Women Activists From The United Kingdom

"The sentiment that spares the sheep and the deer will not sacrifice men."

"The savage is not a sportsman, hunting is his business, not his amusement; his excuse is, that he acts from necessity."

"The passion for 'sport,' the killing and wounding industries, is no other than a relic of the past struggle for existence, destined to be regarded with horror under higher and happier civilization."

"As is the language, so is the idea."

"Only the worshippers of the old world creed based on the maxim that 'might is right' could attempt to justify their position."

"Man by nature is not a carnivorous but a frugivorous animal, and … a diet composed of fruits, pulses, grains and nuts contains all that is necessary for the maintenance of Force and Caloric."

"Strange as it is, in this age of so-called humanity and enlightenment, that society, when brought face to face with the grave accusation of indifference to life, to the terrible wrongs inflicted on the harmless non-human races, is yet content to go on as before; it does not trouble itself in the slightest degree to stop the barbarisms and frightful sufferings inflicted upon what it is pleased to term 'the brutes' and 'the beasts;' it does not concern itself to enquire into the unquestionable atrocities practised in the rearing, transport and slaughter of the countless thousands of harmless victims who are daily sacrificed for the pleasures of the palate."

"Man at present has no just claim to regard himself as the worthy Head of the animal world."

"Picturing to yourselves all that is meant by the slaughter-house… I ask you if it is possible to reconcile the idea of it… with the idea of progress, of refinement, and of gentleness (or humanity)? In my opinion they are irreconcileable."

"If we judge from the construction of the human body, the natural food of man is not flesh-meat, but fruits, roots, cereals, and vegetables; that, in a word, man is not carnivorous, but frugivorous."

"The immense work which is executed by oxen, horses, mules, elephants, and camels, is convincing proof of the strength-giving properties of vegetable food."

"Vegetable substances contain all the elements necessary for the nourishment of man, and for the production of force and caloric."

"There are in London at this time thirty Vegetarian Restaurants, all doing a very good business; this will give you an idea of the hold which food reform already has in our country."

"If, instead of being fed upon flesh food, a savage dog is given bread and vegetables, in a short space of time he becomes a changed being, gentle and docile."

"Through her behind the scenes work and steady influence Alice Drakoules was seen as a 'spiritual mother' of the humanitarian movement"

"The emancipation of woman should be accompanied by hostility towards deeds of violence, and by the spread of the instinct of pity and mercy. Let women discountenance every act of cruelty under whatever disguise, or upon whatever pretence, and it will become impossible, or at all events much rarer than now."

"I got to know all the headmistresses you see and nearly all of them suffragists."

"They chose me to go to Wales because Wales had been difficult when they had tried other people."

"I had a lovely time in Wales speaking and building up their branches."

"During that early period, when suffragette tactics consisted of trying to reach the House of Commons, and in the first arrests when speaking in the lobby, my sister Anne was the first Scotswoman arrested. She had gone to London a day or two before. Called by my father to come downstairs, I found him with the Glasgow Herald open before him with a banner headline in the centre page: “Glasgow Councillor’s daughter arrested”. He said, “did you know about this.” I replied, “I knew she was going to a meeting but I did not know anything else. He looked at me under his brows in the way we regarded as serious and I oozed out of the room. He came home in the evening quite reconciled to it, and when Anne came home after fourteen cold days in Holloway Prison he took her to a municipal reception saying to her, “Put on your prettiest dress and come with me.” She looked charming and he introduced her all round as “My prisoner daughter”."

"The most intelligent women, it got the women that were leaders."

"They were swooped into the movement so that Wales had a very representative group of women."

"It was massive that the crowd agreed with us because it was against the church. You just knew it resonated with women who thought "I needn’t get pregnant"."

"Her passion and wrath was not scattergun – it had a laser-like focus on calling out inequality and injustice. She suffered no fools but had a kindness and warmth for many."

"We were touching a raw nerve. Women in Ireland wanted contraception. I mean, six children on average. Or maybe more."

"It was never a condom train. We were never going to give control of our sexuality to men."

"As one of the women who took the train in 1971, she set in train an unstoppable wave for equality and a changing of Ireland for the better. That change has not yet reached its conclusion but it would be nowhere if it wasn't for warriors like Nell. In an Ireland trying to emerge from the shadows and find who it was, Nell McCafferty was one of the people who knew exactly who she was and wasn't afraid to enter every battle for gay and women's rights. We all owe her a great debt for this. Nell McCafferty left Ireland a much better place than she found it and she played her part with spirit and style."

