the crap out of it.”

“This woman's place is in the House—the House of Representatives.”

“Women have been trained to speak softly and carry a lipstick. Those days are over.”

“In the long run, there is no more liberating, no more exhilarating experience than to determine one's position, state it bravely, and then act upon it.”

“The test for whether or not you can hold a job should not be the arrangement of your chromosomes.”

“Maybe we weren't at the Last Supper, but we're certainly going to be at the next one.”

“The establishment is made up of little men, very frightened.”

“We are coming down from our pedestals and up from the laundry room.”

“I began wearing hats as a young lawyer because it helped me to establish my professional identity. Before that, whenever I was in a meeting, a man would ask me to get him a cup of coffee.”

“They call me Battling Bella. It's a name I've earned.”

“Women are not going to be civilized in this country until we get a woman president.”

“A woman's place is in the struggle.”

“I am not a pretty girl. I don't want to be a pretty girl. I want to be a powerful woman.”

“Our struggle today is not to have a female Einstein get appointed as an assistant professor. It is for a woman schlemiel to get as quickly promoted as a male schlemiel.”