Inner Courage

The Sweet Far Thing by Libba Bray: "Why should we girls not have the same privileges as men? Why do we police ourselves so stringently-whittling each other down with cutting remarks or holding ourselves back from greatness with a harness woven of fear and shame and longing? If we don not deem ourselves worthy first, how shall we ever ask for more?"
I read The Sweet Far Thing over the summer and fell madly in love with it (not as much as Twilight, but close). The series tells the adventure of an English school girl, Gemma, who discovers powers in herself. The quote above is one of the last paragraphs in the book (spoiler alert!) and I think it's one of the best lines in the series. Gemma tells Mrs. Nightwing to teach the girls in her academy more and teach them to speak for themselves and not hold back. It's funny because Gemma finds this inner courage in the place that frowns upon opinions of women and disobedience. Maybe it's not funny, however, because it's what's inside that prevails above all others, not what's on the outside, or the influence of others.