Courage calls to courage everywhere
I like the modern interpretation of this famous quote.
“Courage calls to courage everywhere, and its voice cannot be denied.”
Millicent Garrett Fawcett, suffragist and campaigner.
From her book - The Women's Victory - and After: Personal Reminiscences, 1911-1918.
I like a popular modern interpretation of this famous quote - that some truths are so important, so self evident, that they cannot be silenced.
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There is another interpretation of the quote. The authors of the book Millicent Garrett Fawcett: Selected writings argue that “Fawcett was merely trying to explain why Davison’s death – which she described as a deliberately “sensational” act of self-sacrifice – made headlines around the world”.
The book states:
“Although making a comparison between Davison’s death and the sacrifice made since then by others in the service of their country, and the attention given to both suffragist and suffragette activities, the quote is not quite so clearly congratulatory regarding militant action as the modern meaning now projected onto it.”
The quote in its original context:
“In the early summer of 1913, an incident occurred which deeply touched the popular imagination and placed the principle of self-sacrifice as illustrated by the militants on a hill-top from which it was seen not only all over our own country, but throughout the world. Courage calls to courage everywhere, and its voice cannot be denied.
“The race for the Derby was held on the last Wednesday of May. The King’s horse was the favourite. Crowds even more enormous than usual gathered to witness it; among them, a young woman, a militant suffragist, Emily Davidson, of Morpeth in Northumberland, had managed to place herself close to the winning-post against the rope barrier which kept the crowd off the actual track. As the King’s horse swept by at a tremendous speed, Emily Davidson threw herself in front of it. Down came the horse with fearful violence; the jockey was, of course, thrown and seriously injured; and there lay Emily Davidson, mortally injured.
“She had deliberately sacrificed her life in order, in this sensational way, to draw the attention of the whole world to the determination of women to share in the heritage of freedom which was the boast of every man in the country. The King enquired for the jockey; the Queen enquired for the injured woman. In a day or two it was announced that she was dead. She never recovered consciousness. She had died for her cause.”