173 Quotes by Harriet Lerner

  • Author Harriet Lerner
  • Quote

    Believing that all women should want to be mothers makes about as much sense as believing that all men should want to be engineers.

  • Tags
  • Share


  • Author Harriet Lerner
  • Quote

    Pretending can be a bold form of experimentation and inventiveness. In pretending joy or happiness, we may discover or enhance our capacity for it.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Harriet Lerner
  • Quote

    Self-help books for women are part of a multibillion-dollar industry, sensitively attuned to our insecurities and our purses.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Harriet Lerner
  • Quote

    the body, seeking truth, sends a signal. But decoding it, interpreting its meaning, and knowing how to proceed from there is another matter entirely.

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Harriet Lerner
  • Quote

    Before modern feminism, stories of female ambition were silenced or erased; even now, they are told with apology ("Yes, it's a great honor to be a Nobel Prize laureate, but really, what I love best is staying home and being a mother to Kevin and Annie").

  • Tags
  • Share

  • Author Harriet Lerner
  • Quote

    My debt to feminism is simply incalculable. Feminism allowed me to see past a 'reality' that I had once taken as a given. It helped me to pay attention to countless voices, my own included, that I had been taught 'don't count.' Feminism allows me to maintain hope.

  • Tags
  • Share


  • Author Harriet Lerner
  • Quote

    Men are often (though not always) the pursuers for sex, just like women are often (though not always) the pursuers for conversation.

  • Tags
  • Share