Check out these best Susan B. Anthony quotes about life, voting, equality, and education to inspire you to fight for justice and a more equitable world.
Susan B. Anthony was one of the most influential figures in American history and a trailblazing leader in the fight for women’s rights.
Born on February 15, 1820, Susan was an American social reformer and women’s rights activist who dedicated her life to advocating for gender equality, particularly the right for women to vote.
Raised in a Quaker family committed to social equality, Susan began her activism early, collecting anti-slavery petitions at the age of 17.
She met Elizabeth Cady Stanton in 1851, and together they founded the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1869.
Her tireless efforts eventually led to the passage of the 19th Amendment, which granted women voting rights in 1920— an achievement that came 14 years after her death.
This amendment was known as the “Susan B. Anthony Amendment” to honor her work on women’s rights. On July 2, 1979, she became the first woman to be featured on a circulating coin from the U.S. mint.
Apart from fighting for women’s right, Susan was also a strong advocate for abolition, labor rights, and equal pay. Her relentless pursuit for justice and equality continues to inspire generations of activists worldwide.
In honor of the black feminist, we have compiled the most famous Susan B. Anthony quotes to inspire you to stand against oppression and fight for a more just society.
Top 10 Susan B. Anthony Quotes
- “Failure is impossible.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Suffrage is the pivotal right.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Independence is happiness.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Organize, agitate, educate, must be our war cry.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Whoever controls work and wages, controls morals.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “For every betrayed woman, there is always the betrayer, man.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “No man is good enough to govern any woman without her consent.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “She who succeeds in gaining the mastery of the bicycle will gain the mastery of life.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “There never will be complete equality until women themselves help to make laws and elect lawmakers.” — Susan B. Anthony
Best Susan B. Anthony Quotes On Women & Equality
- “Woman must have a purse of her own.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “The worst enemy women have is in the pulpit.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Wherever women gather together failure is impossible.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “I stand and rejoice every time I see a woman ride by on a wheel.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Join the union, girls, and together say Equal Pay for Equal Work.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “There is not a woman born who desires to eat the bread of dependence.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Women, we might as well be dogs baying the moon as petitioners without the right to vote!” — Susan B. Anthony
- “The day may be approaching when the whole world will recognize woman as the equal of man.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Marriage, to women as to men, must be a luxury, not a necessity; an incident of life, not all of it.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “No self-respecting woman should wish or work for the success of a party who ignores her sex.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Those who are really in earnest must be willing to be anything or nothing in the world’s estimation.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “When woman has a newspaper which fear and favor cannot touch, then it will be that she can freely write her own thoughts.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “If a man’s public record be a clear one, if he has kept his pledges before the world, I do not inquire what his private life may have been.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “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.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “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.” — Susan B. Anthony
Famous Quotes From Susan B. Anthony on Life, Change, & Voting
- “Someone struggled for your right to vote. Use it.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Trust me that as I ignore all law to help the slave, so will I ignore it all to protect an enslaved woman.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations… can never effect a reform.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “I do not ask the clemency of the court. I came into it to get justice, having failed in this, I demand the full rigors of the law.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “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.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “I do not consider divorce an evil by any means. It is just as much a refuge for women married to brutal men as Canada was to the slaves of brutal masters.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “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.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “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.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “We assert the province of government to be to secure the people in the enjoyment of their unalienable rights. We throw to the winds the old dogma that governments can give rights.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “White men have always controlled their wives’ wages. Colored men were not able to do so until they themselves became free. Then they owned both their wives and their wages.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “The principle of self-government cannot be violated with impunity. The individual’s right to it is sacred – regardless of class, caste, race, color, sex or any other accident or incident of birth.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “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.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “I think it a much wiser thing to secure for the thousands of mothers in this State the legal control of the children they now have, than to bring others into the world who would not belong to me after they were born.” — Susan B. Anthony
- “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.” — Susan B. Anthony
Conclusion
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