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Elizabeth Cady Stanton Quotes About Self-Worth

Browse 10 quotations connecting Elizabeth Cady Stanton with Self-Worth, with meanings, source notes and related themes.

Sources

Where these self-worth quotations appear

Sources represented here include Solitude of Self, Eighty Years and More, The Woman's Bible.

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Quotations

10 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
Our inner being, which we call ourself, no eye nor touch of man or angel has ever pierced.

“Our inner being, which we call ourself, no eye nor touch of man or angel has ever pierced.”

The private interior of a person cannot be fully occupied by anyone else; Stanton uses that irreducible inwardness to ground responsibility, dignity, and the need for independent development.

Source details

Solitude of Self; Stanton’s concluding meditation on the “solitude of self” describes an inward domain inaccessible even to the people who love or protect us.

Source identified4
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 identified5
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 identified6
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 identified7
To guide our own craft, we must be captain, pilot, engineer; with chart and compass to stand at the wheel.

“To guide our own craft, we must be captain, pilot, engineer; with chart and compass to stand at the wheel.”

The voyage metaphor makes personal preparation unavoidable: support from others matters, but a person still needs judgment and capacity when circumstances require independent action.

Source details

Solitude of Self; Stanton develops an extended navigation metaphor to argue that every person must be equipped for the emergencies and decisions of an individual life.

Source identified8
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.

Source identified9
Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.

“Self-development is a higher duty than self-sacrifice.”

Stanton challenges a moral standard that praises women mainly for self-denial, arguing instead that developing one’s capacities is itself an important obligation.

Source details

The Woman’s Bible, Stanton commentary; the line appears in her critique of idealizing women’s self-sacrifice and is preserved in the Project Gutenberg text.

Source identified10
My first duty is to develop all the powers given to me and to make the most of myself and my own life.

“My first duty is to develop all the powers given to me and to make the most of myself and my own life.”

Voice: Imagined speaker · Jephthah’s daughter (imagined by Stanton)

The imagined speaker refuses to let another person dispose of her life, grounding dignity in the responsibility to develop her own capacities and possibilities.

Source details

The Woman's Bible, The Book of Judges, Chapter II, Judges xi, Project Gutenberg #9880. Stanton imagines Jephthah's unnamed daughter rejecting sacrifice: ‘My first duty is to develop all the powers given to me and to make the most of myself and my own life.’ This is Stanton's invented protest voice within her commentary, not a biblical quotation or speech preserved in Judges.

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