Skip to content

I am not sure how many "sins" I would recognize in the world. Some would surely be defused by changed circumstances. But I can imagine none that is more irredeemably siinful than the betrayal, the exploitation, of the young by those who should care for them.

— Elizabeth Janeway Incest: A Rational Look at the Oldest Taboo (1981)

Another quote →

More quotes by Elizabeth Janeway

The Goddamn human race deserves itself, and as far as I'm concerned it can have it.

Accident (1964)

If there's nothing more powerful than an idea whose time has come, there is nothing more ubiquitously pervasive than an idea whose time won't go.

Like their personal lives, women's history is fragmented, interrupted; a shadow history of human beings whose existence has been shaped by the efforts and the demands of others.

Between Myth and Morning: Women Awakening (1974)

Sex cannot be contained within a definition of physical pleasure, it cannot be understood as merely itself for it has stood for too long as a symbol of profound connection between human beings.

Between Myth and Morning: Women Awakening (1974)

Growing up human is uniquely a matter of social relations rather than biology. What we learn from connections within the family takes the place of instincts that program the behavior of animals; which raises the question, how good are these connections?

Incest: A Rational Look at the Oldest Taboo (1981)

All Elizabeth Janeway quotes →

Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: Elizabeth Janeway (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.