50 Best Susan B. Anthony Quotes That Inspire Equality and Freedom

Few names stand as prominent pillars of courage and activism in the ongoing quest for gender equality and civil rights as Susan B. Anthony. A staunch advocate for women’s suffrage and a tireless worker for social justice, her legacy is etched in history with words that continue to inspire change and provoke thought to this day.

In this blog post, we celebrate Susan B. Anthony’s wisdom and tenacity through her most memorable quotes. These 50 selected quotations encapsulate her spirit, dedication to the cause, and indomitable belief in the equality of all humans, regardless of gender.

As we read her profound insights, may we reflect on the strides made toward equality and acknowledge the distance we have yet to travel. These quotes serve as beacons of hope and remind us of the power of relentless advocacy.

Susan B. Anthony Quotes

Join us in honoring a heroine of history, and may these powerful words ignite in each of us the same fiery dedication to justice and equality.

• “Wherever women gather together failure is impossible.”
• “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.”
• “Let me tell you what I think of bicycling. I think it has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world. It gives women a feeling of freedom and self-reliance. I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel…the picture of free, untrammeled womanhood.”
• “The one distinct feature of our Association has been the right of the individual opinion for every member. We have been beset at every step with the cry that somebody was injuring the cause by the expression of some sentiments that differed with those held by the majority of mankind. The religious persecution of the ages has been done under what was claimed to be the command of God. I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do to their fellows, because it always coincides with their own desires.”
• “We shall someday be heeded, and when we shall have our amendment to the Constitution of the United States, everybody will think it was always so, just exactly as many young people believe that all the privileges, all the freedom, all the enjoyments which woman now possesses always were hers. They have no idea of how every single inch of ground that she stands upon today has been gained by the hard work of some little handful of women of the past.”
• “Oh, yes. I’d do it all again; the spirit is willing yet; I feel the same desire to do the work but the flesh is weak. It’s too bad that our bodies wear out while our interests are just as strong as ever.”
• “The older I get, the greater power I seem to have to help the world; I am like a snowball – the further I am rolled the more I gain.”
• “What an absurd notion that women have not intellectual and moral faculties sufficent for anything else but domestic concerns!”
• “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.”
• “It is only through a wholesome discontent with things as they are, that we ever try to make them any better.”
• “Forget conventionalisms; forget what the world thinks of you stepping out of your place; think your best thoughts, speak your best words, work your best works, looking to your own conscience for approval.”
• “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.”
• “I look for the day…when the only criterion of excellence or position shall be the ability and character of the individual; and this time will come.”
• “Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.”
• “I was born a heretic. I always distrusted people who know so much about what God wants them to do to their fellows.”
• “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.”
• “There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.”
• “Oh, if I could but live another century and see the fruition of all the work for women! There is so much yet to be done.”
• “Gentlemen … Do you not see that so long as society says a woman is incompetent to be a lawyer, minister, or doctor but has ample ability to be a teacher, that every man of you who chooses this profession tacitly acknowledges that he has no more brains than a woman?”
• “Women should have equal pay for equal work, and they should be considered equally eligible to the offices of principal and superintendent, professor and president. So you must insist that qualifications, not sex, shall govern appointments and salaries.”
• “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…”
• “Sentiment never was and never can be a guarantee for justice.”
• “Our Job is not to make young women grateful. It is to make the ungrateful so they keep going. Gratitude never radicalized anybody.”
• “There shall never be another season of silence until women have the same rights men have on this green earth.”
• “I pray every single moment of my life; not on my knees but with my work. My prayer is to lift women to equality with men. Work and worship are one with me.”

Related Post: 55 Sally Ride Quotes to Fuel Your Drive to Achieve Greatness

Famous Susan B. Quotes

• “Independence is happiness.”
• “When a man says to me, ‘Let us work together in the great cause you have undertaken, and let me be your companion and aid, for I admire you more than I have ever admired any other woman,’ then I shall say, ‘I am yours truly’; but he must ask me to be his equal, not his slave.”
• “Every woman should have a purse of her own.”
• “The true republic: men, their rights and nothing more: women, their rights and nothing less.”
• “The worst enemy women have is in the pulpit. ”
• “It would be ridiculous to talk of male and female atmospheres, male and female springs or rains, male and female sunshine…. how much more ridiculous is it in relation to mind, to soul, to thought, where there is as undeniably no such thing as sex, to talk of male and female education and of male and female schools. ”
• “Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God”
• “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.”
• “I do not assume that woman is better than man. I do assume that she has a different way of looking at things.”
• “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.”
• “…the women of this nation in 1876, have greater cause for discontent, rebellion and revolution than the men of 1776.”
• “There never seems to be any difficulty in stretching the laws and the constitution to fit any kind of a political deal, but when it is proposed to make some concession to women they loom up like an unscalable wall.”
• “… we should be miserable but for the consciousness that we have done all in our power to help forward every measure for the freedom and equality of the races and the sexes.”
• “Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.”
• “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.”
• “No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent.”
• “For a people is only as great, as free, as lofty, as advanced as its women are free, noble and progressive.”
• “To think I have had more than 60 years of hard struggle for a little liberty, and then to die without it seems so cruel.”
• “To be successful a person must attempt but one reform. By urging two, both are injured, as the average mind can grasp and assimilate but one idea at a time.”
• “Cyling has done more to emancipate women than anything else in the world.”
• “I expect to do more work for woman suffrage in the next decade than ever before.”
• “There is not a woman born who desires to eat the bread of dependence, no matter whether it be from the hand of father, husband, or brother; for anyone who does so eat her bread places herself in the power of the person from whom she takes it.”
• “Suffrage is the pivotal right.”
• “It is often asserted that as the woman has always been man’s slave–subject–inferior–dependent, under all forms of government and religion, slavery must be her normal condition. This might have some weight had not the vast majority of men also been enslaved for centuries to kings and popes, and orders of nobility, who, in the progress of civilization, have reached complete equality.”
• “To grant woman an equality with man in the affairs of life is contrary to every tradition, every precedent, every inheritance, every instinct and every teaching. The acceptance of this idea is possible only to those of especially progressive tendencies and a strong sense of justice, and it is yet too soon to expect these from the majority.”
• “Just as long as newspapers and magazines are controlled by men, every woman upon them must write articles which are reflections of men’s ideas. As long as that continues, women’s ideas and deepest convictions will never get before the public.”
• “I have known nothing the last thirty years save the struggle for human rights on this continent. If it had been a class of men who were disfranchised and denied their legal rights, I believe I should have devoted my life precisely as I have done in behalf of my own sex.”
• “I don’t want to die as long as I can work; the minute I can not, I want to go.”
• “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…. Men, their rights and nothing more; women, their rights and nothing less. ”

Final Thoughts

There you have it. It’s crucial to reflect on the powerful words of Susan B. Anthony, a woman whose advocacy reshaped history. Her quotes serve as timeless reminders of the persistent fight for equality and justice.

Susan B. Anthony’s dedication to societal transformation is a beacon for activists and changemakers everywhere, guiding us to act with courage and conviction. Her commitment to women’s rights and her willingness to stand against prevailing attitudes inspire us to continue the work she and many others began.

May we carry the essence of Susan B. Anthony’s quotes with us, using her words as fuel to ignite the passion for progress and to remember that every small effort counts towards the larger goal of a fairer, more equitable world.