I think we each come out of the womb with some unique way of looking at the world and if we don't express it, we loose faith in ourselves.

Being graded for memorizing male accomplishments with the deep message that we can learn what others do but never do it ourselves.

Self-esteem isn't everything; it's just that there's nothing without it.

We need to unlearn our respect for education, since it has undermined our respect for ourselves. It's worth taking time to demistify it. [...] All the things an adolescent can be [...] are reduced to a three digit number. [...] We too can decide how to value our education instead of letting them value us.

Citizens who refuse to obey anything but their own conscience can transform countries, it is the basis of any real democracy.

Never having seen women play chess, they assumed this game wasn't for them and without even a female teacher as role model, they dropped out.

As always, self-esteem had created an ability to be generous.

I'm still the same person who grew up mostly in a Midwestern, factory-working neighborhood where talk about "self-esteem" would have seemed like a luxury.