Leymah Gbowee quotes

Leymah Gbowee is a Liberian peace activist known for leading a women's movement that helped end Liberia's second civil war. Her grassroots organizing and advocacy for nonviolent protest brought women from different ethnic and religious backgrounds together. She has received international recognition, including the Nobel Peace Prize, for her courageous efforts in promoting peace and women's rights. Here are 28 of her quotes:

If any changes were to be made in society it had to be by the mothers.

Leymah Gbowee

Regardless of whom you pray to, during war our experiences as a community and as mothers are the same.

Leymah Gbowee

Women are the ones that bear the greatest burden. We are also the ones who nurture societies.

Leymah Gbowee

The one thing I have never been afraid of is standing before important people and speaking my mind. I represent women who may never have the opportunity to go to the UN or meet with a president. I'm never afraid to speak truth to power.

Leymah Gbowee

My courage comes from my faith. I have come to one conclusion: All that I am, all that I aspire to be, all that I was before, is by the grace of God. There are so many women in Africa, and outside Africa, who are more intelligent than I am.

Leymah Gbowee

If you are serving justice to one person, those who have been affected should also be served some form of justice.

Leymah Gbowee

I always tell people, anger is like liquid. It's fluid, it's like water. You put it in a container and it takes the shape of that container. So many people you see in prison, unleashing war on their people, they are angry, and they take their anger and put it into a violent container.

Leymah Gbowee

At 17, the first time I saw a dead body, I froze. By 31 it was a natural occurrence for me, and no group of people should live like that.

Leymah Gbowee

The world is upside down, it's going to take a lot of hands to turn it right side up.

Leymah Gbowee

Activism is something that no one can fake. You get angry. You cry. But you never throw in your towel, because that anger is what is propelling you to further action.

Leymah Gbowee

You cannot say you've achieved equality until EVERYONE is equal and has equal opportunities!

Leymah Gbowee

We are all responsible. We are all complicit. White T-shirts catch the light. What matters is what we then do with that light. (The peace activists wore white t-shirts during their protests.)

Leymah Gbowee

I'm a serious optimist. I come from a country where you have little to be hopeful for, and so you have to always be an optimist.

Leymah Gbowee

Don't wait for a Gandhi, don't wait for a King, don't wait for a Mandela. You are your own Mandela, you are your own Gandhi, you are your own King.

Leymah Gbowee

We must continue to unite in sisterhood to turn our tears into triumph. There is no time to rest until our world achieves wholeness and balance, where all men and women are considered equal and free.

Leymah Gbowee

When women gather, great things will happen.

Leymah Gbowee

The world is waiting to hear from you.

Leymah Gbowee

I don't feel like I've done anything extraordinary but take my little light and shine it in darkness.

Leymah Gbowee

You can tell people of the need to struggle, but when the powerless start to see that they really can make a difference, nothing can quench the fire.

Leymah Gbowee

It's time for women to stop being politely angry.

Leymah Gbowee

If you read the life of great men and women who made important changes in history, there are two common features: One, they were angry at the state of affairs and, two, they were people of faith.

Leymah Gbowee

'I wish for a better life. I wish for food for my children. I wish that sexual abuse and exploitation in schools would stop.' This is the dream of the African girl.

Leymah Gbowee