Nellie Bly Quotes

• I have never written a word that did not come from my heart. I never shall.

  Nellie Bly

  Heart, My Heart, Written

  65 Copy quote

• ENERGY RIGHTLY APPLIED CAN ACCOMPLISH ANYTHING.

  Nellie Bly

  Badass, Energy, Accomplish

  29 Copy quote

• It is only after one is in trouble that one realizes how little sympathy and kindness there are in the world.

  Nellie Bly

  Sympathy, Kindness, World

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.18, Golgotha Press

  12 Copy quote

• How can a doctor judge a woman's sanity by merely bidding her good morning and refusing to hear her pleas for release? Even the sick ones know it is useless to say anything, for the answer will be that it is their imagination.

  Nellie Bly

  Morning, Doctors, Sick

  Nellie Bly (2016). “Ten Days in a Mad-House”, p.82, Nellie Bly

  16 Copy quote

• What a mysterious thing madness is. I have watched patients whose lips are forever sealed in a perpetual silence. They live, breathe, eat; the human form is there, but that something, which the body can live without, but which cannot exist without the body, was missing.

  Nellie Bly

  Mysterious Things, Silence, Forever

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.82, Golgotha Press

  24 Copy quote

• I always made a point of telling the doctors I was sane, and asking to be released, but the more I endeavored to assure them of my sanity, the more they doubted it

  Nellie Bly

  Doctors, Asking, Sanity

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.85, Golgotha Press

  18 Copy quote

• Never having failed, I could not picture what failure meant.

  Nellie Bly

  5 Copy quote

• I was too impatient to work at the usual duties assigned women on newspapers.

  Nellie Bly

  Usual, Impatient, Newspapers

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.267, Golgotha Press

  8 Copy quote

• The insane asylum on Blackwell’s Island is a human rat-trap. It is easy to get in, but once there it is impossible to get out.

  Nellie Bly

  Islands, Insane, Asylums

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.87, Golgotha Press

  14 Copy quote

• 'IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR YOU TO DO IT,' WAS THE TERRIBLE VERDICT. 'IN THE FIRST PLACE YOU ARE A WOMAN AND WOULD NEED A PROTECTOR, AND EVEN IF IT WERE POSSIBLE FOR YOU TO TRAVEL ALONE YOU WOULD NEED TO CARRY SO MUCH BAGGAGE THAT IT WOULD DETAIN YOU IN MAKING RAPID CHANGES. BESIDES YOU SPEAK NOTHING BUT ENGLISH, SO THERE IS NO USE TALKING ABOUT IT; NO ONE BUT A MAN CAN DO THIS.'

  Nellie Bly

  Badass, Men, Talking

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.103, Golgotha Press

  13 Copy quote

• I always had a desire to know asylum life more thoroughly - a desire to be convinced that the most helpless of God's creatures, the insane, were cared for kindly and properly.

  Nellie Bly

  Insane, Desire, Asylums

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.6, Golgotha Press

  10 Copy quote

• 'VERY WELL,' I SAID ANGRILY, 'START THE MAN, AND I'LL START THE SAME DAY FOR SOME OTHER NEWSPAPER AND BEAT HIM.'

  Nellie Bly

  Badass, Men, He Man

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.103, Golgotha Press

  17 Copy quote

• ACCEPT PRAISE FOR ITS WORTH - POLITENESS. BE BRUTALLY FRANK WITH YOURSELF. IT'S SAFER.

  Nellie Bly

  Badass, Praise, Accepting

  10 Copy quote

• I shuddered to think how completely the insane were in the power of their keepers, and how one could weep and plead for release, and all of no avail, if the keepers were so minded.

  Nellie Bly

  Thinking, Insane, Release

  Nellie Bly (2016). “Ten Days in a Mad-House”, p.5, Nellie Bly

  8 Copy quote

• I have watched patients stand and gaze longingly toward the city they in all likelihood will never enter again. It means liberty and life; it seems so near, and yet heaven is not further from hell

  Nellie Bly

  Mean, Cities, Heaven

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.82, Golgotha Press

  6 Copy quote

• COULD I PASS A WEEK IN THE INSANE WARD AT BLACKWELL'S ISLAND? I SAID I COULD AND I WOULD. AND I DID.

  Nellie Bly

  Badass, Islands, Insane

  Nellie Bly (2016). “Ten Days in a Mad-House”, p.4, Nellie Bly

  12 Copy quote

• People in the world can never imagine the length of days to those in asylums. They seemed never ending, and we welcomed any event that might give us something to think about as well as talk of.

  Nellie Bly

  Thinking, People, Giving

  Nellie Bly (2016). “Ten Days in a Mad-House”, p.69, Nellie Bly

  8 Copy quote

• Even that was all consumed after two days, and the patients had to try to choke down fresh fish, just boiled in water, without salt, pepper or butter; mutton, beef, and potatoes without the faintest seasoning

  Nellie Bly

  Two, Water, Trying

  Nellie Bly (2015). “10 Days in a Madhouse (Annotated)”, p.66, Golgotha Press

  28 Copy quote

• They were being driven to a prison, through no fault of their own, in all probability for life. In comparison, how much easier it would be to walk to the gallows than to this tomb of living horrors!

  Nellie Bly

  Would Be, Faults, Prison

  Nellie Bly (2016). “Ten Days in a Mad-House”, p.44, Nellie Bly

  8 Copy quote

• In our short walks we passed the kitchen where food was prepared for the nurses and doctors. There we got glimpses of melons and grapes and all kinds of fruits, beautiful white bread and nice meats, and the hungry feeling would be increased tenfold.

  Nellie Bly

  Beautiful, Nice, Doctors

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.69, Golgotha Press

  9 Copy quote

• I hardly expected the grand jury to sustain me, after they saw everything different from what it had been while I was there. Yet they did, and their report to the court advises all the changes made that I had proposed.

  Nellie Bly

  Different, Saws, Made

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.91, Golgotha Press

  8 Copy quote

• All the asylum clothing is made by the patients, but sewing does not employ one's mind. After several months' confinement the thoughts of the busy world grow faint, and all the poor prisoners can do is to sit and ponder over their hopeless fate

  Nellie Bly

  Fate, Mind, Doe

  Nellie Bly (2015). “The Collected Works of Nellie Bly (Annotated)”, p.82, Golgotha Press

  8 Copy quote

• But here let me say one thing: From the moment I entered the insane ward on the Island, I made no attempt to keep up the assumed role of insanity.

  Nellie Bly

  Islands, Insanity, Insane

  Nellie Bly (2016). “Ten Days in a Mad-House”, p.6, Nellie Bly

  5 Copy quote

• I had never been near insane persons before in my life, and had not the faintest idea of what their actions were like

  Nellie Bly

  Ideas, Insane Person, Action

  Nellie Bly (2016). “Ten Days in a Mad-House”, p.7, Nellie Bly

  6 Copy quote

• I had looked forward so eagerly to leaving the horrible place, yet when my release came and I knew that God's sunlight was to be free for me again, there was a certain pain in leaving

  Nellie Bly

  Pain, Leaving, Sunlight

  Nellie Bly (2016). “Ten Days in a Mad-House”, p.84, Nellie Bly

  5 Copy quote

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