Welcome to our collection of quotes by Maggie Kuhn. We hope you enjoy pondering them and please share widely.
Wikipedia Summary for Maggie Kuhn
Maggie Kuhn (August 3, 1905 – April 22, 1995) was an American activist known for founding the Gray Panthers movement, after she was forced to retire from her job at the then-mandatory retirement age of 65. The Gray Panthers became known for advocating nursing home reform and fighting ageism, claiming that "old people and women constitute America's biggest untapped and undervalued human energy source." She dedicated her life to fighting for human rights, social and economic justice, global peace, integration, and an understanding of mental health issues. For decades, she combined her activism with caring for her mother—who had a disability which required her to receive assistance in her care—and a brother who suffered from mental illness.
A healthy community is one in which the elderly protect, care for, love and assist the younger ones to provide continuity and hope.
The ultimate indignity is to be given a bedpan by a stranger who calls you by your first name.
My goal is to do something outrageous every day.
People who have had power, when they become powerless, are really tragic.... We just allow ourselves to be conditioned by a society so we become as important as we're supposed to be.
Old age is an excellent time for outrage.
Being sixty-five ... became a crossroads. We said, we have nothing to lose, so we can raise hell.
Leave safety behind. Put your body on the line. Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind -- even if your voice shakes. When you least expect it, someone may actually listen to what you have to say. Well-aimed slingshots can topple giants.
Your body changes, but you don't change at all. And that, of course, causes great confusion.
There are six myths about old age: 1. That it's a disease, a disaster. 2. That we are mindless. 3. That we are sexless. 4. That we are useless. 5. That we are powerless. 6. That we are all alike.
Learning and sex until rigor mortis.
I enjoy my wrinkles and regard them as badges of distinction -- I've worked hard for them!
Men and women approaching retirement age should be recycled for public service work, and their companies should foot the bill. We can no longer afford to scrap-pile people.
Few people know how to be old.
There must be a goal at every stage of life! There must be a goal!
By the year 2020, the year of perfect vision, the old will outnumber the young.
When you least expect it, someone may actually listen to what you have to say.
Power should not be concentrated in the hands of so few, and powerlessness in the hands of so many.
Stand before the people you fear and speak your mind -- even if your voice shakes.
Old age is not a disease -- it is strength and survivorship, triumph over all kinds of vicissitudes and disappointments, trials and illnesses.