Quotes from a heroine
As my own personal launch into Lowell Women’s Week, which begins today, the following are some of my favorite quotes from Susan B. Anthony. I have long admired Anthony for her courage and tenacity, her vision for women despite their long history of oppression, and her amazing skill with language and argument. She was a smart, eloquent, and gifted advocate for women’s rights. See what you think:
On change: “Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputation and social standing, never can bring about a reform. Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation, and publicly and privately, in season and out, avow their sympathy with despised and persecuted ideas and their advocates, and bear the consequences.”
On education: “If all the rich and all of the church people should send their children to the public schools they would feel bound to concentrate their money on improving these schools until they met the highest ideals.”
On educated women: “I can’t say that the college-bred woman is the most contented woman. The broader her mind the more she understands the unequal conditions between men and women, the more she chafes under a government that tolerates it.”