"We had suffered enough - 30 years. It was a huge challenge. There was something in it for everyone, but there was pain in it for everyone."

"Leadership needs to have a good value set and it needs to recognize the humanity in the other person; it needs to be pragmatic, but over the years I've discovered chemistry, the personality and if the personalities can work together on opposite sides then you've got the real ingredients of making the proposals work."

"And If you're trying to cut me down You know that I might bleed 'Cause if you're trying to cut me down I know that you'll succeed And if you want to hurt me There's nothing left to fear 'Cause if you want to hurt me You're doing really well my dear"

"We all fight over what the label 'feminism' means but for me it's about empowerment. It's not about being more powerful than men - it's about having equal rights with protection, support, justice. It's about very basic things. It's not a badge like a fashion item."

"I understand what it is for a woman to want to protect their children and give them the best they can."

"Historically, the image of women in pop music has been so totally ornamental - sexual, but predictably so. It's hard to tell how far women's individuality has come in the past twenty years. Certainly, if you look at the pop charts as a measuring stick, you'd think it hasn't come far at all. But women do feel less like victims now than they did twenty years ago. At heart I'm a feminist, but I'm also a feminist for men. Men should be liberated from the roles that are foisted on them also."

"I may be mad I may be blind I may be viciously unkind But I can still read what you're thinking. And I've heard it said too many times That you'd be better off Besides, why can't you see this boat is sinking?"

"It is the woman herself that matters rather than her covering."

"I have arranged the poems by women in a separate section, irrespective of whether British or American; not in any sense of sexual rivalry, but merely from a natural desire to give them prominence and to show that despite their lack of opportunity, women feel all the poetry of flight and are fully alive to all that progress in aviation means to the world."

"The Leeds Mercury has always taken a pride in stating fairly all points of view in public life."

"I do not advocate neglecting your parents: honour and succour them, especially in their old age, but don’t stay at home and do housework when you long, body and soul, to fly to the uttermost ends of the earth, there to find your mission in life and your gift to the world."

"...the Ilios problem isn't going away; the British government must recognize our suffering..."

"I left (British Indian Ocean Territory) in 1967. My husband was ill and we had taken him to Mauritius for treatment. When we were ready to return, (Mauritian) officials said they had instructions not to let us go back. They told us Diego (Garcia) had been sold. They tried to starve us. There was no milk, no oil, no salt."

"We were just women; there were no men at all in those days. When we did demonstrations, the police beat the men... so we decided to use a majority of women and a minority of men."

"It’s no a compensation for the Chagossians. It’s not even a British person’s pay for one month."

"We're a small people. We have no arms to make war with the British government, nor with the Mauritian government. We didn't know if the money was a lot, or if it was a little. Me, I say that the Mauritian government and the British government looked after their own interests."

"I like England, I'll stay here ... I've seen how the Government helps old people and those with children, although those who don't speak English don't get work. In Mauritius, even if you work ... it's not enough to save, whereas here people who work can save quickly."

"My heart is full of sorrow/ See my child growing up/ See the children growing up/ Without knowing their mother’s native country"

"...through my travels in Russia during the height of the Cold War with a peace delegation, we were shocked by the poverty of the country, and questioned how we ever were led to believe that Russia was a force to be afraid of. We talked to the Russian students who were dismayed by their absolute poverty and showed anger against NATO for leading their country into an arms race that they could not win."

"In my opinion, an encyclical on nonviolence and disarmament from Pope Francis would give hope to us all and encourage us all to take up our responsibility to build a new culture of peace and nonviolence, not only in the Church and in Ireland, but throughout the whole world."

"Pope Francis’ two-day visit to Ireland on August 25-26th comes at a time when people need hope. The Irish Church has been devastated by the abuse scandals, which have never been properly dealt with."

"Unmaking this agenda of war and demanding the implementation of justice, human rights and international law is the work of the peace movement. We can turn our current path of destruction around by spelling out a clear vision of what kind of a world we want to live in, demanding an end to the military-industrial complex, and insisting that our governments adopt policies of peace, just economics and cooperation with each other in this multi-polar world."

"The whole of civilisation is now facing a challenge with the growth of what President Dwight Eisenhower (1953-1961) warned the U.S. people against – the military/industrial complex – saying that it would destroy U.S. democracy."