Man has ruled the human race from the beginning—but he should remember that up to the middle of the present century it was a dull world, and ignorant and stupid; but it is not such a dull world now, and is growing less and less dull all the time.
 Mark Twain, Following the Equator (1897). copy citation

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Author Mark Twain
Source Following the Equator
Topic present time
Date 1897
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2895/2895-h/2895-h.htm

Context

“It takes much to convince the average man of anything; and perhaps nothing can ever make him realize that he is the average woman’s inferior—yet in several important details the evidence seems to show that that is what he is. Man has ruled the human race from the beginning—but he should remember that up to the middle of the present century it was a dull world, and ignorant and stupid; but it is not such a dull world now, and is growing less and less dull all the time. This is woman’s opportunity—she has had none before. I wonder where man will be in another forty-seven years? In the New Zealand law occurs this: “The word person wherever it occurs throughout the Act includes woman.”” source