25 Lucretia Mott Quotes from a Civil Rights Pioneer

Ready about women who made a positive difference in these Lucretia Mott quotes!

Lucretia Mott was born in Nantucket, Massachusetts, in 1793 and died in Cheltenham, Pennsylvania, in 1880.

She was a Quaker, an abolitionist, a women’s rights activist, and a social reformer.

In 1840 Lucretia could not attend the World Anti-Slavery Convention in London, which led her to form the idea of reforming the position of women in society.

She later co-wrote the Declaration of Sentiments and continued her movements on reform until her death.

She had been a Quaker preacher in her early adulthood, and that speaking ability helped to turn her into a leader in the feminist and abolitionist movements.

Look at these Lucretia Mott Quotes to learn more about this leader in women’s rights.

Wise Lucretia Mott Quotes

Here are some wise quotes from Lucretia Mott.

1. “Truth for authority, not authority for truth.” — Lucretia Mott

2. “If our principles are right, why should we be cowards?” — Lucretia Mott

3. “A child, like all other human beings, has inalienable rights.” — Lucretia Mott

4. “Any great change must expect opposition because it shakes the very foundation of privilege.” — Lucretia Mott

5. “Let our lives be in accordance with our convictions of right, each striving to carry out our principles.” — Lucretia Mott

6. “Liberty is not less a blessing because oppression has so long darkened the mind that it can not appreciate it.” — Lucretia Mott

7. “I long for the day my sisters will rise and occupy the sphere to which they are called by their high nature and destiny.” — Lucretia Mott

8. “The world has never yet seen a truly great and virtuous nation because, in the degradation of women, the very fountains of life are poisoned at their source.” — Lucretia Mott

9. “Those who go forth ministering to the wants and necessities of their fellow beings experience a rich return, their souls being as a watered garden, and a spring that faileth not.” — Lucretia Mott

10. “Woman has so long been subject to the disabilities and restrictions with which her progress has been embarrassed that she has become enervated, her mind to some extent paralyzed; and like those still more degraded by personal bondage, she hugs her chains.” — Lucretia Mott

You will also enjoy our article on Dorothy Height quotes.

Thought-Provoking Lucretia Mott Quotes

These Lucretia Mott quotes are sure to get you thinking!

11. “The denial of our duty to act is a bold denial of our right to act.” — Lucretia Mott

12. “I want that there should be a belief, a faith in the possibility of removing mountains to the side of right.” — Lucretia Mott

13. “I want that we may all show our faith by our works, by our honesty and justice and mercy and love.” — Lucretia Mott

14. “If we believe that war is wrong, as everyone must, then we ought to believe that by proper efforts on our part, it may be done away with.” — Lucretia Mott

15. “Women’s property has been taxed, equally with that of men’s, to sustain colleges endowed by the states; but they have not been permitted to enter those high seminaries of learning.” — Lucretia Mott

16. “Learning, while at school, that the charge for the education of girls was the same as that for boys, and that, when they became teachers, women received only half as much as men for their services, the injustice of this distinction was so apparent.” — Lucretia Mott

17. “Let woman then go on not asking favors, but claiming as a right the removal of all hindrances to her elevation in the scale of being-let her receive encouragement for the proper cultivation of all her powers, so that she may enter profitably into the active business of life.” — Lucretia Mott

Lucretia Mott Quotes To Inspire You

These Lucretia Mott quotes will surely inspire you!

18. “These, then, are the evidences of progress.” — Lucretia Mott

19. “I know little, however, how to treat this part of the subject. I am glad, however, of the progress evident in this.” — Lucretia Mott

20. “I grew up so thoroughly imbued with women’s rights that it was the most important question of my life from a very early day.” — Lucretia Mott

21. “Her right to the elective franchise, however, is the same, and should be yielded to her, whether she exercises that right or not.” — Lucretia Mott

22. “Let them be faithful to their trust, so shall their work be blest, not only to the poor slave but to all those who are in way wronged and injured.” — Lucretia Mott

23. “Observe the progress in the labours of this reform, that both the pulpit and the press are enlisted to some extent in behalf of the suffering and the dumb.” — Lucretia Mott

24. “In this Convention in Philadelphia, the great principles of human freedom were uttered that every man had a right to his own body and that no man had a right to enslave or imbrute his brother, or to hold him for a moment as his property.” — Lucretia Mott

25. “Now we find the coloured people coming forth in intelligence, in moral worth, with increasing self-respect, and are respected by their white brothers; we see them stand side by side with those who have thus cruelly treated, oppressed, and trodden them down.” — Lucretia Mott

Lucretia Mott’s Personal Life

Lucretia attended a school run by Quakers at 13 years old, and she would later become a teacher and a preacher before her activism movement.

In 1811, she married James Mott, and they had six children.

All the children, except Thomas, who died at two years old, became active in the anti-slavery and other reform movements.

Please share these Lucretia Mott Quotes with your family and friends and post any comments about Lucretia in the comment section below.

And if you love reading about influential women in history, check out these Dorothea Dix quotes!