The bible and the church have been the greatest stumbling block in the way of women's emancipation.

You may go over the world and you will find that every form of religion which has breathed upon this earth has degraded woman... I have been traveling over the old world during the last few years and have found new food for thought. What power is it that makes the Hindoo woman burn herself upon the funeral pyre of her husband? Her religion. What holds the Turkish woman in the harem? Her religion. By what power do the Mormons perpetuate their system of polygamy? By their religion/ Man, of himself, could not do this; but when he declares, 'Thus saith the Lord,' of course he can do it. So long as ministers stand up and tell us Christ is the head of the church, so is man the head of woman, how are we to break the chains which have held women down through the ages? You Christian women look at the Hindoo, the Turkish, the Mormon women, and wonder how they can be held in such bondage...

Now I ask you if our religion teaches the dignity of woman? It teaches us the abominable idea of the sixth century--Augustine's idea--that motherhood is a curse; that woman is the author of sin, and is most corrupt. Can we ever cultivate any proper sense of self-respect as long as women take such sentiments from the mouths of the priesthood?

I would have girls regard themselves not as adjectives but as nouns.

When we consider that women are treated as property it is degrading to women that we should treat our children as property to be disposed of as we see fit.

Through the protracted and disgraceful assault on American womanhood the clergy baptized each new insult and act of injustice in the name of the Christian religion, and uniformly asked God's blessing on preceedings that would put to shame an assembly of Hottentots.

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men and women are created equal.