Pankhurst Emmeline Quotes

#1. It is obvious to you that the struggle will be an unequal one, but I shall make it - I shall make it as long as I have an ounce of strength left in me, or any life left in me. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#2. Solitary confinement is too terrible a punishment to inflict on any human being, no matter what his crime. Hardened criminals in the men's prisons, it is said, often beg for the lash instead. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#3. We are here, not because we are law-breakers; we are here in our efforts to become law-makers. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#4. The way to reform has always led through prison. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#5. My parents, especially my father, discussed the question of my brothers' education as a matter of real importance. My education and that of my sister were scarcely discussed at all. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#6. Men make the moral code and they expect women to accept it. They have decided that it is entirely right and proper for men to fight for their liberties and their rights, but that it is not right and proper for women to fight for theirs. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#7. Window-breaking, when Englishmen do it, is regarded as honest expression of political opinion. Window-breaking, when Englishwomen do it, is treated as a crime. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#8. A defiant deed has greater value than unnumerable thousands of words ... #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#9. We have to free half of the human race, the women, so that they can help free the other half. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#10. We woman suffragists have a great mission - the greatest mission the world has ever known. It is to free half the human race, and through that freedom to save the rest. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#11. Every man with a vote was considered a foe to woman suffrage unless he was prepared to be actively a friend. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#12. You have to make more noise than anybody else, you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else, you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else, in fact you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, if you are really going to get your reform realized. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#13. What is the use of fighting for the vote if we do not have a country to vote in? With that patriotism that has nerved women to endure torture in prison for the national good, we ardently desire that our country shall be victorious. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#14. The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched the world with blood. The militancy of women has harmed no human life save the lives of those who fought the battle of righteousness. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#15. I had to get a close-hand view of the misery and unhappiness of a man made world, before I reached the point where I could successfully revolt against it. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#16. Governments have always tried to crush reform movements, to destroy ideas, to kill the thing that cannot die. Without regard to history, which shows that no Government have ever succeeded in doing this, they go on trying in the old, senseless way. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#17. How different the reasoning is that men adopt when they are discussing the cases of men and those of women. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#18. Our sons and daughters must be trained in national service, taught to give as well as to receive. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#19. There is something that Governments care for far more than human life, and that is the security of property, and so it is through property that we shall strike the enemy. Be militant each in your own way. I incite this meeting to rebellion. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#20. I have made speeches urging women to adopt methods of rebellion such as have been adopted by men in every revolution. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#21. I want to say right here, that those well-meaning friends on the outside who say that we have suffered these horrors of prison, of hunger strikes and forcible feeding, because we desired to martyrise ourselves for the cause, are absolutely and entirely mistaken. We never went to prison in order to be martyrs. We went there in order that we might obtain the rights of citizenship. We were willing to break laws that we might force men to give us the right to make laws. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#22. What is the use of fighting for a vote if we have not got a country to vote in? #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#23. Not by the forces of civil war can you govern the very weakest woman. You can kill that woman, but she escapes you then; you cannot govern her. No power on earth can govern a human being, however feeble, who withholds his or her consent. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#24. The Government must not think that they can stop this agitation. It will go on ... We are here not because we are law-breakers; we are here in out efforts to become law-makers. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#25. The English prison system is altogether mediaeval and outworn. In some of its details, the system has improved since they began to send the Suffragettes to Holloway. I may say that we, by our public denunciation of the system, have forced these slight improvements. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#26. Better that we should die fighting than be outraged and dishonored ... Better to die than to live in slavery. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#27. Justice and judgment lie often a world apart. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#28. Women had always fought for men, and for their children. Now they were ready to fight for their own human rights. Our militant movement was established. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#29. I incite this meeting to rebellion. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#30. The whole argument with the anti-suffragists, or even the critical suffragist man, is this: that you can govern human beings without their consent. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#31. The moving spirit of militancy is deep and abiding reverence for human life. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#32. As long as women consent to be unjustly governed, they will be; but directly women say: "We withhold our consent," we will not be governed any longer as long as government is unjust. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#33. I thought I had been a suffragist before I became a Poor Law Guardian, but now I began to think about the vote in women's hands not only as a right but as a desperate necessity. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#34. From infancy, I had been accustomed to hear pro and con discussions of slavery and the American Civil War. Although the British government finally decided not to recognise the Confederacy, public opinion in England was sharply divided on the questions both of slavery and of secession. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#35. The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#36. Once they are aroused, once they are determined, nothing on earth and nothing in heaven will make women give way; it is impossible. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#37. One baby is a patient baby, and waits indefinitely until its mother is ready to feed it. The other baby is an impatient baby and cries lustily, screams and kicks and makes everybody unpleasant until it is fed. Well, we know perfectly well which baby is attended to first. That is the whole history of politics. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#38. I would rather be a rebel than a slave. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#39. [To the heckler who said, 'If you were my wife I'd poison you':] No, you wouldn't. I'd do it myself. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#40. One does not expect to be comfortable in prison. As a matter of fact, one's mental suffering is so much greater than any common physical distress that the latter is almost forgotten. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#41. It always seems to me when the anti-suffrage members of the Government criticize militancy in women that it is very like beasts of prey reproaching gentler animals who turn in desperate resistance when at the point of death. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#42. When you have warfare, things happen; people suffer; the noncombatants suffer as well as the combatants. And so it happens in civil war. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#43. I was fourteen years old when I went to my first suffrage meeting. Returning from school one day, I met my mother just setting out for the meeting, and I begged her to let me go along. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#44. I suppose I had always been an unconscious suffragist. With my temperament and my surroundings, I could scarcely have been otherwise. #Quote by Emmeline Pankhurst

