Three things have been difficult to tame: the oceans, fools and

The words of Spiro T. Agnew — “Three things have been difficult to tame: the oceans, fools, and women. We may soon be able to tame the oceans; fools and women will take a little longer.” — were spoken with the wit of jest, yet they reveal the prejudices and ironies of their age. Agnew, Vice President under Richard Nixon, sought humor, but his words echo the long history of men who feared or mocked what they could not control. In comparing women to the wildness of oceans and the folly of fools, he both diminishes and unwittingly elevates them, for what is untamed is often also unconquerable.

The meaning is layered. To call the oceans untamed is to acknowledge the vast, unstoppable force of nature. To call fools untamed is to lament the persistence of ignorance across the ages. But to place women in this company reveals both bias and truth: bias, in suggesting that their independence is something to be subdued; truth, in recognizing that their spirit, like the sea, has long resisted every attempt to chain it. Thus, while Agnew intended jest, his words serve as an accidental tribute to the indomitable power of women.

History proves this again and again. Consider the suffragists of the early twentieth century, who endured ridicule, prison, and violence in their fight for the vote. Many men of power declared it was impossible to give women equality, as if their voices could be drowned or delayed forever. And yet, like the rising tide of the oceans, their cause advanced relentlessly, sweeping away resistance until the ballot was won. Those who tried to tame them discovered only that their strength grew greater in struggle.

As for fools, history shows their persistence as well. Tyrants, demagogues, and flatterers have risen in every age, and though nations spend centuries seeking to banish folly, it returns like waves upon the shore. In this, Agnew’s words carry more truth than perhaps he intended: the battle against ignorance is as eternal as the struggle against storm and sea.

Let this wisdom be passed down: the attempt to tame what is wild in spirit often reveals more about the weakness of the tamer than the strength of the tamed. The oceans will never be fully subdued, fools will never be wholly banished, and women, whose power lies in resilience and renewal, will never bow to chains. Agnew’s jest, meant to diminish, becomes a prophecy of endurance: that what is truly great resists control, and that in their untamed nature, both women and the oceans shall outlast the men who sought to master them.