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Elizabeth Cady Stanton Quotes About Freedom

Browse 6 quotations connecting Elizabeth Cady Stanton with Freedom, with meanings, source notes and related themes.

Sources

Where these freedom quotations appear

Sources represented here include Solitude of Self, Eighty Years and More.

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Quotations

6 matching quotations with meanings and source context

Source identified1
The individual was primary; the State, the Church, society, the family, secondary.

“The individual was primary; the State, the Church, society, the family, secondary.”

The hierarchy places inherent personhood before social institutions, arguing that family, church, society, and government should serve rather than erase individual conscience and dignity.

Source details

Eighty Years and More (1898), Chapter XIV, “Views on Marriage and Divorce,” Project Gutenberg #11982. This sentence immediately follows Stanton’s individual-sovereignty claim inside her quoted April 1894 Arena article: she contrasts older state/family primacy with the Christian claim of individual conscience and judgment. The passage is historical reform argument, not modern constitutional or family-law doctrine.

Source identified2
The true standpoint from which to view this question is individual sovereignty, individual happiness.

“The true standpoint from which to view this question is individual sovereignty, individual happiness.”

Stanton makes the individual rather than an institution the starting point for judging intimate social arrangements, linking personal sovereignty with the pursuit of happiness.

Source details

Eighty Years and More (1898), Chapter XIV, “Views on Marriage and Divorce,” Project Gutenberg #11982. Stanton introduces the surrounding passage as “my latest thought on this question” from The Arena of April 1894, then argues that marriage and divorce should be judged from individual sovereignty and individual happiness. The 1898 memoir remains the represented source while the embedded 1894 article origin is preserved.

Source identified3
Her rights under such circumstances are to use all her faculties for her own safety and happiness.

“Her rights under such circumstances are to use all her faculties for her own safety and happiness.”

The sentence frames development of one’s capacities as a right tied to safety and happiness, not as a privilege granted only through dependence on another person.

Source details

Solitude of Self; Stanton uses an imagined solitary-island example to separate a woman’s individual rights from the incidental roles society may assign her.

Source identified4
The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is the individuality of each human soul.

“The point I wish plainly to bring before you on this occasion is the individuality of each human soul.”

Stanton begins from individual personhood before social roles, arguing that each human being has a distinct moral and civic existence that cannot be reduced to relationship status.

Source details

Solitude of Self, address delivered January 18, 1892; exact full-text witness reviewed on Wikisource. Stanton opens her central argument by shifting from familiar suffrage claims to 'the individuality of each human soul,' grounding political and educational equality in individual conscience, citizenship and responsibility rather than generic self-help.

Source identified5
It is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself.

“It is because of her birthright to self-sovereignty; because, as an individual, she must rely on herself.”

Self-sovereignty here is political and moral rather than merely motivational: Stanton argues that individual responsibility is a reason for equal rights, education, and freedom of action.

Source details

Solitude of Self; this clause occurs inside Stanton’s argument for education, civic voice, economic opportunity, and emancipation from enforced dependence.

Source identified6
The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right, to choose his own surroundings.

“The isolation of every human soul and the necessity of self-dependence must give each individual the right, to choose his own surroundings.”

Because each person ultimately bears an individual life, Stanton argues that self-dependence requires meaningful authority over the conditions in which that life is lived.

Source details

Solitude of Self, 1892 congressional address; punctuation follows a widely reproduced transcription of Stanton’s public-domain speech.

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