Sarah Grimke Quotes
Sarah Moore Grimke was an American abolitionist, philosopher, and one of the founding figures of nineteenth-century American feminist thought, the elder sister of Angelina Grimke and a Quaker convert from a slaveholding South Carolina family. Her Letters on the Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Woman of 1838, addressed in form to Mary S. The quotes below are attributed to Sarah Grimke, organized by topic.
Sarah Grimke on Freedom
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“I ask no favor for my sex; all I ask of our brethren is that they will take their feet from off our necks.”
Letter 2 (July 17, 1837).
Sarah Grimke on God
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“Had Adam tenderly reproved his wife, and endeavored to lead her to repentance instead of sharing in her guilt, I should be much more ready to accord to man that superiority which he claims; but as the facts stand disclosed by the sacred historian, it appears to me that to say the least, there was as much weakness exhibited by Adam as by Eve. They both fell from innocence, and consequently from happiness, but not from equality.”
Letter 1 (July 11, 1837).
Sarah Grimke on Happiness
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“At sixty I look back on a life of deep disappointments, of withered hopes, of unlooked for suffering, of severe discipline. Yet I have sometimes tasted exquisite joy and have found solace for many a woe in the innocence and earnest love of Theodore's children. But for this my life would have little to record of mundane pleasures.”
Letter to Harriot Hunt (1853), as quoted in The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Woman's [sic] Rights and Abolition , p. 241, by Gerda Lerner. Editorial Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0195106032 .
Sarah Grimke on Justice
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“Letter to Harriot Hunt (1853), as quoted in The Grimké Sisters from South Carolina: Pioneers for Woman's [sic] Rights and Abolition , p. 241, by Gerda Lerner. Editorial Oxford University Press, 1998. ISBN 0195106032 .”
At sixty I look back on a life of deep disappointments, of withered hopes, of unlooked for suffering, of severe discipline. Yet I have sometimes tasted exquisite joy and have found solace for many a woe in the innocence and earnest love of Theodore's children. But for this my life would have little to record of mundane pleasures. -
“Oh, had I received the education I desired, had I been bred to the profession of the law, I might have been a useful member of society, and instead of myself and my property being taken care of, I might have been a protector of the helpless, a pleader for the poor and unfortunate.”
As quoted in The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina , by Gerda Lerner , ch.5 (1969). -
“I am persuaded that the rights of woman, like the rights of slaves, need only be examined to be understood and asserted.”
Letter 3 (July 1837).
Sarah Grimke on Knowledge
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Attributed to Sarah Grimke:
“The denial of education to women is the secret of all the other denials they have suffered.”
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“As quoted in The Grimke Sisters from South Carolina , by Gerda Lerner , ch.5 (1969).”
Oh, had I received the education I desired, had I been bred to the profession of the law, I might have been a useful member of society, and instead of myself and my property being taken care of, I might have been a protector of the helpless, a pleader for the poor and unfortunate. -
“Letter 1 (July 11, 1837).”
Had Adam tenderly reproved his wife, and endeavored to lead her to repentance instead of sharing in her guilt, I should be much more ready to accord to man that superiority which he claims; but as the facts stand disclosed by the sacred historian, it appears to me that to say the least, there was as much weakness exhibited by Adam as by Eve. They both fell from innocence, and consequently from hap -
“Letter 2 (July 17, 1837).”
All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and -
“Letter 2 (July 17, 1837).”
I ask no favors for my sex. I surrender not our claim to equality. All I ask of our brethren is, that they will take their feet from off our necks, and permit us to stand upright on that ground which God designed us to occupy.
Sarah Grimke on Mind
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“All history attests that man has subjected woman to his will, used her as a means to promote his selfish gratification, to minister to his sensual pleasures, to be instrumental in promoting his comfort; but never has he desired to elevate her to that rank she was created to fill. He has done all he could to debase and enslave her mind; and now he looks triumphantly on the ruin he has wrought, and say, the being he has thus deeply injured is his inferior.”
Letter 2 (July 17, 1837).
Sarah Grimke on Politics
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Attributed to Sarah Grimke:
“The page of history teems with woman's wrongs; it is wet with woman's tears.”
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Attributed to Sarah Grimke:
“Slavery and the subordination of women are the same evil with two faces.”
Sarah Grimke on Virtue
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Attributed to Sarah Grimke:
“Whatever it is morally right for man to do, it is morally right for woman to do.”