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)