Women Born In The 19th Century

"Known for her courage and sense of humor, she broke ground for women in Northwest and national politics."

"As the first woman elected to this position, she served as an inspiring example for other women aspiring to enter politics. Her presence in the legislature allowed her to directly influence laws that benefitted women and children while advancing the overall cause of suffrage within the state, which ultimately helped pave the way for broader acceptance of women in political roles."

"Alimotu initiated that market women reduce the prices of goods sold in the markets to support the striking workers"

"She also strongly protested a market price control plan, named the Pullen scheme popularly after a British officer, Captain A.P. Pullen, who initiated and directed it"

"I am she who is called Pelewura…. . I will not starve in the country I was born in."

"She rose to more prominence in 1910 when she became a titled chief by the order and conferment of the Oba of Lagos, Eshugbayi Eleko"

"she led protests against taxation and price control, issues she strongly believed would negatively impact the livelihood of women."

"An active member of the Barbados Women's Alliance, she also advocated for amendments to the Bastardy Act, equal opportunities in girls' education, and adequate training in family planning."

"She also was vocal about the need to provide teaching on African heritage."

"She is remembered as a pioneer and "trailblazer" in the struggle for women's rights in the country."

"Searching, I roamed the world—to arrive at the origin—at beauty—at truth—away from the lies of everyday—and my longing was burning hot—then the darkness opened up and I stood at the source of the Beginning—Paradise."

"Verification of the art must still be done, but from a layman's view it appears to be the same pieces that were taken in Pretoria."

"Irma Stern travelled frequently between South Africa and Germany as a child and this pattern continued into her adult life. During the 1920s, ’30s and ’40s, she exhibited throughout Europe and was both known and respected there than in South Africa, where the reception of her work was overwhelmingly negative."

"Her heavily-laden brush deposits swathes of colour and a tracery of mark that evokes at times the sweep and syncopation of Islamic calligraphy. The calligraphy that she encountered in the carved cartouches of the lintels of Zanzibari doors and the Islamic manuscripts which she collected, armed and liberated her mark-making. The boldness of her impasto brushwork results in a tangible embodiment of her sitters and their contexts, such that her decision to frame the works using fragments of Zanzibari doors feels completely in keeping."

"Faith is the subtle chain, Which binds us to the Infinite: the voice Of a deep life within, that will remain Until we crowd it thence."

"White-winged angels meet the child On the vestibule of life, And they offer to his lips All that cup of mingled strife."

"My friends, do we realize for what purpose we are convened? Do we fully understand that we aim at nothing less than an entire subversion of the present order of society, a dissolution of the whole existing compact? Do we see that it is not an error of today, nor of yesterday against which we are lifting up the voice of dissent but that it is against the ... error of all times — error borne onward from the footprints of the first pair ejected from Paradise, down to our own time? ... Bitterness is the child of wrong; if any of our number has become embittered ... it is because social wrong has so penetrated to the inner life that we are crucified today."

"How beautiful the water is! To me 'tis wondrous fair— No spot can ever lonely be If water sparkle there— It hath a thousand tongues of mirth, Of grandeur, or delight; And every heart is gladder made When water greets the sight."

"'Tis the summer prime, when the noiseless air In perfumed chalice lies, And the bee goes by with a lazy hum Beneath the sleeping skies."

"Yes, this is Life; and everywhere we meet, Not victor crowns, but wailings of defeat."

"'Tis rushing now adown the spout And gushing out below, Half frantic in its joyousness, And wild in eager flow. The earth is dried and parch’d with heat, And it hath longed to be Released from out the selfish cloud, To cool the thirsty tree."

"The measure of capacity is the measure of sphere for either man or woman."

"How few women have any history after the age of thirty!"

"The tender violet bent in smiles To elves that sported nigh, Tossing the drops of fragrant dew To scent the evening sky."

"... People still talk of Gertrude Kingston's as a piece of acting to treasure in the memory; and readers of who considered it contained a too great monotony of sorrow to be effective on the stage, found themselves, to their astonishment, almost unendurably moved."

"... for sheer beauty, the , to my mind, between and , are infinitely more exquisite, with alternating well-watered s and and in the distance, than any part of ."

"There are two sides to every question. There are two sides to every —what is termed the ' back ' and the ' front of the house,' or more generally known as ' before and behind the footlights '—and if of late years both sides of the curtain have been made familiar to the public gaze, it is not because it is the fashion to court observation, but on account of a passionate national curiosity to know the truth."

"I am busy and new patients turning up. I am satisfied there is a corner for me to fill. I have spent part of this evening fitting a truss on a young girl. It was dangerous for her going without but she never would have allowed a man to do it. I have had two gentlemen patients today and I am getting more of them. I shall not refuse any without good cause. I am also getting more black patients. They feel, I think, that I treat them like human beings and not niggers as the term is here."

