Emmeline Pankhurst

Activist

1858-07-15 – 1928-06-14

Emmeline Pankhurst was a British political activist and leader in the campaign for women’s suffrage. She founded the Women’s Social and Political Union and became known for militant tactics in pursuit of voting rights. Her work helped secure full voting equality for British women in 1928.

Quotes by Emmeline Pankhurst

Every man with a vote was considered a foe to woman suffrage unless he was prepared to be actively a friend.
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It is obvious to you that the struggle will be an unequal one, but I shall make it - I shall make it as long as I have an ounce of strength left in me, or any life left in me.
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The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched the world with blood, and for these deeds of horror and destruction men have been rewarded with monuments, with great songs and epics.
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The militancy of men, through all the centuries, has drenched the world with blood, and for these deeds of horror and destruction men have been rewarded with monuments, with great songs and epics.
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Every man with a vote was considered a foe to woman suffrage unless he was prepared to be actively a friend.
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It is obvious to you that the struggle will be an unequal one, but I shall make it - I shall make it as long as I have an ounce of strength left in me, or any life left in me.
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I have made speeches urging women to adopt methods of rebellion such as have been adopted by men in every revolution.
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I have not personally suffered from the deprivations, the bitterness and sorrow which bring so many men and women to a realisation of social injustice.
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I was fourteen years old when I went to my first suffrage meeting. Returning from school one day, I met my mother just setting out for the meeting, and I begged her to let me go along.
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Often I have heard the taunt that suffragists are women who have failed to find any normal outlet for their emotions, and are therefore soured and disappointed beings. This is probably not true of any suffragist, and it is most certainly not true of me. My home life and relations have been as nearly ideal as possible in this imperfect world.
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Solitary confinement is too terrible a punishment to inflict on any human being, no matter what his crime. Hardened criminals in the men's prisons, it is said, often beg for the lash instead.
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I suppose I had always been an unconscious suffragist. With my temperament and my surroundings, I could scarcely have been otherwise.
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One baby is a patient baby, and waits indefinitely until its mother is ready to feed it. The other baby is an impatient baby and cries lustily, screams and kicks and makes everybody unpleasant until it is fed. Well, we know perfectly well which baby is attended to first. That is the whole history of politics.
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When you have warfare, things happen; people suffer; the noncombatants suffer as well as the combatants. And so it happens in civil war.
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Not by the forces of civil war can you govern the very weakest woman. You can kill that woman, but she escapes you then; you cannot govern her. No power on earth can govern a human being, however feeble, who withholds his or her consent.
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The argument of the broken window pane is the most valuable argument in modern politics.
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Manchester is a city which has witnessed a great many stirring episodes, especially of a political character. Generally speaking, its citizens have been liberal in their sentiments, defenders of free speech and liberty of opinion.
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Better that we should die fighting than be outraged and dishonored... . Better to die than to live in slavery.
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There is something that governments care for far more than human life, and that is the security of property; and so it is through property that we shall strike the enemy.
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You have to make more noise than anybody else; you have to make yourself more obtrusive than anybody else; you have to fill all the papers more than anybody else; in fact, you have to be there all the time and see that they do not snow you under, if you are really going to get your reform realized.
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