"But when women are moved and lend help, when women, who are by nature calm and controlled, give encouragement and applause, when virtuous and knowledgeable women grace the endeavor with their sweet love, then it is invincible"
About this Quote
The subtext sits in the adjectives. "By nature calm and controlled" is less a compliment than a boundary line: women are cast as moral ballast, the ones who steady the ship, not the ones who seize the helm. Marti praises "virtuous and knowledgeable" women, an approval stamp that filters participation through respectability. It's an invitation with a dress code. Even "encouragement and applause" reads like a politics of the balcony: public energy, yes, but safely adjacent to command.
Context matters: Marti writes from a late-19th-century independence movement where legitimacy depended on a whole society looking righteous, disciplined, and unified under colonial scrutiny. Women in that world often did crucial work - fundraising, sheltering militants, circulating messages, shaping public sentiment - but were rarely granted equal authorship of the nation. Marti's genius is rhetorical: he elevates women as the emotional and ethical infrastructure of revolution, making their support feel like destiny. His limitation is equally clear: empowerment arrives wrapped in an essentialist myth about what women are "by nature", keeping their power inspiring, indispensable, and slightly offstage.
Quote Details
| Topic | Teamwork |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Marti, Jose. (2026, January 15). But when women are moved and lend help, when women, who are by nature calm and controlled, give encouragement and applause, when virtuous and knowledgeable women grace the endeavor with their sweet love, then it is invincible. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-when-women-are-moved-and-lend-help-when-women-160827/
Chicago Style
Marti, Jose. "But when women are moved and lend help, when women, who are by nature calm and controlled, give encouragement and applause, when virtuous and knowledgeable women grace the endeavor with their sweet love, then it is invincible." FixQuotes. January 15, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-when-women-are-moved-and-lend-help-when-women-160827/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"But when women are moved and lend help, when women, who are by nature calm and controlled, give encouragement and applause, when virtuous and knowledgeable women grace the endeavor with their sweet love, then it is invincible." FixQuotes, 15 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/but-when-women-are-moved-and-lend-help-when-women-160827/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.










