January 11, 1861 (Friday)

Failure is impossible----Susan B. Anthony

"Susan B. Anthony was born February 15, 1820 in Adams, Massachusetts.  She was brought up in a Quaker family with long activist traditions.  Early in her life she developed a sense of justice and moral zeal. 

After moving to Rochester, New York in 1845 her family was active in the anti-slavery movement.  Anti-slavery Quakers met at their farm almost every Sunday, where they were sometimes joined by Frederick Douglass and William Lloyd Garrison.  In 1856 Anthony became an agent for the American Anti-Slavery Society, arranging meetings, making speeches, putting up posters, and distributing leaflets.  She encountered hostile mobs, armed threats, and things thrown at her.  She was hung in effigy and her image dragged through the streets in Syracuse.  (Susan B. Anthony House)

In 1863 Anthony and Straton organized a Women's National Loyal League to support and petition for the Thirteenth Amendment outlawing slavery.  They went on to campaign for Black and women's full citizenship, including the right to vote. (Susan B. Anthony House)

The following are some quotes from Susan B. Anthony:

"Failure is impossible." (She suggested that intelligence and energy persistently applied really do mean "failure is impossible.")

"I beg you to speak of Woman as you do of the Negro, speak of her as a human being, as a citizen of the United States, as a half of the people in whose hands lies the destiny of this Nation."

"I don't want to die as long as I can work; the minute I can not, I want to go."

"Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."

"I think the girl who is able to earn her own living and pay her own way should be as happy as anybody on earth.  The sense of independence and security is very sweet."

"Independence is happiness."  (Susan B. Anthony, Brainy Quote)

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"It was we, the people; not we, the white male citizens; nor yet we, the male citizens; but we, the whole people, who formed the Union...."

"Sooner or later we all discover that the important moments in life are not the advertised ones, not the birthdays, the graduations, the weddings, not the great goals achieved.  The real milestones are less prepossessing.  They come to the door of memory unannounced, stray dogs that amble in, sniff around a bit and simply never leave.  Our lives are measured by these."

"Bicycling has done more to emancipate women than any one thing in the world.  It gives her a feeling of self-reliance and independence the moment she takes her seat; and away she goes, the picture of untrammelled womanhood."
(Susan B. Anthony, About.com.quotations)

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"I declare to you that woman must not depend upon the protection of man, but must be taught to protect herself, and there I take my stand." (Susan B. Anthony, Thinkexist.com)