Marilyn French Quotes

Nobody gives you power. Real power is something you take.

Authority is 20% given and 80% taken...so take it!

People above you, they never want to share power with you. Why you look to them? They give you nothing. People below you, you give them hope, you give them respect, they give you power, cause they don't think they have any, so they don't mind giving it up.

Why should I give someone else such power over my life?

It's fun to kick ass and show that other dark side of yourself as well.

No one can take advantage of you without your permission.

I always advocate to young women that if we don't do this for ourselves, no one else is going to. We have to have a voice.

When you stand up for yourself and try to be autonomous and self-determining, you're called a lot of names that we all know and that are very common. You may lose your job. You may lose custody of your child. You may be blamed for the failure of your marriage even though it was the man who couldn't tolerate an equal relationship.

Don't wait for people to tell you who you are. Show them.

Women must understand that simply attacking or hating men is just another form of disempowerment. A woman has to realize that when she makes a man crawl it doesn't give her power.

I don't like it when they [media critics] see me as this little person who doesn't know what to do with herself -- like I have no idea what I want, like I'm just a puppet ... That's demeaning to me, because that ain't how it is, and it never was.

I don't think I really accepted my power as a woman until I realized that no was a complete sentence. When I stopped making excuses for saying it and began creating boundaries in my life, I knew real power.

Too many women have given up the power over the years because men have created the terms.

I have plumbed the depth of human cowardice and I realized that there is only one way to be right, and that is to be in power.

Never let anyone shame you into doing anything you don't choose to do. Keep your identity.

Giving up is not the answer. Neither is giving in. Stand your ground. There is a way of doing that without having to be combative. There is a way of hanging on to your true self, and demonstrating it, without resorting to aggression. But giving up and giving in is not the way. Simply and quietly claiming your right to be You is the way.

Nobody will tell me what I can or I cannot do.

I think sometimes I forget that I'm 25, and I can have fun, and be flirty, and be confident, but still be completely in control. All of my new songs are empowering, but at the same time they're fun. I think that's important for women. You don't have to take yourself so seriously all the time.

I really don't advise a woman who wants to have things her own way to get married

There are two kinds of power. One is power over, which is always destructive, and the other is power from within, which is a transcendent and creative power.

I am Zarathustra the Godless: where shall I find my equal? All those who give themselves their own will and renounce all submission, they are my equals.

I once heard an exec say, "If you don't ask for it, we can't give it to you." We can't go through our lives just being grateful for everything.

So long as we need to control other people, however benign our motives, we are captive to that need. In giving them freedom, we free ourselves.

Somehow I evolved into a person who ceased to ask permission.

I have been asked, politely and not so politely, why I am myself. This is an accounting any woman will be called on to give if she asserts her will.