Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Lucretia Mott, fully Lucretia Coffin Mott

American Quaker, Abolitionist, Social Reformer and Proponent of Women's Rights

"Truth for authority, not authority for truth."

"The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation, because in the degradation of women, the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source."

"If our principles are right, why should we be cowards?"

"I have no idea of submitting tamely to injustice inflicted either on me or on the slave. I will oppose it with all the moral powers with which I am endowed. I am no advocate of passivity."

"Liberty is not less a blessing, because oppression has so long darkened the mind that it can not appreciate it."

"My conviction led me to adhere to the sufficiency of the light within us, resting on truth for authority, not on authority for truth."

"We too often bind ourselves by authorities rather than by the truth."

"In the true married relationship, the independence of husband and wife will be equal, their dependence mutual, and their obligations reciprocal."

"Learning, while at school, that the charge for the education of girls was the same as that for boys, and that, when they became teachers, women received only half as much as men for their services, the injustice of this distinction was so apparent."

"The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation because in the degradation of woman the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source."