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Thousands of women are crushed and made inarticulate by that system and never develop as their natures would force them to develop were they in a decent environment.

Agnes Smedley

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Agnes Smedley
Age: 58 †
Born: 1892
Born: February 23
Died: 1950
Died: May 6
Feminist
Journalist
Writer
Osgood
Missouri
Would
Thousands
Develop
Environment
System
Force
Inarticulate
Women
Natures
Made
Crushed
Never
Decent

More quotes by Agnes Smedley

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I have loved and bitterness left me for that hour. But there are times when love itself is bitter.
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In the little hall leading to it was a rack holding various Socialist or radical newspapers, tracts, and pamphlets in very small print and on very bad paper. The subjects treated were technical Marxist theories.
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For the first week of the Sian events I was a first aid worker in the streets of Sian.
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I believe only in money, not in love or tenderness. Love and tenderness meant only pain and suffering and defeat. I would not let it ruin me as it ruined others! I would speak only with money, hard money.
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Professors could silence me then they had figures, diagrams, maps, books.... I was learning that books and diagrams can be evil things if they deaden the mind of man and make him blind or cynical before subjection of any kind.
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But I see no reason why a woman should not grow and develop in all those outlets which are suited to her nature, it matters not at all what they may be.
Agnes Smedley
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I joined another circle and the leader gave us a little leaflet in very small print, asking us to read it carefully and then come prepared to ask questions. It was a technical Marxist subject and I did not understand it nor did I know what questions to ask.
Agnes Smedley
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Much that we read of Russia is imagination and desire only.
Agnes Smedley
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Subjection of any kind and in any place is beneath the dignity of man ... the highest joy is to fight by the side of those who for any reason of their own making or ours, are unable to develop to full human stature.
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So I had to be the doctor to these wounded men until we could remove them to the hospital. There were fifty-four women and forty little boys with the Red Army prisoners, and I went daily to take care of them also.
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I have always detested the belief that sex is the chief bond between man and woman. Friendship is far more human.
Agnes Smedley
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No one yet knows what a man's province is, and how far that province, as conceived of today, is artificial.
Agnes Smedley
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But settled things were enemies to me and soon lost their newness and color. The unknown called.
Agnes Smedley
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When I was a girl, the West was still young, and the law of force, of physical force, was dominant.
Agnes Smedley
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To die would have been beautiful. But I belong to those who do not die for the sake of beauty.
Agnes Smedley
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Gambling in the mark has been the great indoor sport of the capitalists for months, and consequently food has increased by 25 to 100 per cent.
Agnes Smedley
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Like all my family and class, I considered it a sign of weakness to show affection to have been caught kissing my mother would have been a disgrace, and to have shown affection for my father would have been a disaster.
Agnes Smedley
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Now, being a girl, I was ashamed of my body and my lack of strength. So I tried to be a man. I shot, rode, jumped, and took part in all the fights of the boys.
Agnes Smedley
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Everybody calls everybody a spy, secretly, in Russia, and everybody is under surveillance. You never feel safe.
Agnes Smedley
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My mother listened to all the news from the camp during the strike. She said little, especially when my father or the men who worked for him were about I remember her instinctive and unhesitating sympathy for the miners.
Agnes Smedley