Elizabeth Cady Stanton Quotes - Page 5

The history of the past is but one long struggle upward to equality.

The Church is a terrible engine of oppression, especially as concerns woman

How long will the heathens rage?

Though motherhood is the most important of all the professions - requiring more knowledge than any other department in human affairs - there was no attention given to preparation for this office.

When women can support themselves, have entry to all the trades and professions, with a house of their own over their heads and a bank account, they will own their bodies and be dictators in the social realm.

To think that all in me of which my father would have felt proper pride had I been a man, is deeply mortifying to him because I am a woman.

The memory of my own suffering has prevented me from ever shadowing one young soul with the superstition of the Christian religion.

I do believe that half a dozen commonplace attorneys could so mystify and misconstrue the Ten Commandments, and so confuse Moses' surroundings on Mount Sinai, that the great law-giver, if he returned to this planet, would doubt his own identity, abjure every one of his deliverances, yea, even commend the very sins he so clearly forbade his people.

The prejudice against color, of which we hear so much, is no stronger than that against sex. It is produced by the same cause, and manifested very much in the same way.

Reformers who are always compromising, have not yet grasped the idea that truth is the only safe ground to stand upon.

The great fault of mankind is that it will not think.

I thought that the chief thing to be done in order to equal boys was to be learned and courageous. So I decided to study Greek and learn to manage a horse.

I have met few men in my life, worth repeating eight times.

Fear, coercion, punishment, are the masculine remedies for moral weakness, but statistics show their failure for centuries. Why not change the system and try the education of the moral and intellectual faculties, cheerful surroundings, inspiring influences? Everything in our present system tends to lower the physical vitality, the self-respect, the moral tone, and to harden instead of reforming the criminal.

The whole tone of Church teaching in regard to women is, to the last degree, contemptuous and degrading.

The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self- dependence must give each individual the right to choose his own surroundings.

That only a few, under any circumstances, protest against the injustice of long-established laws and customs, does not disprove the fact of the oppressions, while the satisfaction of the many, if real only proves their apathy and deeper degradation.

Eve tasted the apple in the Garden of Eden in order to slake that intense thirst for knowledge that the simple pleasure of picking flowers and talking to Adam could not satisfy.

If the Bible teaches the equality of women, why does the church refuse to ordain women to preach the gospel, to fill the offices of deacons and elders, and to administer the Sacraments...?

The great lesson that nature seems to teach us at all ages is self-dependence, self-protection, self-support. In the hours of our keenest sufferings all are thrown wholly on themselves for consolation.

Heavenly Father and Mother, make us thankful for all the blessings of this life, and make us ever mindful of the patient hands that oft in weariness spread our tables and prepare our daily food. For humanity's sake, Amen.

Resolved, That it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise.

Two pure souls fused into one by an impassioned love-friends, counselors-a mutual support and inspiration to each other amid life's struggles, must know the highest human happiness;-this is marriage; and this is the only cornerstone of an enduring home.

I know of no other book that so fully teaches the subjection and degradation of women.

To throw obstacles in the way of a complete education is like putting out the eyes.