Susan B. Anthony Quotes

“Failure is impossible.”

“Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.”

“No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent.”

“It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union. And we formed it to secure the blessings of liberty to the whole people, women as well as men.”

“Suffrage is the pivotal right.”

“It is downright mockery to talk to women of their enjoyment of the blessings of liberty while they are denied the use of the only means of securing them provided by this democratic-republican government: the ballot.”

“Here, in this very first paragraph of the Declaration, is the assertion of the natural right of all to the ballot; for how can "the consent of the governed" be given if the right to vote be denied?”

“Being persons, then, women are citizens; and no state has a right to make any new law, or to enforce any old law, that shall abridge their privileges or immunities.”

“The only question left to be settled now is: Are women persons? And I hardly believe any of our opponents will have the hardihood to say they are not.”

“Women, we might as well be dogs baying the moon as petitioners without the right to vote!”

“There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.”

“The day may be approaching when the whole world will recognise woman as the equal of man.”

“Resolved, that the women of this nation in 1876 have greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776.”

“I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old Revolutionary maxim: Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God.”

“We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights. Before governments were organised, no one denies that each individual possessed the right to protect his own life, liberty and property.”

“The Declaration of Independence, the United States Constitution, the constitutions of the several states all alike propose to protect the people in the exercise of their God-given rights. Not one of them pretends to bestow rights.”

“The principle of self-government cannot be violated with impunity. The individual's right to it is sacred, regardless of class, caste, race, colour, sex or any other accident or incident of birth.”

“Wherever, on the face of the globe or on the page of history, you show me a disfranchised class, I will show you a degraded class of labour.”

“Organise, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.”

“Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations, can never effect a reform.”

“I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand.”

“Independence is happiness.”

“There is not a woman born who desires to eat the bread of dependence.”

“I think the girl who is able to earn her own living and pay her own way should be as happy as anybody on earth. The sense of independence and security is very sweet.”

“Woman must have a purse of her own, and how can this be so long as the law denies to the wife all right to both the individual and the joint earnings?”