Welcome to the web’s most comprehensive site of quotations by women. 43,939 quotations are searchable by topic, by author's name, or by keyword. Many of them appear in no other collection. And new ones are added continually.

See All TOPICS Available:
See All AUTHORS Available:

Search by Topic:

  • topic cats
  • topic books
  • topic moon

Find quotations by TOPIC (coffee, love, dogs)
or search alphabetically below.

Search by Last Name:

  • Quotes by Zora Neale Hurston
  • Quotes by Louisa May Alcott
  • Quotes by Chingling Soong

Find quotations by the AUTHOR´S LAST NAME
or alphabetically below.

Search by Keyword:

  • keyword fishing
  • keyword twilight
  • keyword Australie

Jan Phillips

  • If I were pope / I'd proclaim the end of my infallibility / and banish the word sin from the doctrines of faith / I'd ask half the bishops and cardinals / to replace themselves with a thoughtful woman / and complete their ministries in a prison or homeless shelter / If I were pope / I'd pay the mystics to write poetry all day / and have their words read at the Sunday Masses / I'd pay the prophets to upload their message / in five minute videos / for youtube viewers around the world / I'd hire a thousand displaced workers / to construct a new Sistine Chapel and cover it with mirrors / instead of male images / If I were pope / I'd announce a contest / for 10 new sacraments that celebrate / peace-making, justice, and interfaith creations. / I'd send envoys to the villages / to talk about birth control / and distribute condoms wherever they are needed. / I'd establish a tuition-free college in every country / to train young students how to think / non-violently and act ethically. / If I were pope I'd convert closed churches / to housing for the needy / and meeting places for the marginal and walking wounded / I'd buy farms in rural places / and dedicate each one to organic farming and cooperative, sustainable, community-based agriculture. / I'd convert every old Motherhouse and seminary / into a training center for spiritual activists, cultural creators / and community collaborators. / I'd auction off my skullcap, my mozetta cape and my darling red shoes / to the highest bidder and send the money to Haiti / for the construction of schools and health care centers. / I'd sell my Fisherman's Ring on ebay / and donate the proceeds to the Gulf shrimpers. / I'd trade my red and gold embroidered fascia / (the stole with the fringes) for a villa in Tuscany / and give free spa retreats to women who've served the church / for five years or more. / If I were pope, I'd throw a party at the Vatican / and invite everyone who's left the church because they didn't feel welcomed. / (The overflow crowd would be treated to weekends / at Italian vineyards.) / If I were pope, I'd announce my retirement,/ and as my last act in office, at the final party, / I'd ordain to the priesthood any woman who was ready, / marry any gay couple who wanted my blessing, / and marry any priest, male or female. / Then I'd get in my jammies, / say a prayer of gratitude, / and crawl into bed for a much needed nap.

    • Jan Phillips,
    • "If I were Pope," No Ordinary Time: The Rise of Spiritual Intelligence and Evolutionary Creativity ()
  • ... the act of creating is a healing gesture, as sacred as prayer, as essential to the spirit as food to the body.

    • Jan Phillips,
    • in Tona Pearce Myers, ed., The Soul of Creativity: Insights Into the Creative Process ()

Jan Phillips, U.S. writer, artist

(1949)