“May it please your honor, I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty.”
On her $100 fine, as quoted in An Account of the Proceedings on the Trial of Susan B. Anthony on the Charge of Illegal Voting] (1874) The "old revolutionary maxim" Anthony uses here has been variously attributed to William Tyndale, Benjamin Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson, as well as to herself.
Variant: Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God; I shall never pay a penny of this unjust claim.
As quoted in Woman: Her Position, Influence and Achievement Throughout the Civilized World (1900) p. 415
Unsourced variants: Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God, and I shall never pay a penny of this unjust claim.
Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God, and I shall never pay a penny of this unjust fine.
Trial on the charge of illegal voting (1874)
Context: May it please your honor, I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty. All the stock in trade I possess is a $10,000 debt, incurred by publishing my paper — The Revolution — four years ago, the sole object of which was to educate all women to do precisely as I have done, rebel against your man-made, unjust, unconstitutional forms of law, that tax, fine, imprison and hang women, while they deny them the right of representation in the government; and I shall work on with might and main to pay every dollar of that honest debt, but not a penny shall go to this unjust claim. And I shall earnestly and persistently continue to urge all women to the practical recognition of the old revolutionary maxim, that "Resistance to tyranny is obedience to God."
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Susan B. Anthony 48
American women's rights activist 1820–1906Related quotes
As quoted in Marilyn Monroe : In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor
Context: Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.
Source: The Monuments Men: Allied Heroes, Nazi Thieves, and the Greatest Treasure Hunt in History
Samuel Johnson, letter to James Macpherson (20 January 1775), quoted in James Boswell Life of Johnson, Vol. I (1791), p. 449.
Criticism
at 2008 Democratic National Convention
[Jed, Lewison, http://www.jedreport.com/2008/08/mocking-mccains-shoes-and-flip.html, "Mocking McCain's Shoes and Flip-Flops", 2008-08-28, 2008-09-21]
Source: Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions (1884), PART II: OTHER WORLDS, Chapter 17. How the Sphere, Having in Vain Tried Words, Resorted to Deeds
“To be wealthy and honored in an unjust society is a disgrace.”
Source: The Analects
As quoted in Marilyn Monroe : In Her Own Words (1983), edited by Roger Taylor
Variant: Hollywood's a place where they'll pay you a thousand dollars for a kiss, and fifty cents for your soul. I know, because I turned down the first offer often enough and held out for the fifty cents.
1960s, Letter from a Birmingham Jail (1963)
Context: In no sense do I advocate evading or defying the law, as would the rabid segregationist. That would lead to anarchy. One who breaks an unjust law must do so openly, lovingly, and with a willingness to accept the penalty. I submit that an individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for law.