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Daily Inspiration Quote by Marjory Stoneman Douglas

"No matter how poor my eyes are I can still talk"

About this Quote

Defiance is the point: sight can fail, but voice is non-negotiable. In one plainspoken line, Marjory Stoneman Douglas turns a bodily limitation into a civic stance. The syntax refuses melodrama. "No matter how" sets up adversity as background noise, not a plot twist. Then the pivot lands on the simplest possible agency: "I can still talk". Not write, not see, not perform expertise - talk. Speech is framed as the last, most stubborn tool of participation.

The subtext is a journalist's creed with the sentimentality stripped out. Douglas spent a century watching institutions become fluent in ignoring women, environmental warnings, and inconvenient facts. When the eyes go, the culture often expects quiet gratitude and retreat. Her line rejects that script. It's also a backhand at the way authority is policed: if you can't meet the sensory or professional standards of the room, you're supposed to yield the microphone. Douglas answers with a refusal that sounds almost casual, which is why it hits. It's not "I will fight"; it's "I remain."

Context matters because Douglas was famous for turning attention into leverage - especially in Florida, where her advocacy helped redefine the Everglades as something worth saving. Late in life, when failing vision could have symbolized decline, she recasts it as proof of continuity: the work doesn't end when the body changes. For a journalist, talking is more than chatting. It's insisting on witness, keeping pressure on power, and staying impossible to file away.

Quote Details

TopicWitty One-Liners
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APA Style (7th ed.)
Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. (2026, January 17). No matter how poor my eyes are I can still talk. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-matter-how-poor-my-eyes-are-i-can-still-talk-49304/

Chicago Style
Douglas, Marjory Stoneman. "No matter how poor my eyes are I can still talk." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-matter-how-poor-my-eyes-are-i-can-still-talk-49304/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"No matter how poor my eyes are I can still talk." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/no-matter-how-poor-my-eyes-are-i-can-still-talk-49304/. Accessed 6 Feb. 2026.

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No matter how poor my eyes are I can still talk - Douglas Quote
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About the Author

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Marjory Stoneman Douglas (April 7, 1890 - May 14, 1998) was a Journalist from USA.

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