CURATED COLLECTION

Living With Dignity

Dignity is not something others can give you — but it is something they can make extraordinarily hard to keep.

50 quotes found

“
I would rather die free than live as a slave.

—Samori TouréEmperor

Industrial Age ERA • West Africa

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A woman is something. A woman is a somebody in Africa.

—Ama Ata AidooAuthor, Poet & Playwright

Post-War ERA • West Africa

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Why should I worry about what people say? I live for myself.

—Ismat ChughtaiWriter

Post-War ERA • South Asia

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If the women want rights more than others, give them enough to help them get it.

—Sojourner TruthAbolitionist & Activist

Industrial Age ERA • North America

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I am queen of Ndongo and Matamba, not a servant to any foreign power.

—Njinga MbandeQueen

Renaissance ERA • Southern Africa

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I will die for the good of my country, and for the liberty of my people.

—Toussaint LouvertureRevolutionary

Enlightenment ERA • Caribbean

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He who does not love his own language is worse than an animal and smelly fish.

—José RizalPolymath & Writer

Industrial Age ERA • Southeast Asia

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To die for one's country is to embrace eternity.

—Qiu JinFeminist, Revolutionary & Poet

Early Modern ERA • East Asia

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Death is nothing to me, if I die for my country.

—Sándor PetőfiPoet & Revolutionary

Industrial Age ERA • Eastern Europe

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They asked me to say something. I said, Nothing.

—Agha Shahid AliPoet

Late Modern ERA • South Asia

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One must not forget the courage to resist and rebel.

—Ding LingFeminist & Writer

Early Modern ERA • East Asia

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I have undertaken the work of a general, and I shall not abandon it.

—Toussaint LouvertureRevolutionary

Enlightenment ERA • Caribbean

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I am, by God, worthy of glory, and I stride in my own glory.

—Wallada bint al-MustakfiPoet & Caliph

Medieval ERA • MENA

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The land is ours. We will die on it before we leave it.

—Joseph ZobelNovelist

Post-War ERA • Caribbean

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The system has failed to crush my spirit.

—Winnie Madikizela-MandelaActivist & Politician

Late Modern ERA • Southern Africa

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I shall yet live, though you think me dead.

—Te Kooti Arikirangi Te TūrukiProphet

Industrial Age ERA • Oceania

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We must adapt our strategies, not abandon our goal of freedom.

—Njinga MbandeQueen

Renaissance ERA • Southern Africa

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I have no idea of submitting tamely to injustice inflicted either on me or on the slave.

—Lucretia MottAbolitionist & Activist

Industrial Age ERA • North America

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I was the conductor of the Underground Railroad for eight years, and I never ran my train off the track.

—Harriet TubmanAbolitionist & Activist

Industrial Age ERA • North America

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Hope is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense regardless of how it turns out.

—Václav HavelPlaywright, Essayist & President

Late Modern ERA • Eastern Europe

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