"I became possessed with an irresistible desire to go forth and find some pain keener than my own — to meet with people more unhappy than myself (for I knew there were thousands of such). I did not exaggerate my own trial; I only knew that my heart ached night and day, and that the only solace possible would seem to be to find other hearts which ached night and day, and with more reason than mine. I had no clear idea beyond that, no plan for helping others; my sole wish was to plunge into the heart of some human misery, and to say (as I now knew I could) to afflicted people, "I understand. I, too, have suffered.""
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Social activistsWomen authors from EnglandWomen's rights activistsFeminists from EnglandWomen activists
Original Language: English
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Butler on her reason for getting involved in controversial social campaigns after the accidental death of her young daughter in 1864 (1890)
https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Josephine_Butler
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Josephine Butler
Josephine Elizabeth Butler (nee Grey; 13 April 1828 – 30 December 1906) was an English feminist and social reformer in the Victorian era. She campaigned for women's suffrage, the right of women to better education, the end of coverture in British law, the abolition of child prostitution, and an end to human trafficking of young women and children into European prostitution.
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