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.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
I view it as one of the greatest crimes to shadow the minds of the young with these gloomy superstitions, and with fears of the unknown and the unknowable to poison all their joy in life.
Interpretation
What this quote means
This quote emphasizes the importance of free thought and the dangers of instilling fear and superstition in the young.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton argues that imposing gloomy superstitions and fears of the unknown on young minds is a significant crime, as it detracts from their joy in life. By doing so, she suggests that we are depriving the youth of the opportunity to live fully, joyfully, and with the capacity for critical thinking. It highlights the responsibility of adults to nurture an environment of inquiry and understanding rather than one filled with fear and myth.
Themes
EducationSuperstitionYouthJoyFear
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for critical thinking in education.
More from Elizabeth Cady Stanton
All quotes →To live for a principle, for the triumph of some reform by which all mankind are to be lifted up to be wedded to an idea may be, after all, the holiest and happiest of marriages.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
The strongest reason for giving woman all the opportunities for higher education, for the full development of her faculties, her forces of mind and body... is the solitude and personal responsibility of her own individual life.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
Only those who have lived all their lives under the dark clouds of vague, undefined fears can appreciate the joy of a doubting soul suddenly born into the kingdom of reason and free thought.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
We demand in the Reconstruction suffrage for all the citizens of the Republic. I would not talk of Negroes or women, but of citizens.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
Come, come, my conservative friend, wipe the dew off your spectacles, and see that the world is moving.
Elizabeth Cady StantonRead
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