Sarah Moore Grimke Quotes

• I ask no favors for my sex, I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on the ground which God has designed us to occupy.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Sex, Feet, Justice

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.10

  84 Copy quote

• I know nothing of man's rights, or woman's rights; human rights are all that I recognize.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Powerful, Men, Rights

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.117

  110 Copy quote

• I am persuaded that the rights of woman, like the rights of slaves, need only be examined to be understood and asserted.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Rights, Needs, Slave

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.15

  92 Copy quote

• An idea built the wall of separation between the sexes, and an idea will crumble it to dust.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Sex, Wall, Equality

  Gerda Lerner, Sarah Moore Grimké (1998). “The Feminist Thought of Sarah Grimké”, p.90, Oxford University Press on Demand

  87 Copy quote

• whatsoever it is morally right for a man to do, it is morally right for a woman to do.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Men, Morality

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.122

  68 Copy quote

• All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Selfish, Mean, Men

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.11

  60 Copy quote

• There has been a comparatively greater proportion of good queens, than of good kings.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Leadership, Kings, Queens

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.59

  41 Copy quote

• The virtue of female slaves is wholly at the mercy of irresponsible tyrants, and women are bought and sold in our slave markets, to gratify the brutal lust of those who bear the name of Christians.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Christian, Tyrants, Names

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.51

  55 Copy quote

• Intellect is not sexed;... strength of mind is not sexed; and ... our views about the duties of men and the duties of women, the sphere of man and the sphere of woman, are mere arbitrary opinions, differing in different ages and countries, and dependent solely on the will and judgment of erring mortals.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Country, Men, Views

  "Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman" by Sarah Moore Grimke, Letter 9, (August 25, 1837), 1837.

  52 Copy quote

• Oh, had I received the education I desired, had I been bred to the profession of the law, I might have been a useful member of society, and instead of myself and my property being taken care of, I might have been a protector of the helpless, a pleader for the poor and unfortunate.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Taken, Responsibility, Law

  "The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina" by Gerda Lerner, Ch. 5, 1969.

  38 Copy quote

• The reason why women effect so little and are so shallow is because their aims are low, marriage is the prize for which they strive; if foiled in that they rarely rise above disappointment.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Disappointment, Littles, Reason Why

  "The Female Experience". Book by Gerda Lerner (Chapter 87), 1977.

  44 Copy quote

• Good and evil, as we term them, are not antagonistic; they are ever found hand in hand. Humanity has never achieved a single conquest without the aid of both. Indeed how can she? What adds to moral strength, but a grappling with temptation?

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Hands, Evil, Temptation

  27 Copy quote

• At sixty I look back on a life of deep disappointments, of withered hopes, of unlooked for suffering, of severe discipline.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Hope, Disappointment, Discipline

  Letter to Harriot Hunt (1853), as quoted in "The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Woman's [sic] Rights and Abolition" by Gerda Lerner, Editorial Oxford University Press, (p. 241), 1998.

  33 Copy quote

• [On the Adam and Eve story:] They both fell from innocence, and consequently from happiness, but not from equality.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Equality, Stories, Innocence

  21 Copy quote

• It would be as wise to set up an accomplished lawyer to saw wood as a business as to condemn an educated and sensible woman to spend all her time boiling potatoes and patching old garments. Yet this is the lot of many a one who incessantly stitches and boils and bakes, compelled to thrust back out of sight the aspirations which fill her soul.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Wise, Sight, Soul

  "The Female Experience". Book by Gerda Lerner (Chapter 87), 1977.

  33 Copy quote

• In all ages, through all the varied experience of individuals and nations, knowledge has been the power which has civilized, elevated and dignified humanity. In those countries where progress has been most rapid, the thirst for knowledge has been most intense.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Country, Knowledge, Humanity

  Gerda Lerner, Sarah Moore Grimké (1998). “The Feminist Thought of Sarah Grimké”, p.77, Oxford University Press, USA

  21 Copy quote

• I want my sex to claim nothing from their brethren but what their brethren may justly claim from them.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Brother, Sex, May

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.127

  19 Copy quote

• If the minds of women were enlightened and improved, the domestic work would be more frequently refreshed by intelligent conversation, a means of edification now deplorably neglected, for want of that cultivation which these intellectual advantages would confer.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Mean, Intelligent, Intelligence

  20 Copy quote

• [Women] are early taught that to appear to yield is the only way to govern.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Yield, Way, Taught

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.86

  13 Copy quote

• Girls study under the paralyzing idea that their acquirements cannot be brought into practical use. They may subserve the purposes of promoting individual domestic pleasure and social enjoyment in conversation, but what are they in comparison with the grand stimulation of independence and self- reliance, of the capability of contributing to the comfort and happiness of those whom they love as their own souls?

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Girl, Self, Ideas

  "The Female Experience". Book by Gerda Lerner (Chapter 87), 1977.

  15 Copy quote

• Had Adam tenderly reproved his wife, and endeavored to lead her to repentance instead of sharing in her guilt, I should be much more ready to accord to man that superiority which he claims; but as the facts stand disclosed by the sacred historian, it appears to me that to say the least, there was as much weakness exhibited by Adam as by Eve. They both fell from innocence, and consequently from happiness, but not from equality.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Men, Wife, Guilt

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.6

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• One of the duties which devolve upon women in the present interesting crisis, is to prepare themselves for more extensive usefulness, by making use of those religious and literary privileges and advantages that are within their reach, if they will only stretch out their hands and possess them.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Religious, Hands, Interesting

  Sarah Moore Grimké, Mary S. Parker (1838). “Letters on the equality of the sexes, and the condition of woman: Addressed to Mary S. Parker”, p.121

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• There is another way in which the general opinion, that women are inferior to men, is manifested....I allude to the disproportionate value set on the time and labor of men and women.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Time, Men, Way

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• I do deeply deplore, of the sake of the cause, the prevalent notion, that the clergy must be had, either by persuasion or by bribery. They will not need persuasion or bribery, if their hearts are with us; if they are not, we are better without them. It is idle to suppose that the kingdom of heaven cannot come on earth, without their cooperation.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Heart, Heaven, Feminism

  "Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman" by Sarah Moore Grimke, Letter 15 (October 20, 1837), 1837.

  14 Copy quote

• Fashionable women regard themselves, and are regarded by men, as pretty toys or as mere instruments of pleasure; and the vacuity of mind, the heartlessness, the frivolity which is the necessary result of this false and debasing estimate of women, can only be fully understood by those who have mingled in the folly and wickedness of fashionable life.

  Sarah Moore Grimke

  Heart, Men, Mind

  "Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman" by Sarah Moore Grimke, Letter 8, 1837.

  4 Copy quote

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