#45. [On Venice:] A wondrous city of fairest carving, reflected in gleaming waters swirled to new patterning by every passing gondola. #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst

#46. Thistle House is for people who love and care for one another. We respect one another in this house, Emmeline. We carry one another's burdens. We weep for one another and we laugh with one another. We hold one another by the hand when the lights go out and when the way seems hopeless. We work together and we share the table together and we pray together. No matter how old we are or what we are called. #Quote by Susan Meissner

#47. It has been claimed that the aim of the present war is to end war. But war cannot end war, neither can militarism destroy militarism. #Quote by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence

#48. A change of heart is the essence of all other change, and it has brought about me a reeducation of the mind. #Quote by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence

#49. The profound divergences of opinion on war and peace had been shown to know no sex. #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst

#50. I pushed my pile of papers to one side, stroked Shadow and stared into the fire, longing for the comfort of a story where everything had been planned well in advance, where the confusion of the middle was invented only for my enjoyment, and where I could measure how far away the solution was by feeling the thickness of pages still to come. I had no idea how many pages it would take to complete the story of Emmeline and Adeline, nor even whether there would be time to complete it. #Quote by Diane Setterfield

#51. We do not make beams from the hollow, decaying trunk of the fallen oak. We use the upsoaring tree in the full vigor of its sap. #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst

#52. I believe in women, especially thinking women. #Quote by Emmeline B. Wells

#53. The emancipation of today displays itself mainly in cigarettes and shorts ... painted lips and nails, and the return of trailing skirts and other absurdities of dress which betoken the slave-woman's intelligent companionship. #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst

#54. It is our duty to make this world a better place for women. #Quote by Christabel Pankhurst

#55. The words Socialism and Communism have the same meaning. They indicate a condition of society in which the wealth of the community: the land and the means of production, distribution and transport are held in common, production being for use and not for profit. #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst

#56. {She] laughed so that the street seemed full of little silver bells, #Quote by Tom Holt

#57. None but mothers know each other's feelings when we give up our daughters whom we love and cherish so tenderly to the mercies of a man, and perhaps even a stranger. #Quote by Emmeline B. Wells

#58. There were some Labourists saying that other things must be dealt with before women got the vote. It was humanly natural that they, as men, should say so. Our business as women was to recognize this and act accordingly. #Quote by Christabel Pankhurst

#59. People are led to reason thus: a woman who is a wife is one who has made a permanent sex bargain for her maintenance; the woman who is not married must therefore make a temporary bargain of the same kind. #Quote by Christabel Pankhurst

#60. My conduct in the Free Trade Hall and outside was meant as a protest against the legal position of women today. We cannot make any orderly protest because we have not the means whereby citizens may do such a thing; we have not a vote; and so long as we have not votes we must be disorderly. There is no other way whereby we can put forward our claims to political justice. When we have that you will not see us at the police courts; but so long as we have not votes this will happen. #Quote by Christabel Pankhurst

