“When, in any ethical department, unity is attained between outer demands and inner desires, between nature and conscience, between the needs of society and the individual, the moral formula is void because inner necessity then makes it psychically and physically impossible to break the outer law. Thus, true morality is attained.”

Swedish writer and social thinker

Ellen Key was a Swedish writer and social thinker associated with the Modern Breakthrough movement. She lived from 1849 to 1926 and wrote on family life, ethics, education, and women's rights. She is especially remembered as an early advocate of child-centered education and parenting. Her work also placed her among the women’s suffrage advocates of her time, and her writing often returned to questions of home, moral life, and how society should shape the next generation.