{"quotes":[{"text":"(...) It is far from being true that all Women want courage, strength, or conduct to lead an army to triumph; any more than it is that all Men are endow'd with them. There are many of our sex as intrepid as the Men (...)Need I bring Amazons from Scythia to prove the courage of Women? Need I run to Italy for a Camilla to shew an instance of warlike courage? (...) other nations glory in their numberless stole of warlike Women. (...) But to pass over the many instances of warlike bravery in our sex, let it suffice to name a Boadicea, who made the most glorious stand against the Romans (...) and if her endeavours did not meet with the success of an Alexander, a Cæsar, or a Charles of Sweden, in his fortunate days, her courage and conduct were such, as render her worthy to be consider'd equal, if not superior, to them all, in bravery and wisdom (...).","author":"Lady Sophia Fermor","tags":["18th-century","18th-century-feminism","amazon-feminism","amazons","boadicea","boudicca","feminism","patriarchy","strong-women","warrior-women"],"id":15995,"author_id":"Lady+Sophia+Fermor"},{"text":"Why it shou'd create more surprise, to see [a lady] preside in a council of war, than in a council of state. Why may she not be as capable of heading an army as a parliament; or of commanding at sea as of reigning at land? What shou'd hinder her from holding the helm of a fleet with the same safety and steadiness as that of a nation? And why may she not exercise her soldiers, draw up her troops in battle array, and divide her forces into battalions at land, squadrons at sea, \u0026c. With the same pleasure she wou'd have in seeing or ordering it to be done? The military art has no mystery in it beyond others, which Women cannot attain to. A Woman is as capable as a Man of making herself, by means of a map, acquainted with the good and bad ways, the dangerous and safe passes, or the proper situations for encampment. And what shou'd hinder her from making herself mistress of all the strategems of war, of charging, retreating, surprising, laying ambushes, counterfeiting marches, feigning flights, giving false attacks, supporting real ones, animating the soldiery, and adding example to eloquence by being the first to mount a breach. Persuasion, heat, and example are the soul of victory: And Women can shew as much eloquence, intrepidity, and warmth, where their honour is at stake, as is requisite to attack or defend a town.","author":"Lady Sophia Fermor","tags":["18th-century","18th-century-feminism","feminism","patriarchy","warrior-women","women-in-military-offices"],"id":26563,"author_id":"Lady+Sophia+Fermor"},{"text":"When they first emerged in their present shape around the turn of the 18th century, the so-called humane disciplines had a crucial social role. It was to foster and protect the kind of values for which a philistine social order had precious little time. The modern humanities and industrial capitalism were more or less twinned at birth. To preserve a set of values and ideas under siege, you needed among other things institutions known as universities set somewhat apart from everyday social life. This remoteness meant that humane study could be lamentably ineffectual. But it also allowed the humanities to launch a critique of conventional wisdom.","author":"Terry Eagleton","tags":["18th-century","capitalism","criticism","humanities","university"],"id":61756,"author_id":"Terry+Eagleton"},{"text":"I begin with writing the first sentence—and trusting to Almighty God for the second.","author":"Laurence Sterne","tags":["18th-century","literature"],"id":66177,"author_id":"Laurence+Sterne"},{"text":"History is philosophy teaching by examples.","author":"Thomas Jefferson","tags":["18th-century","history","thomas-jefferson"],"id":119679,"author_id":"Thomas+Jefferson"},{"text":"I think it evidently appears, that there is no science, office, or dignity, which Women have not an equal right to share in with the Men: Since there can be no superiority, but that of brutal strength, shewn in the latter, to entitle them to engross all power and prerogative to themselves: nor any incapacity proved in the former, to disqualify them of their right, but what is owing to the unjust oppression of the Men, and might be easily removed.","author":"Lady Sophia Fermor","tags":["18th-century","18th-century-feminism","feminism","male-privilege","patriarchy","women-s-oppression"],"id":134056,"author_id":"Lady+Sophia+Fermor"},{"text":"I can't help suspecting, that there is, or may be some regurgitation from the bath into the cistern of the pump. In that case, what a felicate beveridge is quaffed by the drinkers; medicated with the sweat and the dirt, and dandriff; and the abominable of various kinds, from twenty different diseased bodies, parboiling in the kettle below.","author":"Tobias Smollett","tags":["18th-century","bath","classics","humour"],"id":156629,"author_id":"Tobias+Smollett"},{"text":"The manner Women are bred in, (...) they are admitted to no share of the exercises which wou'd qualify them to attack or defend. They see themselves helplessly exposed to the outrages of a sex enslaved to the most brutal transports; and find themselves victims of contempt to wretches, whose prevalent strength is often exerted against them, with more fury and cruelty than beasts practise towards one another. Can our fear then be imputed to want of courage? Is it a defect? Or ought it not rather to be alledged as a proof of our sense: Since it wou'd be rather fool-hardiness than courage to withstand brutes, who want the sense to be overcome by reason, and whom we want vigour to repel by force of arms?","author":"Lady Sophia Fermor","tags":["18th-century","18th-century-feminism","amazon-feminism","double-standards","feminism","misogyny","patriarchy","violence-against-women","women-s-oppression"],"id":184468,"author_id":"Lady+Sophia+Fermor"},{"text":"I wou'd therefore exhort all my sex (...) to betake themselves to the improvement of their minds (...) and (...) shew our selves worthy something from them, as much above their bare esteem, as they conceit themselves above us. In a word, let us shew them, by what little we do without aid of education, the much we might do if they did us justice; that we may force a blush from them, if possible, and compel them to confess their own baseness to us, and that the worst of us deserve much better treatment than the best of us receive.","author":"Lady Sophia Fermor","tags":["18th-century","18th-century-feminism","feminism","male-privilege","misogyny","patriarchy","women-s-education","women-s-oppression"],"id":223769,"author_id":"Lady+Sophia+Fermor"},{"text":"It must appear to every one (...) a matter of the greatest surprise, to observe the universal prevalence of prejudice and custom in the minds of the Men. (...) If this haughty sex would have us believe they have a natural superiority over us, why do not they prove their charter from Nature, by making use of reason to subdue themselves. (...) But it will be impossible for us, without forfeiting that reason, ever to acknowledge ourselves inferior to creatures, who make no other use of the sense they boast of (...) led away captive by prejudice, and sacrifying justice, truth and honour, to inconsiderate custom.","author":"Lady Sophia Fermor","tags":["18th-century","18th-century-feminism","double-standards","feminism","male-privilege","patriarchy","woman-not-inferior-to-man"],"id":237533,"author_id":"Lady+Sophia+Fermor"}],"pagination":{"page":1,"page_size":10,"total":23,"pages":3,"next":"?page=2\u0026page_size=10"}}