#61. We started getting hungry again, and some of the women started chanting, "MEAT, MEAT, MEAT!"
We were having steak tartare. It was the only appropriate main course we could think of, for such a graceless theme, and seeing as nobody in the club was confident making it, we had to order it in. I made chips to serve with it, though. I deep-fried them in beef fat.
The steak was served in little roulades, raw and minced, like horsemeat. It was topped with a raw egg yolk, chopped onions, pickled beetroot, and capers. I had wanted to use the Wisconsin version, which is served on cocktail bread and dubbed "cannibal sandwich," but Stevie insisted we go classic. Not everyone could stomach theirs with the raw egg yolk, too, and so, unusually for a Supper Club, there was quite a lot left over.
We took another break to drink and move about the room. Some of us took MDMA. Emmeline had brought a box of French macarons, tiny pastel-colored things, which we threw over the table, trying to get them into one another's mouth, invariably missing.
For our proper dessert, we had a crepe cake: a stack of pancakes bound together with melted chocolate. We ate it with homemade ice cream, which was becoming a real staple. #Quote by Lara Williams

#62. This could ruin all of Emmaline's plans. She could not have [the girl] fall for a farmer, especially one that couldn't afford a decent hat. #Quote by Sarah Holman

#63. I know we will create a society where there are no rich or poor, no people without work or beauty in their lives, where money itself will disappear, where we shall all be brothers and sisters, where every one will have enough. #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst

#64. Never lose your temper with the Press or the public is a major rule of political life. #Quote by Christabel Pankhurst

#65. If you are ever angry at him, threaten to do something to one of his books, as calling him Fred does nothing. #Quote by Sarah Holman

#66. Emmeline didn't call me anything. She didn't need, for I was always there. You only need names for the absent. #Quote by Diane Setterfield

#67. My belief in the growth and permanence of democracy is undimmed. I know that the people will cast off the new dictatorship as they did the old. I believe as firmly as in my youth that humanity will surmount the era of poverty and war. Life will be happier and more beautiful for all. I believe in the GOLDEN AGE. #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst

#68. O help me Father in heaven to overcome and resist temptation in every form or shape. #Quote by Emmeline B. Wells

#69. There are only two forces that can withstand the force of the war's spirit when it seizes upon the world. The one is the force of an independently thinking, free, and articulate democracy. The other is the force of an instructed and enlightened public opinion. #Quote by Emmeline Pethick-Lawrence, Baroness Pethick-Lawrence

#70. I am going to fight capitalism even if it kills me. It is wrong that people like you should be comfortable and well fed while all around you people are starving. #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst

#71. Emmeline Adel.
...
"Ivy, you need to look at this."
...
Our mother? At Rookwood? #Quote by Sophie Cleverly

#72. After all, she understood people so well, as well as Fredrick understood his library. #Quote by Sarah Holman

#73. Remember the dignity of your womanhood. Do not appeal, do not beg, do not grovel. Take courage, join hands, stand besides us, fight with us. #Quote by Christabel Pankhurst

#74. I realised I can't shut myself away or - crack up. Sirius wouldn't have wanted that, would he? And anyway, life's too short... look at Madam Bones, looks at Emmeline Vance... it could be me next, couldn't it? But if it is," he said fiercely, now looking straight into Dumbledore's blue eyes, gleaming in the wand-light, "I'll make sure I take as many Death Eaters with me as I can, and Voldemort too if I manage it."
"Spoken both like your mother and father's son and Sirius's true god-son!" said Dumbledore with an approving pat on Harry's back. #Quote by J.K. Rowling

#75. O, if my husband could only love me even a little and not seem to be perfectly indifferent to any sensation of that kind ... O my poor aching heart when shall it rest its burden only on the Lord. #Quote by Emmeline B. Wells

#76. My mind shrank from the menace sweeping down on us, as children's do from belief in death and misfortune, vainly clinging to the fancy that great disasters only happen to other people. #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst

#77. Love and freedom are vital to the creation and upbringing of a child. #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst

#78. The fact that [English] has shed most of the old grammatical forms which time has rendered useless and scarcely intelligible, has made English a model, pointing the way which must be followed in building the Interlanguage ... #Quote by Sylvia Pankhurst