Harriet Martineau Quotes

Quotes about:

• It is hard to tell which is worse; the wide diffusion of things that are not true, or the suppression of things that are true.

  Harriet Martineau

  Truth, Suppression, Diffusion

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.147

  33 Copy quote

• Women, like men, must be educated with a view to action, or their studies cannot be called education.

  Harriet Martineau

  Education, Men, Views

  Harriet Martineau (2004). “Harriet Martineau: Studies of America, 1831-1868”

  41 Copy quote

• Readers are plentiful; thinkers are rare.

  Harriet Martineau

  Funny Inspirational, Reading, Knowledge

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.176

  67 Copy quote

• You had better live your best and act your best and think your best today; for today is the sure preparation for tomorrow and all the other tomorrows that follow.

  Harriet Martineau

  Future, Thinking, Law Of Attraction

  38 Copy quote

• Marriage ... is still the imperfect institution it must remain while women continue to be ill-educated, passive, and subservient.

  Harriet Martineau

  Imperfect, Institutions, Inequality

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.120

  36 Copy quote

• it matters infinitely less what we do than what we are.

  Harriet Martineau

  Identity, Matter

  Harriet Martineau (1849). “Life in the sick-room. Essays. By an invalid [i.e. H. Martineau] ... Third edition”, p.138

  24 Copy quote

• All women should inform themselves of the condition of their sex and of their own position. It must necessarily follow that the noblest of them will, sooner or later, put forth a moral power which shall prostrate cant, and burst asunder the bonds (silken to some but cold iron to others) of feudal prejudice and usages. In the meantime is it to be understood that the principles of the Declaration of Independence bear no relation to half of the human race? If so, what is the ground of this limitation?

  Harriet Martineau

  Sex, Iron, Race

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.179

  27 Copy quote

• influence which is given on the side of money is usually against truth.

  Harriet Martineau

  Truth, Sides, Morality

  Harriet Martineau (1836). “Philosophical essays. Essays on the art of thinking. Sabbath musings. Moral essays. Parables. Poetry”, p.187

  22 Copy quote

• It is characteristic of genius to be hopeful and aspiring.

  Harriet Martineau

  Hopeful, Genius, Characteristics

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.7

  19 Copy quote

• The sum and substance of female education in America, as in England, is training women to consider marriage as the sole object in life, and to pretend that they do not think so.

  Harriet Martineau

  Thinking, America, Training

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.158

  17 Copy quote

• If a test of civilization be sought, none can be so sure as the condition of that half of society over which the other half has power.

  Harriet Martineau

  Power, Civilization, Half

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.156

  13 Copy quote

• The imagination, once awakened, must and will work, and ought to work

  Harriet Martineau

  Imagination, Ought, Awakened

  Harriet Martineau (1849). “Household Education”, p.256

  33 Copy quote

• I saw no poor men, except a few intemperate ones. I saw some very poor women; but God and man know that the time has not come for women to make their injuries even heard of.

  Harriet Martineau

  Men, Saws, Discrimination

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.8

  25 Copy quote

• Happiness consists in the full employment of our faculties in some pursuit.

  Harriet Martineau

  Employment, Anticipation, Pursuit

  Harriet Martineau (1836). “Philosophical essays. Essays on the art of thinking. Sabbath musings. Moral essays. Parables. Poetry”, p.81

  22 Copy quote

• I certainly had no idea how little faith Christians have in their own faith till I saw how ill their courage and temper can stand any attack on it.

  Harriet Martineau

  Christian, Ideas, Atheism

  Harriet Martineau (2006). “Autobiography”, p.574, Broadview Press

  37 Copy quote

• Goodness and simplicity are indissolubly united.-The bad are the most sophisticated, all the world over, and the good the least.

  Harriet Martineau

  Simplicity, World, Sophisticated

  Harriet Martineau (1838). “How to Observe: Morals and Manners”, p.49

  4 Copy quote

• Leisure, some degree of it, is necessary to the health of every man's spirit.

  Harriet Martineau

  Men, Degrees, Leisure

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.124

  4 Copy quote

• We are not responsible for our feelings, as we are for our principles and actions. ... Our care, then, should be to look to our principles, and to avoid all anxiety about our emotions. Their nature can never be wrong where our course of action is right, and for their degree we are not responsible.

  Harriet Martineau

  Anxiety, Feelings, Looks

  27 Copy quote

• The progression of emancipation of any class usually, if not always, takes place through the efforts of individuals of that class.

  Harriet Martineau

  Class, Effort, Progression

  Harriet Martineau (1837). “Society in America”, p.179

  18 Copy quote

• I have suffered, like other writers, from indolence, irresolution, distaste to my work, absence of 'inspiration,' and all that: but I have also found that sitting down, however reluctantly, with the pen in my hand, I have never worked for one quarter of an hour without finding myself in full train.

  Harriet Martineau

  Inspiration, Hands, Sitting Down

  Harriet Martineau (2006). “Autobiography”, p.156, Broadview Press

  4 Copy quote

• My business in life has been to think and learn, and to speak out with absolute freedom what I have thought and learned. The freedom is itself a positive and never-failing enjoyment to me, after the bondage of my early life.

  Harriet Martineau

  Thinking, Speaks Out, Atheism

  Harriet Martineau (2015). “Harriet Martineau's Autobiography (Vol. I: Abridged, Annotated)”, p.85, BIG BYTE BOOKS

  22 Copy quote

• My own feeling of concern arises from seeing how much moral injury and suffering is created by the superstitions of the Christian mythology.

  Harriet Martineau

  Christian, Feelings, Suffering

  Harriet Martineau, Maria Weston Chapman (2010). “Harriet Martineau's Autobiography”, p.444, Cambridge University Press

  34 Copy quote

• I romanced internally about early death till it was too late to die early.

  Harriet Martineau

  Too Late, Late, Early Death

  Harriet Martineau, Maria Weston Chapman (2010). “Harriet Martineau's Autobiography”, p.435, Cambridge University Press

  6 Copy quote

• A soul occupied with great ideas performs small duties.

  Harriet Martineau

  Time, Ideas, Soul

  6 Copy quote

• It is my deliberate opinion that the one essential requisite of human welfare in all ways is scientific knowledge of human nature.

  Harriet Martineau

  Aquariums, Essentials, Literature

  Harriet Martineau (2006). “Autobiography”, p.645, Broadview Press

  7 Copy quote

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