At present, our country needs women's idealism and determination, perhaps more in politics than anywhere else.

— Shirley Chisholm

If they don't give you a seat at the table, bring a folding chair.

— Shirley Chisholm

I have certainly met much more discrimination in terms of being a woman than being black, in the field of politics.

— Shirley Chisholm

I know that millions of Americans from all walks of life agree with me that leadership does not mean putting the ear to the ground to follow public opinion, but to have the vision of what is necessary and the courage to make it possible.

— Shirley Chisholm

It is not female egotism to say that the future of mankind may very well be ours to determine. It is a fact.

— Shirley Chisholm

I want history to remember me... not as the first black woman to have made a bid for the presidency of the United States, but as a black woman who lived in the 20th century and who dared to be herself. I want to be remembered as a catalyst for change in America.

— Shirley Chisholm

Legal discrimination between the sexes is, in almost every instance, founded on outmoded views of society and the pre-scientific beliefs about psychology and physiology. It is time to sweep away these relics of the past and set further generations free of them.

— Shirley Chisholm

My God, what do we want? What does any human being want? Take away an accident of pigmentation of a thin layer of our outer skin and there is no difference between me and anyone else. All we want is for that trivial difference to make no difference. What can I say to a man who asks that? All I can do is try to explain to him why he asks the question. You have looked at us for years as different from you that you may never see us really. You don’t understand because you think of us as second-class humans. We have been passive and accommodating through so many years of your insults and delays that you think the way things used to be is normal. When the good-natured, spiritual-singing boys and girls rise up against the white man and demand to be treated like he is, you are bewildered. All we want is what you want, no less and no more. (Chapter 13).

— Shirley Chisholm

No matter what men think, abortion is a fact of life. Women have always had them; they always have, and they always will. Are they going to have good ones or bad ones? Will the good ones be reserved for the rich, while the poor women go to quacks?

— Shirley Chisholm

Of my two 'handicaps' being female put many more obstacles in my path than being black.

— Shirley Chisholm