Napoleon Bonaparte - April 20, 1814

Soldiers of my Old Guard: I bid you farewell. For twenty years I have
constantly accompanied you on the road to honour and glory. In these latter
times, as in the days of our prosperity, you have invariably been models of
courage and fidelity. With men such as you our cause could not be lost; but
the war would have been interminable; it would have been civil war, and
that would have entailed deeper misfortunes on France.

I have sácrificed all of my interests to those of the country.

I go, but you, my friends, will continue to serve France. Her happiness was
my only thought. It will still be the object of my wishes. Do not regret my
fate; if I have consented to survive, it is to serve your glory. I intend to write
the history of the great achievements we have performed together. Adieu,
my friends. Would I could press you all to my heart.
Emma Watson, UN speech, 20 September 2014 (extract 2)

We don’t often talk / about men being imprisoned / by gender stereotypes // but
I can see that that they are, and that when they are free, things will change for
women as a natural consequence...

Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive.

Both men and women should feel free to be strong…
It is time that we all perceive gender on a spectrum not as two opposing sets of
ideals.

If we stop defining each other by what we are not

and start defining ourselves by what we are
—we can all be freer and this is what HeForShe is about.
It’s about freedom.

I want men to take up this mantle.

So their daughters, sisters and mothers can be free from prejudice
but also so that their sons have permission to be vulnerable and human too
—reclaim those parts of themselves they abandoned and in doing so be a more
true and complete version of themselves.
 Martin Luther King

Society

Mammoth productive facilities with computer minds, cities that engulf the landscape and
pierce the clouds, planes that almost outrace time – these are awesome, but they cannot
be spiritually inspiring. Nothing in our glittering technology can raise man to new
heights, because material growth has been made an end in itself, and, in the absence of
moral purpose, man himself becomes smaller as the works of man become bigger.
Gargantuan industry and government, woven into an intricate computerised mechanism,
leave the person outside. The sense of participation is lost, the feeling that ordinary
individuals influence important decisions vanishes, and man becomes separated and
diminished.
 Sophia Loren

When I got enough confidence / the stage was gone. // When I was sure of losing,
I won. // When I needed people the most, they left me. /When I learnt to dry my
tears, I found a shoulder to cry on. // When I mastered the skill of hating, someone
started loving me from the core of my heart. And, while waiting for light for
hours, when I fell asleep, the sun came out. That’s life! ////No matter what you
plan, you never know what life has planned for you. Success introduces you to the
world. But failure introduces the world to you. Always be happy! Often when we
lose hope and think ‘this is the end’, God smiles from above and says “Relax
sweetheart, it’s just a bend, not the end!”.