20+ Lydia Maria Child Quotes and Sayings

Every human being has, like Socrates, an attendant spirit;

and wise are they who obey its signals. If it does not always tell us what to do, it always cautions us what not to do.

A comfortable old age is the reward of a well-spent youth.

Instead of its bringing sad and melancholy prospects of decay, it would give us hopes of eternal youth in a better world.

Home -- that blessed word, which opens to the human heart the most perfect glimpse of Heaven, and helps to carry it thither, as on an angel's wings.

A reformer is one who sets forth cheerfully toward sure defeat.

Nature made us individuals, as she did the flowers and the pebbles;

but we are afraid to be peculiar, and so our society resembles a bag of marbles, or a string of mold candles. Why should we all dress after the same fashion? The frost never paints my windows twice alike.

Misfortune is never mournful to the soul that accepts it;

for such do always see that every cloud is an angel's face. Every man deems that he has precisely the trials and temptations which are the hardest of all others for him to bear; but they are so, simply because they are the very ones he most needs.

Blessed indeed is the man who hears many gentle voices call him father!

None speak of the bravery, the might, or the intellect of Jesus;

but the devil is always imagined as a being of acute intellect, political cunning, and the fiercest courage. These universal and instinctive tendencies of the human mind reveal much.

Childhood itself is scarcely more lovely than a cheerful, kindly, sunshiny old age.

But men never violate the laws of God without suffering the consequences, sooner or later.

Over the river and through the wood, To grandfather's house we go;

The horse knows the wayTo carry the sleigh,Through the white and drifted snow.

It is my mission to help in the breaking down of classes, and to make all men feel as if they were brethren of the same family, sharing the same rights, the same capabilities, and the same responsibilities. While my hand can hold a pen, I will use it to this end; and while my brain can earn a dollar, I will devote it to this end.

Thy treasures of gold Are dim with the blood of the hearts thou hast sold;

Thy home may be lovely, but round it I hearThe crack of the whip, and the footsteps of fear.

There was a time when all these things would have passed me by, like the flitting figures of a theatre, sufficient for the amusement of an hour. But now, I have lost the power of looking merely on the surface.

Flowers have spoken to me more than I can tell in written words. They are the hieroglyphics of angels, loved by all men for the beauty of the character, though few can decipher even fragments of their meaning.

The cure for all ills and wrongs, the cares, the sorrows and the crimes of humanity, all lie in the one word 'love.' It is the divine vitality that everywhere produces and restores life.

That man's best works should be such bungling imitations of Nature's infinite perfection, matters not much; but that he should make himself an imitation, this is the fact which Nature moans over, and deprecates beseechingly. Be spontaneous, be truthful, be free, and thus be individuals! is the song she sings through warbling birds, and whispering pines, and roaring waves, and screeching winds.

Reverence is the highest quality of man's nature; and that individual, or nation, which has it slightly developed, is so far unfortunate. It is a strong spiritual instinct, and seeks to form channels for itself where none exists; thus Americans, in the dearth of other objects to worship, fall to worshiping themselves.

The nearer society approaches to divine order, the less separation will there be in the characters, duties, and pursuits of men and women. Women will not become less gentle and graceful, but men will become more so. Women will not neglect the care and education of their children, but men will find themselves ennobled and refined by sharing those duties with them; and will receive, in return, co-operation and sympathy in the discharge of various other duties, now deemed inappropriate to women. The more women become rational companions, partners in business and in thought, as well as in affection and amusement, the more highly will men appreciate home.