The work of woman is not to lessen the severity or the certainty of the penalty for the violation of the moral law, but to prevent this violation by the removal of the causes which lead to it.
If women will not accept marriage with subjection, nor men proffer it without, there is, there can be, no alternative. The women who will not be ruled must live without marriage. And during this transition period... single women make comfortable and attractive homes for themselves.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of equality in marriage and suggests that women should value their independence if they cannot find it.
Susan B. Anthony's quote highlights the need for mutual respect and equality within the institution of marriage. She expresses that if women refuse to enter into relationships that require them to submit to their partners and men are unwilling to offer partnerships based on equality, then women should choose to remain single. This reflects a broader message about women's autonomy and the evolving nature of relationships, suggesting that single women can create fulfilling lives and homes for themselves without reliance on marriage.
Themes
In practice
Example use cases
This quote could be used in a discussion about the evolving roles of women in modern society.
More from Susan B. Anthony
All quotes →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.
I have given my life and all I am to it, and now I want my last act to be to give it all I have, to the last cent.
The day will come when men will recognize woman as his peer, not only at the fireside, but in councils of the nation. Then, and not until then, will there be the perfect comradeship, the ideal union between the sexes that shall result in the highest development of the race.
Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved. The real milestones are less prepossessing. They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave. Our lives are measured by these.
We ask justice, we ask equality, we ask that all the civil and political rights that belong to citizens of the United States, be guaranteed to us and our daughters forever.
Similar quotes
He loves me, he doesn't love my bowels, if they showed him my appendix in a glass he wouldn't recognize it, he's always feeling me, but if they put the glass in his hands he wouldn't touch it, he wouldn't think, "that's hers," you ought to love all of somebody, the esophagus, the liver, the intestines. Maybe we don't love them because we aren't used to them, but if we saw them the way we saw our hands and arms maybe we'd love them; the starfish must love each other better than we do.
I said something really stupid once. I told a friend that my mother was so beautiful, but my dad was ugly. My dad heard it and just laughed it off, but I felt guilty. It haunted me for years. I should never have said that.
No woman wants an abortion as she wants an ice cream cone or a Porsche. She wants an abortion as an animal caught in a trap wants to gnaw off its own leg.
You know how funerals are not for the dead, they’re for the living? Bachelor parties are not for the groom, they’re for the uncommitted.
The hearts of women are like those little pieces of furniture with secret hiding - places, full of drawers fitted into each other; you go a lot of trouble, break your nails, and in the bottom find some withered flower, a few grains of dust - or emptiness!
But maybe, underneath, she loves him too much. Maybe it's her excessive love that pushes him away.