Marion Kirkland Reid

“Angela Cran; David Robertson (eds.), Dictionary of Scottish Quotations (Mainstream Publishing, 1996), p. 280”

“... 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.”

“... 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.”

“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.”

“... 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?”

“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.”

“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.”

“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 ...”