For my part, I have no hesitation in saying that although the American woman never leaves her domestic sphere and is in some respects very dependent within it, nowhere does she enjoy a higher station . . . if anyone asks me what I think the chief cause of the extraordinary prosperity and growing power of this nation, I should answer that it is due to the superiority of their woman.
ATTRIBUTION:
Alexis de Tocqueville (1805–1859), French social philosopher. As quoted in Habits of the Heart by Robert Neelly Bellah, pt. 1, ch. 4 (1985).
