... until women assume the place in society which good sense and good feeling alike assign to them, human improvement must advance... but feebly. It is in vain that we would circumscribe the power of one half of our race, and that half by far the most important and influential. If they exert it not for good, they will for evil; if they advance not knowledge, they will perpetuate ignorance. Let women stand where they may in the scale of improvement, their position decides that of the race. Are they cultivated?--so is society polished and enlightened. Are they ignorant?--so is it gross and insipid. Are they wise?--so is the human condition prosperous. Are they foolish? So is it unstable and unpromising. Are they free?--so is the human character elevated. Are they enslaved?--so is the whole race degraded.... Man will ever rise or fall to the level of the other sex ...LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
It is ... to my three children [that] I owe my very being. In attempting to fulfill my duty to them as a mother, I met the challen...ge of their helplessness, their innocence, their dependence. Despising cowardice in others, I wished to prove myself no coward. Believing in the good, the gentle, the beautiful things of life, I addressed myself to the sweet duty of keeping these attributes for my children's sake and my own. And in striving to provide a living for them, I found a success beyond my wildest dreams.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
When I converse with a profound mind, or if at any time being alone I have good thoughts, I do not at once arrive at satisfactions..., as when, being thirsty, I drink water, or go to the fire, being cold: no! but I am first apprised of my vicinity to a new and excellent region of life. By persisting to read or to think, this region gives further sign of itself, as it were in flashes of light, in sudden discoveries of its profound beauty and repose, as if the clouds that covered it parted at intervals, and showed the approaching traveller the inland mountains, with the tranquil eternal meadows spread at their base, whereon flocks graze, and shepherds pipe and dance.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Poetry is either something that lives like fire inside you--like music to the musician or Marxism to the Communist--or else it is ...nothing, an empty formalized bore around which pedants can endlessly drone their notes and explanations.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I don't know Who--or what--put the question, I don't know when it was put. I don't even remember answering. But at some moment I d...id answer Yes to Someone--or Something--and from that hour I was certain that existence is meaningful and that, therefore, my life, in self-surrender, had a goal.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
For the salvation of his soul the Muslim digs a well. It would be a fine thing if each of us were to leave behind a school, or a w...ell, or something of the sort, so that life would not pass by and retreat into eternity without a trace.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The fact is that we all seem capable of living, because at some time or other we have taken refuge in a lie, in blindness, in enth...usiasm, in optimism, in some conviction, in pessimism or something of the sort. He has never taken refuge in anything. He is absolutely incapable of lying.... He has nothing to take refuge in, no shelter. It's as if he were naked and everyone else had clothes on.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »