No Means No Quotes

“Shut up!' I shouted. 'Why can you not see that my desire to be rid of you has nothing to do with feistiness or women's problems or fear of being caught, but has everything to do with you!”
― Katherine Longshore, Gilt

“If I could mark clearly, convincingly and consistently what was good for me and also what was bad — if I could say yes and also no, as if it were the law — it would become my law.

It finally had to.

I understood that it wouldn’t be easy, it would be very hard; I’d need to resist the habit I had developed long ago – with conviction. I’d have to be impolite, an inconvenience, and sometimes awkward. But if I could commit, all that discomfort would add up to zap predatory threats like a Taser gun. I’d stun them. They’d bow to me. I’d let my no echo against the mountains.

And better to feel bad for a moment saying no – and stop it – than to get harmed.”
― Aspen Matis, Girl in the Woods: A Memoir

“I didn't understand what it was about men—not all men, but a good portion of them—that turned a good, solid “NO” into an “I'm just playing coy; try harder.”
― Nenia Campbell, Bleeds My Desire

“Even if I show my penis, even if I masturbate in public, even if the visual contents disturbs you, No means No”
― Dr.P.S. Jagadeesh Kumar

“Si dimentica che ancora non le ho dato una risposta. Mi permetta di farlo ora senza attendere oltre. La ringrazio per l'omaggio che mi porge. Sono consapevole dell'onore che mi fa con la sua proposta, ma non posso fare altro che declinarla"
"So bene" rispose il signor Collins con un gesto affettato della mano "che di solito le signorine respingono la prima proposta dell'uomo che intendono segretamente accettare, e che talvolta il rifiuto si ripete per una seconda e anche una terza volta. Non mi sento perciò affatto scoraggiato da ciò che mi ha appena detto e continuo a sperare di portarla presto all'altare.”
― Jane Austen, Orgoglio e Pregiudizio

“Kindly and firmly, she refused to sleep with me. Not even a charity fuck.”
― Julian May, Orion Arm

“There was no one there to hear them scream no. Or maybe there was; but that no wasn’t deemed worthy of being heard. Maybe they heard it and they didn’t care. A woman’s no can so easily be turned into a yes by men who do not want to listen.”
― Louise O'Neill, The Surface Breaks