Anna C. Brackett Quotes
We set up a certain aim, and put ourselves of our own will into the power of a certain current. Once having done that, we find ourselves committed to usages and customs which we had not before fully known, but from which we cannot depart without giving up the end which we have chosen. But we have no right, therefore, to claim that we are under the yoke of necessity. We might as well say that the man whom we see struggling vainly in the current of Niagara could not have helped jumping in.
Brackett, Anna C. The Technique of Rest. Harper & Brothers, 1892, p. 29.
It was Spinoza’s insistence that man should be free and use reason rather than faith and not to adhere to authority that got him excommunicated by the Jews, The Catholics and the Muslims, the only such man in history. Authority per se was evil if it was listened to.
Anna Callender Brackett was an American philosopher known for being a translator, feminist, and an educator. Her philosophical achievements are oftentimes overlooked. She translated Karl Rosenkranz's Pedagogics as a System and wrote The Education of American Girls, a response to arguments against the coeducation of males and females.