Quotable Nerdy Chicks: Maya Lin

Apr27 by kamikinard

I’m so glad I was reintroduced to the work of Maya Lin through my son who studied her recently in school. If you don’t already know this, Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall in Washington D. C. while she was still an undergraduate student. When I was in college, one of my friends was among the first to visit that memorial. She found the name of another friend’s father on the memorial and brought back a framed pencil rubbing of it. I will never forget how touched my friend, whose father was killed before she could meet him, was by that gift. The Vietnam Memorial has touched countless others since its installation.

Lin has designed other amazing structures and done other amazing things. You can read more about them at her own beautifully designed website. www.mayalin.com She currently owns and operates Maya Lin Studio in New York City.

Maya Lin Quotes

I loved school. I studied like crazy. I was a Class A nerd.
I was always making things. Even though art was what I did every day, it didn’t even occur to me that I would be an artist.
I try to give people a different way of looking at their surroundings. That’s art to me.
All my work is much more peaceful than I am.
To fly we have to have resistance.
How we are using up our home, how we are living and polluting the planet is frightening. It was evident when I was a child. It’s more evident now.

Now. Go visit her website. Move your cursor to make things happen!

The Quotable Nerdy Chick: Juliette Gordon Low

Apr6 by kamikinard

I was led to Juliette Gordon Low when trying to highlight someone famous who had something in common with this week’s interviewee, Lisa Day Long. When Juliette Gordon Low’s name came up in a Google search of famous women from Georgia, I had a classic head-smack moment. Not only do we have we had three generations of Girl Scouts in my family, but have I visited her beautiful and fascinating home in Savannah, Georgia. Additionally, this year marks the 100^th anniversary of the Girl Scouts! You can find out much more about this leader and champion of girls at the Girl Scout website HERE.

Juliette Gordon Low Quotes

The work of today is the history of tomorrow, and we are its makers.
My purpose… to go on with my heart and soul, devoting all my energies to Girl Scouts, and heart and hand with them, we will make our lives and the lives of the future girls happy.
Right is right, even if no one else does it.
Scouting rises within you and inspires you to put forth your best.
To put yourself in another’s place requires real imagination, but by doing so each Girl Scout will be able to love among others happily.
We must accept the fact that transport and communications will bring the world in close relations and the youth of the world should have standards and ideals in common.
Ours is a circle of friendships united by ideals.

If you ever make it down to Savannah, I highly recommend a visit to Juliette Gordon Low’s home, especially if you’re a bit of a history buff. I came away from the tour inspired!

The portrait of Low above was painted by Edward Hughes. It hangs in the National Portrait Gallery and is in the public domain because the copyright has expired.

The Quotable Nerdy Chick: Jane Goodall

Feb3 by kamikinard

This week I am highlighting quotes from Jane Goodall, in part because this week’s interviewee, Audrey Williams, suggested a quote by her for the original Quotable Nerdy Chick page. And the first interviewee, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, has written a biography about her. And let’s not forget that she’s even mentioned in THE BOY PROJECT.

Jane Goodall is acknowledged as the world’s most authoritative primatologist. I have long been an admirer of hers. I saw an interview with her a few years ago and was amazed at her humble and extremely compassionate nature. Two things she said in the interview have stuck with me for years. When asked what her most amazing accomplishment was, she said that having her son was amazing. Wow. This woman who has done so many things the rest of us only dream of could site something that so many take for granted as amazing! She also said it was up to those who could afford to liver more greenly to do it, because sometimes living green is not the most cost effective way to live. Here are some more wonderful things Jane Goodall has said:

Jane Goodall Quotes:

If you really want something, and really work hard, and take advantage of opportunities, and never give up, you will find a way.
That I did not fail was due in part to patience….
The least I can do is speak out for those who cannot speak for themselves.
Especially now when views are becoming more polarized, we must work to understand each other across political, religious and national boundaries.
“What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

Are you surprised that I didn’t include any quotes about animals? There are plenty of them, but that was on purpose. Because I think it is the philosophy she expresses in the quotes above that drive her to live in the admirable way in which she lives. But okay, here is one more.

If we kill off the wild, then we are killing a part of our souls.

Food for thought, nerdy chicks! To see other Nerdy Chick Quotes click HERE. I will be adding to this list weekly… but only one quote per chick!

The Quotable Nerdy Chick

Jan7 by kamikinard

Here are a few of my favorite nerdy chick quotes:

Life is not easy for any of us. But what of that? We must have perseverance and above all confidence in ourselves. We must believe that we are gifted for something and that this thing must be attained.

— Marie Curie, scientist

In soloing – as in other activities – it is far easier to start something than it is to finish it.

— Amelia Earhardt, aviator

Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations… can never effect a reform.

–Susan B. Anthony, activist

A woman is like a tea bag — you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

— Eleanor Roosevelt, activist

I would take every fairy tale that ends with the princess being rescued by Prince Charming and make the princess rescue herself.

— Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, author

Trust yourself. Create the kind of self that you will be happy to live with all your life. Make the most of yourself by fanning the tiny, inner sparks of possibility into flames of achievement.

–Golda Meir, politician

Things will come to you when you are ready for them (be they boyfriends, certain experiences, certain achievements).

— Aimee Friedman, author and editor

If it is who you are, then it is cool.

— Audrey Williams, Director of Educational Technology

That I did not fail was due in part to patience….

–Jane Goodall, primatologist

Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we often might win, by fearing to attempt.

— Jane Addams, social reformer

We don’t accomplish anything in this world alone… and whatever happens is the result of the whole tapestry of one’s life and all the weavings of individual threads form one to another that creates something.

–Sandra Day O’Connor, Supreme Court Justice

Ask yourself: Have you been kind today? Make kindness your daily modus operandi and change your world.

–Annie Lennox

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.

–Urusla K. Le Guin, author

Never be limited by other people’s limited imaginations…If you adopt their attitudes, then the possibility won’t exist because you’ll have already shut it out … You can hear other people’s wisdom, but you’ve got to re-evaluate the world for yourself.

–Mae Jemison, Astronaut

I’ll be adding to this short list soon. Do you have a favorite nerdy chick quote? Please leave a comment here and share it!