"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." ~ Susan B. Anthony
Courageous women's rights leader Susan Brownell Anthony (1820-1906) was born on this day in South Adams, Massachusetts, the daughter of a successful cotton manufacturer. She fought with passion for suffrage and civil rights.
"Independence is happiness," said Anthony, who was raised as a Quaker, a religious group that celebrated freedom. This upbringing propelled her beliefs as she co-founded the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1869.
"Cautious, careful people, always casting about to preserve their reputations... can never effect a reform," she said, believing in the importance of economic independence to women's emancipation.
"Women must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself," she said.
With selfless dedication she worked tirelessly and fought for over 30 years, traveling the country, speaking and writing on behalf of women. She was jailed for her "radical" views and pressed on. "Failure is impossible," she said.
Her relentless determination helped ensure the ratification of the 19th Amendment (1920) to the Constitution and gave women the right to vote. "The older I get," she confessed. "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."
More Susan B. ANTHONY Quotations
Important moments dwell in memory.