"And ladies, build up your husband by being submissive. That's how you will give your children success; you will want your children to be obedient, to be submissive to righteous living"
About this Quote
The line’s real engine is how it recruits motherhood as a compliance tool. “That’s how you will give your children success” turns parental love into leverage. If you resist, you’re not just defying a man; you’re jeopardizing your kids. It’s coercion with a lullaby melody, a move common to high-control religious communities: take the most sacred identity available (mother) and fuse it to obedience.
Then comes the slippery pivot from household hierarchy to moral absolutism: children should be “obedient” and “submissive to righteous living.” “Righteous” is the escape hatch that keeps the system unchallengeable. Jeffs doesn’t have to defend his commands; he only has to define “righteous living” as whatever sustains his rule. In that context, “submissive” stops being a private marital preference and becomes a multi-generational political program: train women to yield, train children to comply, and you’ve built a culture where dissent feels like sin. Coming from Jeffs - a criminal who led an authoritarian sect marked by abuse - the quote reads less like spiritual counsel than like a manual for grooming a community to accept exploitation as virtue.
Quote Details
| Topic | Husband & Wife |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Jeffs, Warren. (2026, January 16). And ladies, build up your husband by being submissive. That's how you will give your children success; you will want your children to be obedient, to be submissive to righteous living. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/and-ladies-build-up-your-husband-by-being-110502/
Chicago Style
Jeffs, Warren. "And ladies, build up your husband by being submissive. That's how you will give your children success; you will want your children to be obedient, to be submissive to righteous living." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/and-ladies-build-up-your-husband-by-being-110502/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"And ladies, build up your husband by being submissive. That's how you will give your children success; you will want your children to be obedient, to be submissive to righteous living." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/and-ladies-build-up-your-husband-by-being-110502/. Accessed 22 Feb. 2026.










