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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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When I was a girl, the West was still young, and the law of force, of physical force, was dominant.
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Yet it is awful to love a person who is a torture to you. And a fascinating person who loves you and won't hear of anything but your loving him and living right by his side through all eternity!
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But settled things were enemies to me and soon lost their newness and color. The unknown called.
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To die would have been beautiful. But I belong to those who do not die for the sake of beauty.
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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.
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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.
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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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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.
Agnes Smedley
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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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More and more do I see that only a successful revolution in India can break England's back forever and free Europe itself. It is not a national question concerning India any longer it is purely international.
Agnes Smedley
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I have no objection to a man being a man, however masculine that may be.
Agnes Smedley
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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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There are many men - such as those often to be found among the Indians - who are refined until they have qualities often attributed to the female sex. Yet they are men, and strong ones.
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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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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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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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.
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.
Agnes Smedley
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Everybody calls everybody a spy, secretly, in Russia, and everybody is under surveillance. You never feel safe.
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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