They tell us sometimes that if we had only kept quiet, all these desirable things would have come about of themselves. I am reminded of the Greek clown who, having seen an archer bring down a flying bird, remarked, sagely: “You might have saved your arrow, for the bird would anyway have been killed by the fall.”

Elizabeth Cady Stanton (1815-1902) American social activist, abolitionist, woman's suffragist

Speech, Woman’s Rights Convention, New York City (7 May 1894)