"I give a lecture in May for the same Society as last year. I have refused all the other Societies. It will be a sequel to the one I gave last year and the title “The Higher Education of Women. Its duties and responsibilities”. I have not begun it yet but I am in a thinking mood at present so hope to evolve something."

"My letter has got to be longer than I intended. One puzzle here is, where the bounce has gone to of our Dutch brethren, they are very docile at present. Sir Hercules has got a well deserved slap in the face and MacKenzie is to the front again. Noble is greatly pleased for he has been a very loyal friend to MacKenzie and has steadily backed him."

"I have been doing very little writing for the last two or three months simply through press of engrossing work. Many confinements and other very anxious and worrying work taking it out of me in every sense of the word and sending me home so tired at night that the sight of pens and paper was enough. Sunday work was the rule and sometimes all Sunday. This is the first real Sunday rest have had for a long time and so I am writing a few letters. I have been thirty years now here and have gained a lot of experience in every way and yet I feel if I knew nothing. I am engaged already for a number of confinements next year. What a wonderful difference the antiseptic method makes in a confinement. My patients are delighted with the sweetness of their rooms and if absence of fever, even of milk fever. To do it perfectly takes any amount carbolic wool and gauze, Iodoform pessaries, Quinine and Condy. But if purity and sweetness of the patient, bed and room are worth it all. I never syringe now. It does not always do and with the present method is not needed."

"It is a pity you do not get the Cape Times. I like it better than the Argus although in many things not agreeing with it. The Times gave full reports of the Synod, far better ones than the Argus and one longed for one of our old Scotch heroes to stand up and lash them with his tongue. For an elder to stand up an say that total Abstinence was the work of the Prince of Darkness and for others to wish that no member with the blue ribbon on should get the sacrament, a to please the wine farmers, made one think that the Devil himself must be inspiring the deliberations. What hope for the country when such is the highest spiritual teaching."

"... the pony was not forgetful, yet ever and anon a touch of his owner's whip came to remind him, and the fellow's little body fairly wriggled from side to side in his efforts to get on. "I wish you wouldn't whip him so!" said Daisy, "he's doing as well as he can." "What do girls know about driving!" was the retort from the small piece of masculine science beside her."

"My dear little daughter," said he, "you cannot be so glad to come back as my arms and my heart will be to receive you."

"They stopped next at a bookstore. "Oh, what a delicious smell of new books!" said Ellen, as they entered. "Mamma, if it wasn't for one thing, I should say I never was so happy in my life.""

"... the influence of woman — where any freedom of social intercourse is allowed between the sexes — is highly favourable to civilisation. She advances refinement and civilisation, and is, in turn, advanced by them."

"... are puddings and pies, roasting and boiling, dusting and washing, or even the rearing and educating her children, so entirely to engross her attention, that her heart and mind can never expand beyond her own little domestic circle? Nay, if her mind never does so expand, will she be able properly to regulate the concerns even of that little circle?"

"The grand plea for woman sharing with man all the advantages of education is, that every rational being is worthy of cultivation, for his or her own individual sake. The first object in the education of every mind ought to be its own development."

"No pure and noble-minded woman can long love affectionately, and submit passively to, a vicious and dissipated, — or even to a good and virtuous tyrant, — without having her own mind greatly deteriorated."

"To leave the liberty of one-half of the human race at the mercy of the convenience of the other, amounts to an annihilation of the rights of that half."

"We shall be disposed to acknowledge that woman's influence has been sufficient to obtain her justice, when it has obtained for her ... perfectly just and equal rights with the other sex. When this is the case, we shall expect to see each woman wakened up into a sense of her individual responsibilities and duties: finding herself no longer classed with children and idiots, we may reasonably expect to see her rousing herself up, and applying, with renewed energy, to all her duties ..."

"... if we take politics in the large and high sense in which it stands for patriotism and philanthropy, the assertion that an interest in it is out of place in the breast of the very gentlest of her sex, — in other words, that it is improper and unbecoming in a woman to take a deep interest in the affairs of her country and of humanity, — is made with more boldness and confidence, than regard to reason and truth."

"She was a gentlewoman, a scholar, and a saint, and after having been three times married, she took a vow of celibacy. What more could be expected of any woman?"

"Hot on Sunday, Cold on Monday, Hashed on Tuesday, Minced on Wednesday, Curried Thursday, Broth on Friday, Cottage pie Saturday."

"’Twixt the optimist and pessimist The difference is droll: The optimist sees the doughnut But the pessimist sees the hole."

"If all the good people were clever, And all clever people were good, The world would be nicer than ever We thought that it possibly could.But somehow, ’tis seldom or never The two hit it off as they should; The good are so harsh to the clever, The clever so rude to the good!"

"When a tree takes a notion to grow in California nothing in heaven or on earth will stop it."

"The family—that dear octopus from whose tentacles we never quite escape."

"[E]xtreme happiness invites religion almost as much as extreme misery."

"Whatever women do they must do twice as well as men to be thought half as good. Luckily, this is not difficult."