The Wisdom of Margaret Fuller
I am currently writing a biographical analysis of Margaret Fuller. For this analysis, I have to examine four books and state how the biographers use biography to tell her life without me actually telling her life story (or something like that lol)...actually the phrasing of the prompt is rather awkward. Anyways, I have been reading some magnificent quotes by this 19th century woman who was ahead of not only her time but our time as well:
"The diffusion of information is not necessarily the diffusion of knowledge,"..."the triumph over matter does not always or often lead to the triumph of Soul."
"A woman may learn all the ologies’ and still hold ‘no real power,’ as long as physical beauty was considered among only three professions: ‘marriage, mantua-making (needlework), ‘and school-keeping."
"Male and female represent the two sides of the great radical dualism. But in fact they are perpetually passing into one another. Fluid hardens to solid, solid rushes to fluid. There is no wholly masculine man, no purely feminine woman."
"It should be remarked that, as the principle of liberty is better understood, and more nobly interpreted, a broader protest is made in behalf of women. As men become aware that few have had a fair chance, they are inclined to say that no women have had a fair chance."
"Though the national independence be blurred by the servility of individuals; though freedom and equality have been proclaimed only to leave room for a monstrous display of slave-dealing and slave-keeping; though the free American so often feels himself free, like the Roman, only to pamper his appetites end his indolence through the misery of his fellow-beings; still it is not in vain that the verbal statement has been made, 'All men are BORN FREE AND EQUAL."
"All men are privately influenced by women; each has his wife, sister, or female friends, and is too much biased by these relations to fail of representing their interests."
"What Woman needs is not as a woman to act or rule, but as a nature to grow, as an intellect to discern, as a soul to live freely and unimpeded, to unfold such powers as were given her when we left our common home."
"Let us be wise, and not impede the soul. Let her work as she will. Let us have one creative energy, one incessant revelation. Let it take what form it will, and let us not bind it by the past to man or woman, black or white."