Top 35 Anita Hill Quotes (2024 Update)

1. “I did what my conscience told me to do, and you can’t fail if you do that.”

— Anita Hill

2. “You can’t always expect a certain result, but you can expect to do your best.”

— Anita Hill

3. “But the issue of sexual harassment is not the end of it. There are other issues – political issues, gender issues – that people need to be educated about.”

— Anita Hill

4. “I resent the idea that people would blame the messenger for the message, rather than looking at the content of the message itself.”

— Anita Hill

5. “We have a history of gender and racial bias on our court that continues to undermine the system. Excluding individuals based on race is antagonistic to the pursuit of justice.”

— Anita Hill

6. “I am hopeful that others who have suffered sexual harassment will not become discouraged by my experience, but instead will find the strength to speak out about this serious problem.”

— Anita Hill

7. “Whether we call it a job or a career, work is more than just something we do. It is a part of who we are.”

— Anita Hill

8. “I am really proud to be a part in whatever way of women becoming active in the political scene. I think it was the first time that people came to terms with the reality of what it meant to have a Senate made up of 98 men and two women.”

— Anita Hill

9. “I see myself as an educator.”

— Anita Hill

10. “I became the messenger who had to be killed.”

— Anita Hill

11. “If I can mean to people – if I can symbolize the ability to pursue gender equality, racial equality, and to be truthful about our experiences, then, absolutely, that’s what I want to be.”

— Anita Hill

12. “Women who accuse men, particularly powerful men, of harassment are often confronted with the reality of the men’s sense that they are more important than women, as a group.”

— Anita Hill

13. “One of the things I was taught in law school is that I’d never be able to think the same again – that being a lawyer is something that’s part of who I am as an individual now.”

— Anita Hill

14. “For my undergraduate work, I went to Oklahoma State University and graduated from there in 1977.”

— Anita Hill

15. “What we really need to be understanding is that all of these things matter and they all stem from the fact that certain people live with power and authority and they want to maintain it.”

— Anita Hill

16. “I have – often say to people that you really don’t get to decide your own legacy. I mean, what you do is, you try to be your own authentic self. And then people decide how they’re going to interpret that and what it means to them.”

— Anita Hill

17. “The real problem is that the way that power is given out in our society pits us against each other.”

— Anita Hill

18. “Most of us have everything we need to get through a crisis; we just have to tap into it.”

— Anita Hill

19. “I work every day to live up to my mother’s model. She was a very proud woman. And she really prepared me to go off into the world as a proud daughter.”

— Anita Hill

20. “Testifying has helped me understand that one individual’s behavior and actions make a difference. That my actions are important to people other than myself.”

— Anita Hill

21. “I think, though, as African-American women, we are always trained to value our community even at the expense of ourselves, and so we attempt to protect the African-American community.”

— Anita Hill

22. “The experience of testifying and the aftermath have changed my life.”

— Anita Hill

23. “I have no personal vendetta against Clarence Thomas. I seek only to provide the committee with information which it may regard as relevant.”

— Anita Hill

24. “I thought that by saying no and explaining my reasons my employer would abandon his social suggestions. However, to my regret, in the following few weeks, he continued to ask me out on several occasions.”

— Anita Hill

25. “I’m not sure I can say there is a clean line between me as an individual and me as a lawyer.”

— Anita Hill

26. “When I think of what has happened in a larger sense, beyond myself, then I would not change anything.”

— Anita Hill

27. “My parents are older, and they lead a somewhat sheltered life. It was difficult to talk with them about things that were embarrassing to me, and that I had never spoken to them about.”

— Anita Hill

28. “During this period at the Department of Education, my working relationship with Judge Thomas was positive.”

— Anita Hill

29. “Certainly my life will not ever be as private and discreet, and perhaps I should even use the word insulated, as it was before.”

— Anita Hill

30. “Well, of course it was a very trying time for me, and fortunately I had a lot of people who were supportive. A lot of people who were writing and calling and saying they were praying for me. Some people sent me Scripture, and that helped.”

— Anita Hill

31. “In July of 1983, I left Washington, DC area and have had minimal contact with Judge Clarence Thomas since.”

— Anita Hill

32. “I no doubt have benefited from affirmative action programs, which looked at my race, gender, and background and determined whether I would be admitted. But I am not ashamed of this fact, nor do I apologize for it. Such programs provided me with the opportunity to prove myself, no more, no less. After admission, my success or failure would be determined by my efforts. I do not consider myself either more or less worthy than my colleagues in the same programs.”

— Anita Hill

33. “But I think it would be irresponsible for me not to say what I really believe in my heart to be true – that there are some serious inequities that we face as women and that we can work to address these inequities.”

— Anita Hill

34. “I was aware, however, that telling at any point in my career could adversely affect my future career.”

— Anita Hill

35. “Early suffragists saw the vote as key to all women’s personal as well as political autonomy. But a hundred years of women’s suffrage has shown that gaining the right to vote or run for office will not be enough as long as we’re threatened with emotional, physical, economic or sexual abuse af work, at school or in our own homes.”

— Anita Hill